Taking sides: bars vs. pubs

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The good thing about pubs is you can say "I was in the pub" and no one expects you to specify which one. In many ways it's just like saying "I was at home". "I was in the bar" is of course not the same thing at all and "I was in a bar" just provokes mystery in a cheap way.

On the other hand, pubs are more often populated by people you have to hide your airy-fairy modern ideas and dress styles from. Also, the clothes are worse and you might bump into a CAMRA member.

Which is best?

― Nick, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pubs. Pubs are best. Pubs.

(NB If you have been somewhere other than a pub you say "I was out drinking")

Pubs.

Pete is my thing for Pumpkin Pubs about bars still up?

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

provokes mystery in a cheap way.

shit, this is bad??

anyway, pubs and bars are equal, both have their charms.

― gareth, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pubs have carpet and are painted warm colours (dark red is best) and sometimes have squishy old chairs that fit the shape of your arse. Pubs can be cheaper. Pubs have quizzes (did you win last night, by the way?)

Bars are designed by people who have thought about subtle lighting effects and have polished, light wooden floors and chairs that look quite nice but are too flat/square/round to be comfy. Some bars have a person in the toilets to hand you a sheet of paper to dry your hands on. I know where I'd rather be.

― Madchen, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick you're being a wee bit disingenous about CAMRA. OK they may not be on the cutting edge of style (or politics) but without their crusading zeal I suspect we'd all be drinking pish poor lager. The dozens of microbreweries which are flourishing now prob wouldn't exist

If anythings a good example of successfully resisting a monoculure, albeit a narrow strand of that culture then CAMRA is it. And no I'm not a member.

Anyway pubs or bars much the same, pubs with beer gardens on a hot Summer evening, classic.

― Billy Dods, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am quite happy to flaunt my airy fairy dress styles anywhere, pub, club or bar BUT NONE OF MY SO-CALLED MATES IS HARD ENOUGH TO DRINK TONIGHT.

Bars do better (but more expensive) cocktails. The new breed of bars which are not All Bar Effing Ones are a vast improvement e.g. Babushkas (I now fully expect to be shouted down but what the fuck, bring it on). Bars are also good for avoiding Pete as he melts if he goes into a bar. Pubs are easier and more multi purpose though.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pubs have darts, quiz machines, jukeboxes and proper beer. Bars have cocaine addled wankers, trip-hop, stark furnishings and stupidly expensive bottled beer. I feel comfortable in a good pub. I feel intimidated in bars.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bars have been responsible for the shift in meaning of the word 'funky' from something musical to 'mildly fashionable and entirely unsurprisng'.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not a contest anyway, but since reading RT's analysis I prefer bars by EVEN MORE THAN I DID ALREADY.

On tap = pumped straight out of the drains. Who will defend pork scratchings? Pete?

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Stark furnishings" - actually not true. Of the last 4 or so bars I was in only one had metal slabs instead of chairs. The rest were going for the 'mate's living room ambience' of enormous armchairs. The problem is that an enormous armchair takes up a lot of space so basically it's standing room only in all of them. But it is comfortable if you get one.

Armchairs in pubs though are better, eg The Head.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I will defend Pork Scratchings. My defense being that I like eating them.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The same forces which have caused the migration of meaning Tom refers to above are already making the word funky revert to it's pre-musical meaning: smelling rather bad (with occ. ref. to smutty naughtiness).

What I mean to say is that when some trendily-attired bar-goer tells me something's funky, I immediately assume it stinks.

― Tim, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Despite being a drinker of ale and a supporter of the continued existence of little breweries who make nice beer (hurrah for Timothy Taylor, Archer's etc) the thought of bumping into CAMRA members in pubs is not a pleasant one. They tend to be the sort of people who dress up as Vikings at the weekend, think morris dancing is an interesting pastime and bang on about the inalienable right of men on horses to chase things round the countryside until they drop dead.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whenever I've been to a bar it's taken years to get served behind someone ordering food or wine, or some other irrelevance, and then the beer is expensive and served in new-fangled trendy tall thin glasses. This is not my drinking planet. I am an alien here.

