TheaterFire

What's your local pub like?

Posted by Expression-Little@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 90 comments

Mine somehow still smells of cigarette smoke despite it being banned to smoke inside for years. They do nice chips.

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90 Comments

InfectedEllie@reddit

Local is the Turf. If you’re interested in football you probably have heard of it.
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disillusionedrealist@reddit

I'm not interested in football but I've heard of it.
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GatorShinsDev@reddit

I was away living in Sweden for 9 years, moved back to my home town last year. Went to the nearest pub and it's the same as it was when I first went in 2008/9 when I was 18. Shite beer selection, bang average food, dreary, full of kids more often than not. Haven't been back.
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MitchellsTruck@reddit

Four locally that are within walking distance. In order of proximity: 1. A low-mid-range chain (Ember Inns) that's one step above a Wetherspoons. Reasonably cheap - £4.20ish a pint of ale, £10 burger meal. 2. Free house run by an absolutely batshit woman who bars people for things like ordering food close to the end of food service, having children, or taking a beer from the bar end of the pub into the dining area. 3. Higher end chain attached to a hotel. £6 a pint, £15 burger. Slightly soulless, but has an ice cream bar for the kids and nice in summer as it's by the river. 4. Craft ale bar in an old estate agents. Had promise until it was appropriated by local boomers. We're in our mid-40s, and literally have the piss taken out of us every time we go there for being "too young to like good beer" or "being out past our bedtime". It's really fucking odd. The sort of place that if it was in Camden ten years ago, would be full of young hipsters. This is full of 60+ gammon faced men and their bob-cut wives.
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No-Department1669@reddit

The owner might smoke after closing hours to give it that smell. Might leave a cigarette or two just smouldering. It was bad for people but I do miss that smell weirdly.
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Expression-Little@reddit (OP)

Honestly, same - the smell of cigarettes is my main memory of my granddad.
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Goblindeez_@reddit

It’s either a Spoons or a dingy local place with the same five customers It’ll probably close when they die from liver failure
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HawkyMacHawkFace@reddit

But do you like it?
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Floydian557@reddit

Used to have lock ins..landlord got raided one night by a complete mob of arsy coppers who went all the way to humiliate everyone inside ..threatened arrest for everyone and search all for drugs !!!! That was the 80s ! Now my local that was is now a shitty drive thru McDonald's..!!!!! FML !!
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BobbyDazzzla@reddit

Full of wankers. 
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reddog_72@reddit

Awful, it's a Samuel smiths pub, the décor has not been changed since the 90's , even got the same carpet from when I used to go in regular 20 years ago, they don't do food, and a few months back on a Saturday afternoon they would not allow me to come in for a game of pool with my teenage kids, despite the place being almost completely empty, I don't know how it continues to remain open, there's never more than 20 customers in on any night of the week.
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beefygravy@reddit

The same 20 customers are there every night without fail
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reddog_72@reddit

Yep, they all have their own same places they sit too, last time my wife and I nipped in for a few drinks we got some right dirty looks as we must have sat down in the "wrong" seat.
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alexanderbeswick@reddit

Sam Smiths are appalling
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Eoin_McLove@reddit

My local Sam Smiths is lovely. Decently priced beer, old fashioned surroundings, and they’ve never enforced the rules about no phones or swearing as far as I can tell.
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destria@reddit

It's double sided. One is a cosy side with small tables and armchairs with a roaring fire on. The other has large tables and is generally louder and rowdier. They have kept an enormous collection of pint glasses and beer mats which line every wall and the ceiling.
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just_a_girl_23@reddit

My closest is a Spoons. Who happily sells out of date drinks. The next is a weird chav locals pub where they like to point out newbies and let chavs have their dogs off a leash to jump on people. I love doggos but I don't love doggos I don't know jumping on me. Especially when it's a type associated with chavs. Those puppers are pathetic licking machines - til they're owned by a chav. After that is full blown cokehead central and I was looked at weird for asking what they have in drink X while some rando is falling out of the toilets sniffing and holding their nose. I have not ventured further. Thing is, I don't even live in a super scummy area, and like 70% of people here don't even drink 🤣🤣🤣
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Public-Fisherman-205@reddit

