You can always tell when the pubs have reopened as Tim Martin will be trending:Beer Twitter dropping all “Be Nice” pretence to slag off the guy who brought £1.99 pints to the masses.
At the table next to me in the Sheffield Waterworks, an off duty Spoons employee was vigorously defending his boss, contrasting his behaviour with the closure of the John Lewis over the road.
As always, all human life was there in my first pub of 2021.
And it WAS a pub, all laughter and love and long waits for a latte.
I even got to nip in for the loo.
A beer range of Doom Bar or Abbot, craft lovers.
I thought the Benjamin Huntsman (preemptive alert!) was closed.
But the Old Boy told me conspiratorially about the secret entrance by the, er, entrance, and by 9.30 I had my second Spoons of the day.
Hi Vis heaven on the balcony, the steps putting off the gentlefolk.
Ghost Ship low ABV is better chilled as it was here, and ideally matched with the Small Breakfast (3.000 calories).
Two mates sang “I saw the sign” and ‘Stay another day” and I suddenly realised what I’d been missing for 5 months.
South Yorkshire blokes murdering 1994 pop classics.
Folks, my day only gets better.
retiredmartin 
Local Spoons isn’t reopening at present – only has a tiny outside space. So some Spoonseteers wandered to our micropub, 100 yards away. From the conversations overheard, think can be safely said the lack of Ruddles, Greene King IPA (this branch tends not to do Doom Bar) or any lagers at Timbo’s prices of two groats came as a severe shock.
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Classic post!!! Great to have some pubs to blog and pop classics being murdered are a pub staple…the TImbo knockers (so to speak) are so dull and indicative of Twitter where everyone is anything #butnice
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“and indicative of Twitter where everyone is anything #butnice”
Nicely phrased. 🙂
Cheers
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One tries ones best Russ 😃 in a shameless attempt to pinch Martins readership I have posted on a new pub today 😎
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LAF,
That might be why I’ve never had anything to do with Twitter.
But a local newspaper reports Tim’s customers in Stoke yesterday morning saying “Took us half an hour get served” and “the new rules made the whole experience too suffocating. It’s not an enjoyable experience. It’s a bit shit to be honest”.
We can only hope that ‘normality’ returns before too much longer.
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Spot on Paul. It’s fairly toxic if you scratch beneath the surface or comment on anything other then beer or pubs.
Normality needs to return and if Tim’s customers are complaining that “it’s shit” then there are underlying problems.
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“You can always tell when the pubs have reopened as Tim Martin will be trending:Beer Twitter dropping all “Be Nice” pretence to slag off the guy who brought £1.99 pints to the masses.”
I swear more and more people seem to be unable to be happy unless everyone is as miserable as they are. 😉
“an off duty Spoons employee was vigorously defending his boss, contrasting his behaviour with the closure of the John Lewis over the road.”
The irony is ‘palpable’.*
* as LAF would say. 🙂
“As always, all human life was there in my first pub of 2021.”
Including Si?*
* (he is sorta unique you know)
“I even got to nip in for the loo.”
Suuuuuuure.
“But the Old Boy told me conspiratorially about the secret entrance by the, er, entrance, and by 9.30 I had my second Spoons of the day.”
Guffaw. Mind you, from that photo I would have thought the same.
“Ghost Ship low ABV is better chilled, ”
Pacing yourself I see.
“South Yorkshire blokes murdering 1994 pop classics.”
Phew! For a moment I thought you were going to say 1994 pop ‘stars’!
“Folks, my day only gets better.”
I would have said, on a day like today, that goes without saying. 🙂
Cheers
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You do realise that Si is only one of Martin’s more interesting multiple personalities, don’t you?
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“You do realise that Si is only one of Martin’s more interesting multiple personalities, don’t you?”
Blimey! Martin’s found a way to clone himself then? 😉
(hunts furtively for a photo to prove this)
Hmm, on second thought, you could be right! 🙂
Cheers
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“He’s no stranger to a fish supper,” as a friend of Mrs PBT’s would say, in reference to the bloke with his back to the camera!
Looks much warmer in Sheffield than it was in the frozen wastelands of Kent, this morning.
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It was genuinely shirt sleeve weather in Sheffield till mid afternoon, then dipped quite sharply in Manchester later. It had been snowing here yesterday !
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If you gave me a list of 1994 pop songs I might imagine those South Yorkshire guys would sing, “I Saw the Sign” would certainly be among the last ones I’d guess! Such is the magic of what you overhear in pubs.
Every time I see a photo of a full English breakfast I always think, “Eat one of them and you can skip lunch.” 😉
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Tease.
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Tyne Bar (as featured in above Twitter pic) for me to open my official 2021 account. Almost just like a normal bank holiday with everyone outside in the sun. Manager got me a table out and none of that app ordering stuff. The staff were being worked off their feet but did their stuff admirably and in good humour.
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Good to hear. Just like a Bank Holiday is right. I’ve been thrilled to see young people in pubs (including a very plain Craft Union pub) today, all very cheerful.
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Timbo has become a bogie man to the type of people who don’t much like pubs and want to drink their third of dipa with other nice middle class folk and away from the plebs.
Meanwhile the average drinking man appreciates a cheap pint and knows it comes with a queue & among a broader customer base and they can go pay more elsewhere if they like.
Timbo will keep winning and the nice folk will continue to be nasty about him.
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And of course you’re right. You DO get a broader customer base in the Spoons than the Port St Beer House or even the Boars Head. And folk do chat in Spoons. Just not about the things that people who don’t like pubs want to chat about.
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