― Martin, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

certainly no one would evah claim a pub = smuttily naughty

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pork scratchings are an important part of your nutritious pub experience.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ps pub i was lured into night of ile-free-jazz whatever = nice cross between BAR and SCHOOL LUNCH HALL wtf?

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pork scratchings with hair still on=beyond classic.

The real ale types I've met have been more your old school Labour supporter rather than the hunting,shooting 'n fishing brigade (of which there are too many up here in rural N Yorks).

― Billy Dods, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The best Pork scrathings are the ones that come in unmarked clear plastic bags, these have the hair and the huge globs of fat attached to them. Obviously I don't eat these any more being veggie but I do miss them. Anyway, back to the question in hand, is there a question? of course the pub is better, it has darts and all the other fun things to do in pubs, preferably not jenga though, I hate the sight of people concentrating on a stack of wooden blocks instead of talking bollocks about who's shagging who and why the weather is so awful these days.

― cabbage, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Billy's right about CAMRA being mostly made up of lefties (big CAMRA / CPGB crossover in 70s, apparently, although I may have made that up).

I was, however, sneered at by some posh-voiced fool in the Market Porter the other week when buying myself a pint of very tasty Hairy Mary (or similarly preposterously named ale) but also buying lager for my companions. The P-VF in question received short shrift, as you might perhaps imagine.

Sneered at by P-VF for beer choice in a pub still beats concerted sneering in nasty bars regarding fashion / waistline choices.

― Tim, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ok, bars are obviously hellholes of the worst sort, but what about pubs vs. cafes? Was in Europe last month and it was much more pleasant sitting in a nice cafe and not being surrounded by hundreds of drunk oafs. I suspect they don't have quite the same problem we do at closing time over here.

Bill

― Bill, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark.S. re: the Duke of York. It is my suspicion that before that day you had not entered since 1976. Those long wooden tables are really quite common these days.

Anther problem with pubs is the lack of unapproachable beautiful girls.

― Nick, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We only use the word bar in America. Maybe the American equivalent is club versus bar?

― Ally, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

entered = entered a pub

― Nick, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was in Europe last month too, drinking beer outside a Parisian cafe and talking - admittedly quite animatedly - with colleagues about old punk bands and religion. And les gendarmes were called by a neighbour to remove us! I felt like such a rosbif. Cafes abroad are almost always better than the things they call 'Le Pub' or whatever to try to fool us into not polluting their nice places.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well speaking as an unapproachable beautiful girl (stop laffing you lot) I would say that a pub is an appalling place to pull and a bar is far more conducive to such things.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not just the tables, but their array and above all the LIGHTING!? No. of pubs entered so far this year = five tops. Extrapolate across 20 years, 100 tops. I wd be surprised if it were this many.

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is another reason why pubs are better. I am selfishly attached and if I go out for an evening with friends I do not want them to pull, I want them to talk to me thankyou.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

that's nothing, you were sneered at by Posh Voiced Fools all evening, weren't you?

― Alasdair, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Having been sneezed over by a Posh Voiced Fool at work for most of the day, I'd have to say the bunged up ones are the worst.

HEH.

Drinking establishments do depend on the mood of said drinker. For example one night I went to a POSH CITY WINE BAR which I found intensely amusing! Said company probably found it less novel and fun than I did, as they bought the hideously over-priced rounds before we moved somewhere more pub-like and also CHEAPER.

Darkly lit bars with cute barmen and dark corners and well iced drinks of course = classic.

― Sarah, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bars in US = classic, pubs in UK = crowded with boring, footy- obsessed, ugly people, belligerent drunks and fascist landlords who throw you out for no reason unless you happen to look like every other shellsuited tattooed Lawrence Five-lookalike in attendence. Actually it doesn't matter when they throw you out because they're only open about 20 minutes a day anyway. Plus the cigarette machines take 'exact change only' and the jukeboxed have such shit on them. None of the toilets have locking doors or paper or lights or toilet seats.