> My closest is a Spoons. Who happily sells out of date drinks. How do you know this?
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just_a_girl_23@reddit

Because I had a bottle which clearly stated on the label the BBE. Which was loooooooong before. I've managed bars, there's a thing called stock rotation.... anyway i spoke with the manager (politely letting them know rather than complaining) and they were basically like "I keep telling them to rotate but they never listen" - manager's literal words.
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The-Mayor-of-Italy@reddit

Greene King, big screen, cheap food. Fair to say it's no frills. Considering it's an estate pub though it could be a lot worse. It's mostly not dodgy and doesn't even have a flat roof.
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TestPilotIan@reddit

We used to have five within walking distance, now we have one. It’s an Embers Inns, so food is good, reasonably priced etc. but the downside is it’s almost always packed solid and tables booked up months in advance.
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Ooh_aah_wozza@reddit

At mine, the bouncer searches you for weapons, and if you don't have one, they won't let you in.
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Alexboogeloo@reddit

It’s got pretty cheap beer, a stone floor, couple of fires, ok food and lets dogs sit on the chairs. Yet somehow isn’t cosy. The next closest has tvs everywhere as well as casual racism
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prustage@reddit

Closed down. Both of them.
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bobovdarlo@reddit

Coke den...don't go there anymore
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ElectroMod@reddit

Used to be a great community pub that my extended family drink in that did reasonably priced good food. Nothing exceptional - typical pub grub fare and bog standard beers, but a well run, comfortable place you'd happily spend a Sunday afternoon as much as a Friday evening. The owners would put out any spare roast potatoes and pigs in blankets into the bar area for the punters and auld fellers in watching the football on a Sunday for example; little things that don't cost a lot, but go a long way in making sure your customers stay loyal. It was partly this community spirit that had an influence on my buying my house where I did. Shortly after I moved, the owners decided to pack it in and it's been handed over to a young couple who are so hopeless that I'm honestly convinced they could fall into a bucket of tits and come out sucking their own thumbs. They've alienated long time customers, the food has nosedived, and they're extremely scattergun with barring people for the most mundane of infractions (I got barred for taking an obviously sexist sign out of the toilet and putting it on the bar for example, and only got my ban lifted when the owners asked other customers if they also found it sexist; which they did). My cousin works in there part time and tells me he can't recall the last time the urinals in the toilet were cleaned - it's at least several months as the smell of ammonia from the crystallised urine in there is overwhelming - and the owners just treat it like their own personal drinking party. It's a sad, sad state of affairs in there and I don't go in there nearly as often as I used to. Next closest pub is a 30 minute walk up the hill, which I go to occasionally, but honestly I'd rather catch a bus into my nearest city or drink at home now.
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jjtnc@reddit

It looks bad enough from the outside that ive never been in 😅
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Tranquillian@reddit

My local is amazing and so unique, live in Windermere and it’s the Crafty Baa. Small pub with crazy decorations all over the walls and ceilings, fascinating just to look around everywhere, and they have great varied draft ciders too, most pubs don’t venture outside the mainstream ciders. Heartbreaker is a favourite.
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terrorbagoly@reddit

I popped in during a visit to Windermere and I loved this place! I wish it was my local! The whisky menu alone would keep me entertained for a year!
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farky84@reddit

We have like 4 or 5 and some of them are fab. In a village of 2800 people.
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JourneyThiefer@reddit

I’m in Northern Ireland and mine is great, it’s a typical Irish pub, good live music every weekend and is always very busy with people of all ages on the weekend too
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terrorbagoly@reddit

