South London Beers: Reboot - Last Thursday of the Month at The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, SE24

Dear all,

Thought it about time I registered on here, having not seen most of you for a little while now. I said to Andrew and Jason on Saturday actually that I missed my regular Monday nights looking after you lot; in an industry where you deal with such a plethora of twats on a regular basis it makes a difference to interact with people you like and respect so believe it or not Monday nights were always amongst my favourite shifts.

That aside, I am obviously here because of last night (I hope in isolation, although a few others have mentioned a general downgrade in experience) and the fiasco that you all had to suffer. So, in short, to explain, apologise and justify in varying measures.

I read the thread twice - it is absolutely huge, and I now feel fully versed in internet chat such as fail, epic, haz and ftw - once to gauge comments and again to see if I could match faces to logins as I have had varying degrees of conversation with a lot of you. I think I could tell a lot of you based on what you have said online....We did used to have a PR girl who read our reviews and stuff online and let me know if I needed to respond to anything but we got rid because it was a bit of a wanky thing to do and there's a credit crunch, innit.

So, to business. Last night was a fuck up. Clearly it was a fuck up. Having spoken to staff, other customers, James my partner (tall, looks like Clark Kent), chefs and everyone but my mother about it, it was a fuck up. Hands up to that.

It seems, unless I am being naive, that we had the perfect (shit) storm last night. Monday night boiger madness, Liverpool on TV (bizarre that a bar in SW London attracts so many scousers), lack of big boys behind the bar, running out of things, faulty cellar systems and much much more. It is rare that there is any Monday night football these days let alone significant games with significant followings. Should have planned ahead with another member of staff, really. Hindsight's a wonderful thing and especially the last two weeks James has had an operation and has been unable to do any work so I have been left with two pubs to look after and that was not the only rota malfunction, believe me.

I would be slightly surprised (yet not so arrogant as to ignore it) if you said that it had generally been shit at The Coach since I had taken on The Arbiter. A couple of people have mentioned staff turnover - 70% of the staff have been with us for 9 months or more - and someone like Anna, who worked last night (and is James' girlfriend) is worth her weight in gold. We have the occasional issue with staff being rubbish (and to be honest one that surfaced last night, that I am not going in to on here), like that French waitress you all fancied but was absolute toilet, but generally we have a pretty sound bunch, that we invest in with training and the like. But if you have an issue with staff, then please tell me - enough people have my number - Jonny, Ed, Chris have all rang me previously, it is on the Coach website, stick it on here if you like. Call me. I may not answer straight away but I will always get back to you.

Similarly with the food - it seems that most of you have good experiences with the burgers on an ongoing basis. Most isn't good enough of course, it should be all, but sometimes things happen and if you have a shit burger, tell me. I can sort it if you tell me, if you don't let me know then you are pissed off and I am oblivious and neither of us wins.

To touch on a couple of points regarding other issues mentioned generally:

Joe - the beer situation has been rubbish in the past mate, I know this. A pub with no beer is a shit pub. I don't think it has been utterly endemic, I am sitting at the bar typing this and we have two ales on out of 4 (after a ridiculously busy weekend) and we do have guinness so baffled as to that being off last night. I won't bore you with the ins and outs of why we run out of stuff, Chris sort of touched on it when he mentioned tied pub (which we are) and free pub differences. It is a convoluted situation but we struggle so much with literally zero credit terms and intransigent deliveries, not to mention unbelievable punitive pricing. Go to the morning advertiser website and put Steve Slatter in the search bit and you will see an article with video about how I went, in the summer, to see Kate Hoey my MP about it, so pissed off was I. Change is coming in the pub industry but until it does we suffer a bit in that respect, as do our neighbours and colleagues - I have a mate who owns a beautiful boozer in the West End who has to shut one or two days a month because he cannot get the beer in. I sort of think it has been sorted a little bit, we don't really run out of much these days and we are definitely conscious of it but if it does happen, I am sorry.

Skully - I think I know who you are - you love an Addlestones mate? I think it's unfair to insinuate that we don't appreciate your custom. We most definitely do. The Coach is my first business and will always be my baby and you guys are the first real big group we identified with and got to know after a difficult first 4 or 5 months trading. I would do anything for any of you, you only have to ask, provided it is legal of course, and even if it isn't legal like Monday night smoking club then I turn a blind eye. The only thing I don't appreciate is the odd dickhead who thinks it's cool to bring their own booze but those of you who I have mentioned this to agree so it isn't really an issue. I definitely appreciate your business, not only financially, I think you are mostly cool people as I said which makes a difference to us.

So I seem to have gone on for an age now. I think that I owe Jim and Sam some food and cider, and Mark, and to be honest anyone who doesn't think that they have had value for money I am happy to make it up to them. Call me or email me and let's sort it out. I have done it before and I will do it again. I am grateful, believe it or not, to be told about this. I said to about 5 seperate groups of regulars that if things go to shit when we go over to SW6 then let me know. Thankfully this has been the only thing brought to my attention thus far, hopefully it will be the last. Unless I do just have a shit pub....

Epic response hopefully ftw.

Steve