― dave q, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

but how exactly can they be bunged up and sneezing simultaneously? Is it a nasal pecadillo of the upper classes?

I nevah lurnt that kind of biology at Calthorpe Park COMPREHENSIVE school....

― Alasdair, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Obviously the sneezing fails to get rid of all the POSH GIT SNOT which remains up the 'dose.

You went to a school? You were lucky, all I ever had were a bag o' ferret scratchings - you and your pork scratchings, oo dya fink y'are, lady die??

My drinking mood right now is WHISKEY AND COKE. Whilst sitting alone in my room. Staring at my phone and having an EMOTIONAL CRISIS. And ignoring people who are accusing me of not paying my rent when I HAF actually thank you very much grrr moan STAMP FEET. Unless someone wants to take me to the pub. I promise I will hold off all emotional crises unless you want to live vicariously through them, or something.

― Sarah, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

CHrist, look what happens when I go away and do some work for an afternoon. The difference between bars and pubs is as simple as semantics (again). A Pub is a Public House, it has a duty to welcome the public and let you drink and enjoy yourself. Of course some pubs slip from this to being intimidating hell-holes which are the natural habitat of fences but this is rare.

Bars on the other hand are not about getting drunk, or enjoying yourself. Bars - in the UK at least - are about posing, being somewhere and trying to score some cocaine. It is quite possible for a bar to appropriate pub ethics and be a generally good place to be. For example, the ICA bar which is comfy, full of good chat and SERVES (admittedly overpirced) pints. It is a freak of its own architecture more than anything else that it feels oddly pub-like.

I run a bar which is so much like a proper pub that it is almost a meta-pub commentating on it. And if anyone fancies a drink in CL tonight, that's where I'll be.

― Pete, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That is a student bar, and student bars are a whole other kettle of fish. Especially SOAS bar.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The funny thing is, I have never ever been confused as to whether I am in fact in a bar or a pub. SOAS bar is still clearly a bar despite pubbygrubby trappings. Pubs must be self-contained.

I have used my big brain to surmise that 'CL' means 'Central London'. I have never seen this abbreviation before. I don't think it's going to catch on a la SOHO or TRIBECA. Incidentally, is it just a big coincidence that London has a Soho that doesn't stand for anything whilst New York has one which does. I presume we got ours first.

― Nick, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i too have never heard anyone abbreviate to CL. Mind you, at trig brother, or whatever it was called, Richard T referred to Tottenham Court Road as 'TCR' which i have never heard before or since

― gareth, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've come to realise that I represent everything y'all hate (which can only be a good thing) to the extent that I can reasonably be often found in bars, and worse than that, in bars in Notting Hill. For which I'm so not about to apologize. Back in the early '90s I had a definite preference for bars over pubs - the cleaner, more fiercely modern the better. These days I take it on a pretty much case by case basis, although what I can't be doing with are All Bar Ones and their ilk. Bear in mind that I don't drink so the absurd £6 to £9 a drink prices people are paying in London bars don't really come into the equation for me.

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

TCR = very well known abbreviation Gareth. Soho = an old hunting call from when it was a hunting area (like 'tally ho'). Pete is all about inventing abbreviations and we often converse in this way. See if you can guess this one: GPWM.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Soho" reputedly a hunting call - the area used to be hunting fields before late 17th Century. As Soho Square dates from then, think we can safely assume it predates South Of Houston area of NYC. SOAS bar - in the days when I went there - was not only a student bar, but the very definition of a certain kind of student bar with endless posters for demos and an overpowering cannabis fog. I'm sure Baran has cleaned it up Guilani-style.

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That is why they brought him in Mark, his rep for zero tolerance got him the gig. You should all come to SOAS bar and see Pete in his element. However in term time it is full of very crusty students.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

GPWM

Get Pissed With Me?