Expensive. They all went through change of ownership, renovations, pool tables removed, and now they are too expensive to visit regularly. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been to any of my old local haunts, it used to be at least a twice weekly occasion, but generally more as I worked in hospitality and we all hung out after finishing. I miss sitting by the fire and chatting away with the locals, nowadays can’t even get a table if you’re not ordering dinner.
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dcpb90@reddit

3 in my village. One changes owners every 6-12 months because they have big ideas that fail trying to beat the decent pub. One I’ve never tried, the typical 3 old men turn and stare as you walk in place. Then the one which is brilliant, always busy but service is quick, great food and decent beer and cider on tap.
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extinctionAD@reddit

It’s very nice indeed. Doesn’t do food, which is what I like from a drinking hole. Ossett Brewery pub (in Ossett, funnily enough). Nice pub quiz on a Thursday, decent dart board. Ticks almost all the boxes (no pool table).
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Zubi_Q@reddit

A complete dive, where a lot of fights take place. I was warned about it but went on 2 occasions as I am new to the area. Both times, after I declined to buy a random woman a drink, I got told to fuck off 😅
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Illustrious_Bug_5922@reddit

I have 5, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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ab00@reddit

One is very old fashioned (think 70's pub) and quite nice really but it's just a restaurant these days not a pub, and not a good one at that. I go out frequently for dinner and would never dine there. The other one is old wooden tables and chairs, terrible tacky quotes on the walls, terrible beer and wine selection, poor food. Again no interest in patronising it and go to other better pubs further out. The lease is on the market so maybe a new operator will make it less shit. It's a Stonegate / Enterprise pub though so there hands are tied to an extent (but they could still do so much better, i.e. no quotes on the walls).
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bertieqwerty@reddit

No clue, never stepped into it.
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Phil1889Blades@reddit

Decent
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BrainlessPackhorse@reddit

Expensive.
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NortonBurns@reddit

I pretty much stopped going in pubs since the smoking ban. It turns out they really don't smell better when they're not smoky. The aroma of stale beer, damp carpets & a distant hint of old urine turns out to not be much of an improvement.
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WashingMachineStays@reddit

You should do perfume commercials.
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NortonBurns@reddit

"Foisty - the new fragrance for a real man… who likes to get drunk a lot" Don't get me wrong - it's done nothing to reduce my alcohol consumption, just the locations I choose to consume it - & I do mean my living room, not the park bench at 8am ;)
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Tickle_Me_Flynn@reddit

Your missing out on the fresh air, and the big, bastart, devil dug, shitin' on yer shoes.
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RESPEKMA_AUTHORITAH@reddit

I'd happily put up with the shitty smell of the pub in return for not getting second hand lung cancer
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NortonBurns@reddit

Each to their own. i can drink the same beer cheaper at home, and my toilet doesn't smell of stale urine.
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Tarwgan@reddit

Personally I wish it was down to the pub owners whether it was banned or not. I'm not a smoker myself but the ban absolutely killed the pub scene in the UK. I understand why it happened and why it was necessary but honestly having smoking bars and non smoking bars would make more sense imo. I don't care too much for second hand smoke and as said above, it masks the musk of piss wafting out the bogs.
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NortonBurns@reddit

California was, as far as I'm aware, the first place to outlaw smoking indoors, in 1995. When they first did it they enabled a new license type, for a 'cigar club' so places that actually wanted to, could upgrade their license. They tended to add a $1 door charge to cover this, which was fine by me at the time. idk what has happened in the intervening years as I've never been back there since.
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Gullflyinghigh@reddit

We've got two, one is deeply unwelcoming to anyone that isn't a regular despite several attempts to get people in the doors (none of which seem to include stopping the bellends being bellends) and the other that did have a similar problem but is slowly turning it round. It's still not somewhere I'd want to spend a few hours in on a busy night but a refit and new owners have given it a bit of life.
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Academic_Economics12@reddit

