Samuel Pepys wouldn’t have skipped writing up visits to the local Wetherspoons for a burger and beer, so why should I ?
Spoons remains divisive. I still read a fair few comments on Blue Moon that insist the beer is cheap because it’s nearly out-of-date, always swiftly debunked nowadays.
In truth, JDW’s cask is in a purple patch these last few years, this Gadd’s oddity veering close to a NBSS 4 Very Good. £2.45 with CAMRA’s voucher, even less early in the week.
During the Sheffield heatwave of May ’26 I was more drawn to the thirst-quenching powers of low alcohol German wheat beer, with added “isotonics”. I wonder if they had isotonics in Pepys’ day.
I think Tuesday was “chicken” day, or perhaps it was Old Codgers who got an extra 20p off their meal deal,
but I have no idea how I got Korean burger, chips and a half litre of beer for under £6 in “Broken Britain”.
But, but, say some CAMRAs, Spoons are dirty places full of the dregs of society. They may be in North-West London, mate, but the Rawson Spring‘s lovely outside drinking area is the smartest in Hillsborough.
That said, 45 minutes in a Spoons is about my maximum, whereas my next two pubs are places you could while happily away an afternoon.
retiredmartin 
“That said, 45 minutes in a Spoons is about my maximum”
I think that Spoons’ are increasingly feeling like a mid-point between pub, caff and coffee shop, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it does mean they work better as somewhere to pop into for a bit rather than somewhere to linger.
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I think that’s spot-on, Steve. And I often pop in on the walk back from Hillsborough shops for a cheap bite or pint. I just don’t see it as a “pub visit” as such.
By the way, I will comment on your excellent piece on the Tamworth Tap, though I can imagine at least one of our readers here having a counter view !
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But isn’t £4.02 for a bit of microwaved or deep fried food and £1.82 for what’s in effect a bottle of pop about right ?
I do much better with Craft Union – £3 for an “Excellent” pint of St Austell Tribute in the Pheasant, Newport last Saturday and £2.45 for a “Very good” pint of Old Speckled Hen, despite it being near the end of the pin, in the Coach and Horses, Stafford on Wednesday.
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I’d say the financial model that Martin has developed is so much more efficient than the pubco model developed after the beer orders. Increasing I feel like the pubco requires tenants who are prepared to follow a dream and not make decent money.
Secondly, I remember my mum going into Spoons with her mates for lunch. She didn’t go into pubs. The level of consistent service and price points means they serve a wider demographic and compete in a larger market.
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That’s spot on.
I’d occasionally take Mum and Dad to the Spoons in Newmarket a decade ago; disabled parking spot at back door, consistent food, clean tables. It’s one of their scruffier outlets but smarter than the other pubs in Newmarket.
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This nonsense about Spoons buying short dated beer has been doing the rounds for 30 years but some ill informed commentators still trot it out.
For me the character of many Spoons has changed since their food pricing became increasingly “competitive”, ie incredibly cheap. I tend to be out between 6.30 and 8.30; if I go to a Spoons there will inevitably be plenty of family groups eating, often including younger children. Thus predictably leads to more of a cafe or garden centre feel.
As I’m seldom in a pub in the morning, I don’t know whether the old stereotypeof retired Carling drinkers swearing ad nauseam still applies.
The quality of cask beer in Spoons, IMHO ,has never been higher.
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I agree with all of that.
On swearing, never hear it, even before the families come in. I have a stereotypical image of the Hillingdon/Harrow/Edgware Spoons, 90s cheap Guinness places, that might be a bit rougher.
Spoons have dropped all ambition of offering the sort of proper pub food of the other chains (roasts for example), but their Korean and spicy chicken dishes do the job for me.
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Last Summer I was in Cardiff and went for a Sunday breakfast in a Spoons. The retired sweary stereotypes were alive and well at 9.30.
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That’s Cardiff for you.
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I see in the news that the average person eats six times more chicken than in 1961. I’m glad to see that you are following this trend.
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Always follow a trend, Jon.
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Makes sense to me. In my1950s childhood we only had chicken twice a year – Christmas Day and mum’s birthday (6 April).
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Yes I remember chicken as a luxury food in the 1950s and I think that we had it on Christmas Day and rarely any other time. My parents kept chickens in the back garden as eggs were rationed.
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“In my 1950s childhood we only had chicken twice a year”
You were lucky.
In my 1950s childhood we’d dream of having a roast potato twice a year.
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I think I account for most of that.
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How do they do it?
Well, the pub isn’t owned by a pubco, in turn owned by a US hedge fund, in turn owned by an oil state’s sovereign wealth fund, all of which are intent on bleeding the layer below white.
The company which eventually buys a lease from these leeches might even sublet that to the poor souls who try to run a business…
Next?
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Why don’t other people do that then ? Tim Martin started with one pub and a brain.
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When the Beer Orders mandated the sale of tied houses big capital moved in to buy whole estates perhaps?
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Yes Etu, the Beer Orders were an unmitigated disaster, and it’s all gone wrong since 1989.
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In most other respects 1989 was a great year.
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Don’t you mean 1979, Paul?
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No Etu, the Beer Orders following the 1989 MMC Report.
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1989 ?
Revolutions elsewhere but Thatcher continuing to divide Britain if I remember correctly.
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I went to the re-opened Simpsons in the Strand in That There last Friday with some old muckers for a wine-sodden nosebag.
The roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and veg was £44.75.
Nice, but ruddy hell.
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£4.75 ? A roast under a fiver isn’t too bad in 2026. I suspect Paul could find it cheaper in Stafford, though.
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Yes, Mondays in Lichfield’s Kings Head is I think £6-something for a roast dinner and a pudding.
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“I will comment on your excellent piece on the Tamworth Tap, though I can imagine at least one of our readers here having a counter view”
Well, it was an unexpected second visit to the TT yesterday and it wasn’t as bad as two years ago ( it couldn’t have been ) but I do wish the customers would realise how much asking for tasters delays customers waiting behind them, as if none of us would also like a pint of Bass in the Globe and there only being sixty minutes between the cancelled 6.08pm train and the hopefully-running 7.08 departure down the main line.
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