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

Yeah well I was just throwing it out there: The C&H have had a long time to get comfortable with the idea that we'll always turn up, without fail, on monday nights. Maybe time to nudge them into appreciating it a bit more?

But like you said this has only happened as a one-off. The tall dark-haired guy who's been managing lately seems cool, happy to take the banter and generally be OK. He wasn't there last night.

I love the C&H but getting a bit pissed off with them never having any beer... At least the cider situation's sorted (for now) but there seemed to be no bitter on apart from Doom Bar and no Guinness... I'm just relieved Jonny didn't show up after footy, could you imagine the look on his little face? Good fun last night, glad I left when I did... Relatively sober... :]

They had Tim Taylor's Landlord on when I arrived at 6ish, but were trying to get the Guinness on at that point- did they not manage to get it back all evening?

Nope, they were strugglin' last night... That girl behind the bar's a trooper tho'...

The Swedish girl?

She's nice enough but not exactly bar tender of 2009.

They could have done with at least one other person on last night I reckon.

Or two really good people.

Snowy can you PM me Steve's email address? Think I will drop him a line - want to see how he's doing anyway.
Oh and they had no Doom Bar on last night either

I agree with Marky - when there has been a problem in the past Steve has always been super quick to sort it out. He's always said to us - if there is a problem we need to tell him - so I think it's simply a case of letting him know the situation and he will sort it out.

They've always looked after us before.

EDIT: If you're emailing him anyway snowy can you mention it?

Its a Monday night innit, as a free house* they clear all their stocks over busy weekends and occasionally end up hiring a van to go and buy replacement kegs in order to have stock before the deliveries arrive...

• i think they're free, and not a tied pub.
  
  

Doesn't make up for the beer / burger / staff fiasco, but somewhere like the effra wouldn't / couldn't accomodate us as well as the C&H does. Nor the Trinity, even though there seems to be a new manager there.

Just have a word with Steve or James (the dark haired one). I guess some of their attention is now on the Arbiter, but that shouldn't mean that the Monday Night beers should suffer. I owe Steve an email this week about something completely different, you want me to mention it?

Its a Monday night innit, as a free house* they clear all their stocks over busy weekends and occasionally end up hiring a van to go and buy replacement kegs in order to have stock before the deliveries arrive...

• i think they're free, and not a tied pub.
  
  
  
  

Free or tied, a managed house, blah blah this makes no difference to ordering the right amount of beer to last until the next delivery turns up.

You can move to two deliveries (or whatever you need) a week if you a) sell a huge amount of beer and b) have a tiny cellar.

You should run a bit of overlap, so you plan to run the last cask of (say) Doom Bar out when the new stock has been tapped and spiled and has settled.

That way you always have the beer available, but not hanging around either, if that makes sense.

Yeah they should just be told there were a few of fuckups on the food, and it was a bit difficult to get a drink (probably as a result of the food orders taking up their attention). I'm sure it would have been sorted better if James had been there. I guess when they have a lot or people in to watch the footy that makes the staff have to work twice as hard.

The lack of Guinness was ridiculous, thankfully I arrive prepared with a lovely winter warmer of my own =P

Yeah, I'm in no position to comment really, I've never worked in a pub, just spent too much time working around the alcohol sector to get annoyed by people like the BII.

I just see two blokes juggling two pubs with little support from their staff. Clefty, I'll pm you Steve's number now.

To be fair to Steve, if he knows there's a problem, he will sort it out. And the time I got there after he'd run out of burgers, he gave me a free meal when I met a friend there later in the week. So he's sound enough.

Exactly! Cock ups occasionally happen. They're part of life. Remember the C&H stayed open especially for us on Friday night to cope with the delays in the South Beers on Tour weather incidents. They put up with our idiosyncrasies and occasional bad behaviour with good grace.

I wouldn't want to see some sort of SE Beers Witch Hunt happen just because of a relatively rare incident at a pub that does loads for us.

Well said Chris. I hope this isn't going to be a witch hunt. We've had one evening where the staff were caught unexpectedly by the pub being unusually busy, and they struggled to cope. I think it's a one off. We should maybe consider mentioning it to Steve but please let's not rain on their parade after all the great support we've had from them over the last 18 months.

i am going to go to the arbiter for a pint now, i can see if he is there and mention it(?)

+1 to all above - give him a chance to sort it

Well they had the beer I wanted, and my burgers turned up just fine, so I thought it was a fine night! I will admit the sending of food out did look very random/haphazard... but I guess they were just very busy.

I'd say have a word with Steve and see how it goes, no need to rush out and find somewhere new straight away :)

I say burn the pub down then piss on the smouldering ashes*...

*

• All lies... Everything's gonna be fine...*
  

Right I've emailed Steve, and in his words 'This will, goes without saying be sorted post haste'

• he's also asked for a link to this thread so he can see for himself the feedback.
  

Well done Clefty

sorry again markyboy for the mix up last night

Fred - no worries, not your fault at all.

Joe Smith - I owe you a pint. Maybe two for keeping things simple.

I agree with the comments on the C&H being hectic last night but the lady behind the bar is a gem. Even though she was completely swamped she took the time to talk to people and smile and knew who ordered what. I really appreciated that.

We can also help by taking our empty glasses and plates back to the bar.

Lovely to see so many of you last night!

I agree with the comments on the C&H being hectic last night but the lady behind the bar is a gem. Even though she was completely swamped she took the time to talk to people and smile and knew who ordered what. I really appreciated that.

+1 That's what I meant, she was a star last night...

Sound from the footy was up way too loud last night which may have had an effect on it being a bit bonkers.