Great place, clean with decent food and nice people. Most pints £4 - £4.60 I think, not 100% sure as I’m a wine drinker, good Sauvignon is £16 a bottle. Looks out over Morcambe Bay too, bonus 😃
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alexanderbeswick@reddit

Really nice. Former coaching inn from the 1600's. Big beer garden. Bit of an old farts style pub but everyone is friendly. Decent well priced pub grub. Unfortunately not totally free of tie brewery wise, but two out of the four ales are guest ales at a decent price.
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Ohyeahiseenow@reddit

You saw a ghost!? One too many cold ones that night was it?
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alexanderbeswick@reddit

Yeah I saw one, I was pissed but it was as clear as day. Wasn't bothered because its an old place.
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TSC-99@reddit

Full of chavs. People smoke in the entrance and vape throughout the pub.
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leem0oe@reddit

Don't use them much ,average GLOSSOP Derbyshire had some great pubs
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BigDsLittleD@reddit

Dunno, always looked stabby as fuck so I've never been in it.
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Basic-Supermarket-27@reddit

It's cold - they have one fire which isn't often lit, and they don't put any heating on. You have to sit in your coat. They only ever seem to have 5 customers and often close early. A low point was last orders at 8pm. No idea how they turn a profit. It smells so strongly of cigarette smoke - there's no way people don't smoke in there. The pub has amazing reviews but I'd defy anyone from out of town to go in there and not feel uncomfortable. It is a strange place in a way I can't quite put my finger on.
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VxDeva80@reddit

An absolute dump that's always on the verge of closing down. Only been a couple of times, it was full of old men and the carpet in the toilets was soaking wet, I dread to think why. Never again.
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NefariousnessOk4320@reddit

Flat roofed. You’d probably give it a swerve.
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NefariousnessOk4320@reddit

It snows a lot inside on a Friday and Saturday night.
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yourefunny@reddit

Closest to my house out in the sticks was flattened last week. In the town about a 5 minute drive there 7 or so options. Non of them are great, standard spoons, a couple of really dodgy places and a greene king. Prefer beers at home with mates. Having a toddler has a significant part to play though. 
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Ecstatic_Success_815@reddit

like the jockey from shameless
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Unusual_Resident_784@reddit

Even better than it was before as it's turned into a chippy/pub hybrid. Nice to be able to have a proper chippy tea at your table with a nice pint.
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DameKumquat@reddit

My local is a great place, two rooms and a courtyard garden, all similar size. Decent food, weekly oversubscribed pub quiz (as in they squeeze in as many people as will physically fit in the back room), back room is available for functions or comedy or big sports games on TV. Stash of board games, friendly staff. They used to use the back room as a cafe during the day, but eventually gave up as they didn't get enough custom to keep it running once other cafes opened nearby - mums with toddlers buy one coffee each and the odd bun but make a lot of mess. Still have baby groups, though. Nearest pub used to be a great dive with cheap booze, pool tables, karaoke and punch-ups, food kept being good for a couple months then would take hours to turn up as they kept losing cooks. But had a bunch of rooms so often had preschool birthday parties with small bouncy castle and other events on. Then Youngs decided to poshify it, so it's open plan, gastropub prices inside (average food), pretentious burgers outside, no pool tables, no karaoke - a bunch of people seem to like it though. Possibly combining with a visit to the supermarket next door?
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LoveAGlassOfWine@reddit

It's a country pub. Not a really old one but probably built in the 1800s. Has a lovely garden with a covered area too since covid. They have a pizza oven they use in summer. Inside is the bar area with a log fire and the other side is more of a restaurant but you can go in there for a drink if the bar is full. It has quite a few locals, lots of dogs and dog walkers (not in restaurant) and the food is good so busy on a Sunday when they do a roast.
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Crafty_Ambassador443@reddit

The guy behind the bar is miserable as hell. Apparently they have a ps4 somewhere but he's so grumpy Id rather use my own
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Ok-Palpitation-5380@reddit