― gareth, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, but I like that too. It is actually Good Point Well Made. We have very intelligent conversations.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

GPWM is a rubbish abbreviation as it takes longer to say than what it is abbreviating.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For normal people, yes, but this is Pete 'n' Emma! Speed talkers! (no, not amphetamines. Unless you are offering).

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like the idea that I am some sort of Mayoral figure with Drug Czar type powers. People quake when I walk down them stairs.

Mark, I think you will be suprised about how little it has changed...

― Pete, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I firmly believe Pete that you wield *exactly* the same amount of power and influence as Drug Czar Keith Halliwell.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bah. I remember Soho when it was all hunting fields.

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Plus I have exactly the same amount of talent as "Ginger Spice" Geri Halliwell.

― Pete, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But do you have her breasts?

― Ally, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 12 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

There was an awful lot of compulsive table-wiping and strategic/aesthetic drink menu and ashtray placing which only added to the experience somehow.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

what are you talking about?

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's fairly obvious.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Looking back on this thread:

Tim, Tom, Pete, Old Martin, Ricky T, Madchen and Cabbage sit in the pub, eating pork scratchings.

Mark S, Mark Morris, Kris and Tracer sit in a bar, possibly with Dave Q if they are in America.

Emma, Gareth and Starry Sarah pop in and out, as the mood takes them.

Nathalie drinks coffee alone.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

And you, Alba?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I still don't know.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I think maybe I'm with adam, in a worse bar to the one the others are in.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

You, that is.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do I love them so much?

because you stand a better chance of getting a good cocktail, instead of a squirt of famous grouse with some schweppes dumped over it by a scowling, sweaty guy in a greying white button-down. because last orders might be 12.45 instead of 10.30.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

and because pork scratchings probably won't be involved. and because you might run into some idiot you vaguely know with an expense account who is so surprised to see you that he forgets you dislike each other and offers to buy a round.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Also - nice bathrooms.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Oasis vs. Groove Armada

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

sometimes

xpost

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Take me with you, Lauren! :(

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

All I require in a drinking establishment is that it be either one of the very best or one of the very worst - the mid-range lacks charm.

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I absolutely can't be doing with bars with toilet attendants. I HATE them. I really don't need any help washing my fucking hands for goodness sake. They just make me uncomfortable and I can't understand why bars think they make the place "classier" or whatever they think they're doing.

So, pubs or non-toilet attending bars for me, thx.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a red herring. Toilet attendants are rarely found in bars, and sometimes found in pubs.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 09:41 (twenty-one years ago)

They're more to be found in that awkward middle-ground between the two, I find.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

in the middle of the road between the two? that'd be fairly awkward

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 09:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, that's right I suppose, Matt.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 09:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Toilet attendants are quite frequently found in bars (and clubs) in central London. I don't think I've ever been to a pub with one.

That might depend on how you define pubs and bars, I suppose.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Almost always really nasty chainy bars, in my experience, that only a fule would go to.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, generally. Not bars I'd go to if I was choosing. Luckily most of my friends don't want to go to those bars either but I've ended up in them on occasion, like when the bar we wanted to go to was too packed or something.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Chaps: I need a decent bar in Soho for Friday. Any sodding ideas, because I don't know. I categorise them all as expensive places of FEAR in my head so I NEED YORE HELP.

― Starry (hello chickens), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

And ladies. I'm not a sechist, me.

― Uncle Starry (hello chickens), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Crikey. They'll be mad packed on a Friday. Right then, do you need to hire a bit out/ reserve a table and what kind of price range are you looking at?

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Reserving a table would be good, for about 15 people , price = cheap as chips really :)

― Starry (hello chickens), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I amused by myself in August 2001.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm amused by everyone in 2001 :)

also why didn't i contribute to this first time round? hmm, maybe i was on holiday or summat...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I want Emma to start posting again.

As Ed mentioned on the Alba thread you could try Freud's in Covent Garden Sarah. It's a bit small though. PHONE AHEAD. (End Stevem tags etc)

The Dog hOuse in Soho would have been perfect for your needs, but it has been shut and reopened as the wanky Suga Suga. This is no use to you, but I am lamenting.