Mostly decent people. A handful of inbreds. I go elsewhere
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sirgreyskull@reddit

Local pub is £6.50 a pint so it is rather boring as only people that are up their own arses can afford to go on a regular basis. Nice pub and good food but no atmosphere because the average age of customer is in their 70’s.
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28374woolijay@reddit

Tiny with a stone floor and a log fire.
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idfkm80@reddit

Lubbly jubbly
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ben_jamin_h@reddit

My localest local is a sports bar, I've been in a couple of times, it's a bit rough but generally very friendly. I went to go in there last summer and there was a guy outside wearing a velour grey tracksuit with the hood up and ugg boots on, in the middle of the day. Pint and a fag in one hand, the other hand a clenched fist, staring at me like he was waiting for me to say something about the ugg boots and knock me out. I kept walking.
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haralambus98@reddit

Awful village pub where majority of villagers refuse to drink due to poor service by management, lack of community spirit and just generally being useless. Looks neglected and not welcoming of children despite massive garden. An absolute goldmine if run properly.
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Whulad@reddit

Cocktails on draught, coke in the bogs type of place
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magicmunch@reddit

My local still smells of ciggies because after closing and the doors are locked the ashtrays come back out
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Ambiverthero@reddit

no music, board games, comfy chairs, 7 different local bitters ales and ipas, no food only nuts and crisps. 3 minute walk from my house. full of local people and few under 30s. it’s bloody fabulous.
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HornyMarsupial69@reddit

Bad enough that i will happily walk for 50 minutes to go to a good one
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TinkerTailorCuntSpy@reddit

It’s really nice, but it’s got the same people standing at the bar whenever anyone walks in who seems hacked off their super secret club house has been invaded. You’ve found your little tribe, and the crippling loneliness subsides when you’re with your little Boomer buddies nursing a pint for hours It isn’t literally your personal pub though.. so fuckin do one
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throwaway2736636a@reddit

Wow you sound… bitter
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AerodynamicHandshake@reddit

Good pub, chill has dart boards and a pool table, shows the sports and has some live events on etc....but everything on draught is some bizarrely named brewery's own stuff so that's the only downside. Only 30 yards from my front door too which is grand.
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PipBin@reddit

My local is a beautiful grade 2 listed building. However they have managed to give it the vibe of a flat roof pub. I put my head around the door once, that was enough.
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j3llica@reddit

good. they pivoted pretty hard to having decent food and have a pizza oven running at weekends. garden. they always seem to be pretty busy.
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dprophet32@reddit

Interior is fine but not great, it's reasonably small without being tiny. The beer.is.never as cold as anywhere else but they do great Indian food, have a dartboard and it's the social hub of the community so I can't and won't stop going
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zinasbear@reddit

Closed down months ago.
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imminentmailing463@reddit

Lovely. By a river with a lovely beer garden. Nice fireplace in winter inside. Lots of space and seats inside. Good range of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Pretty good food. Wide range of clientele from pretty much every age and demographic. Dog friendly. A nice atmosphere. Basically everything I'd want a pub to be, except for: it's too expensive to go regularly.
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YchYFi@reddit

That means they have lock ins for the regulars. Quite frequently. My local is like £3 a pint and nice atmosphere.
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boredathome1962@reddit

The very closest is a throwback to the bad days, no real ales, in fact all the beer and lager is pretty rubbish. But further away are a couple of micropubs that are excellent, chatty customers and a variety of good ales.
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LumpyCamera1826@reddit

One is a working mens where you can get a pint under £2. Awful place though, like something out of Phoenix Nights. Full of old twats that absolutely despise younger people coming in and kick off if you sit in "their seats" or win the bingo. Other pub is a typical flat roof shithole full of cokeheads and wankers. So don't really have a great choice in my village
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Craft_on_draft@reddit

Your local probably has lock ins, my local smells like the bogs and stale beer
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Expression-Little@reddit (OP)

It certainly had lock ins back in the day.
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