The Player, next door to Agent Provocatuer, has lovely drinks and you can reserve tables, but it is very much on the pricey side.

The Market Place in um, the Market Place just north of Oxford Street, has tables they will reserve for the amount of people you mentioned and isn't too badly priced. They do sort of South American-y tapas ("street food" they call it, but honestly...) The bigger tables are cave/booth type things at the back of the lower floor and it can be a huge pain if someone right at the back needs the loo/ to buy a round etc. There is also bugger all phone reception. Not good for sufferers of claustrophobia.

The Porters Bar, Poland Street, is cheap enough, but I find all that blonde wood a bit souless.

Jerusalem on .. oh bugger ... that street near Charlotte Street, maybe Rathbone? Is big and not horribly over priced (but it is still bar prices) might be an idea. It can be a bit girls-in-their-Friday-lycra though.

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, whatever happened to the Doghouse? I used to love that place - or at least, their chocolate coctails. But the last time I went, I got thrown out, so I didn't dare going there for a while, and when Colette and I went to look for it, it was GONE!!

― Danger Whore (kate), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I am quite disappointed, gutted, HEARTBROKEN even, that I didn't get to meet Adam again when he was back in London.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe it's just a localism, but around here we go to the tavern.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:30 (twenty-one years ago)

there are very few bars in Dublin.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

My old local pub was known as the Tav (ern), but it changed hands and went a bit crap - so one of the old barmaids bought a different pub just up the road, and all the regulars moved there.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked the Doghouse (why was Anna googleproofing it?)

I once trapped down there during the May Day demonstrations of 2002. I think it was a sex worker splinter protest.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

'I once' = 'I was'. I was not doing the trapping.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

sex worker splinter protest

WHAT DO WE WANT?
NO MORE BEING SHAFTED WITH UNSANDED WOODEN OBJECTS!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
NOW!

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I can see why sex workers would protest about getting splinters in themselves.

(xpost)

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I once looked at booking Jerusalem for some do and it was £2,000 punds for the night.

I think Anna may have marginally mistimed her use of the shift key and written hOuse rather than House, N.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:51 (twenty-one years ago)

so, bar = posh name for a pub? Or the American word for pub?

Any 'bar' I go to I call a 'pub', some are posher than others and may have toilet attendents, but they are still pubs and run by publicans. Harrods has a toilet attendent, that's not a 'bar' is it?

Anyway they are both dud.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

do they serve booze in harrods?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the player was full of city boys the one time i went there. and we had to pay to get in. and the drinks aren't as good as lab. but it's probably a lot better in the week, that was a saturday i think.

are there actually any affordable bars in soho? what's thirst's happy hour like on a friday? by affordable i mean "cocktails for under 5 quid", i guess, as i don't tend to drink anything else in bars (except for the ica bar for some reason).

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i believe they have a bar in selfridge's menswear dept this month.

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the place I was in last nite (The Brickworks, Oxford) seems unsure whether it is a bar, pub or club.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I was gutted when the Doghouse went as well, I had my stag night there except it had turned into Suga Suga when we got there! But I think it was still in transition or had only just opened and wasn't completely crap yet.

Now where can I buy honey vodka shots in Soho?

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

mark, tom and i have discussed this point many times:

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pumpkin/2002_01_01_pumpkinpublog_archive.html#8968528

i always like the brickies :)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

there are very few bars in Dublin
but Irish pubs are traditionally divided into 2 rooms, the bar (the rough bit), and the lounge (carpet on the floor, a fireplace, pint costs a penny more)

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

oh so the Star is a nutter magnet, that must be why I like it so much ;)

the downstairs of the Brickworks has a chequered dancefloor. And a glitterball. can it still be a pub? Last nite it was home to some Breakdance era electro too...

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

the "nutter magnet" comment was after me and tom spent a rather uncomfortable evening being talked at/pleaded at by a homeless...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

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