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"Brighton's Best Pubs" (sic) OI ATILLA!







Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
46,681
at home
ok mate
 




Jul 20, 2003
20,454
Man of Harveys said:

Not any more it's not. About as festive as the Walkabout and about as unique these days too, compared to its heyday under Chris and Geoff. A very sad loss.

upsetting news on a rainy day
 
Last edited:






Screaming J

He'll put a spell on you
Jul 13, 2004
2,388
Exiled from the South Country
quote:Originally posted by Southover Street Seagull
Has that takeover now been approved? I thought Harveys were still independent?



Man of Harveys said:
Thankfully, he means just the Regency Tavern *swoons, reaches for smelling salts*

Although there was a rumour posted on here a few months ago about S. Neame taking over Harveys, posted by Lord B, I seem to remember; after (from memory) he'd talked to some journalist in a pub.

Finally scotched when Miles Jenner was quoetd as saying 'over my dead body'.

I've only just forgiven him for the near heart attack and sleepless nights this caused (Lord B, I mean; not Miles Jenner).

Oh; and any book about pubs in Brighton which only gives the Nelson 57% is only suitable for use as emergency bum-wad.
 


The Pub Jury

New member
Oct 6, 2006
5
Brighton
Hi Everyone

I’m one of The Pub Jury and I’m here to answer some of the points raised in this thread.

Obviously, putting a score against pubs, all of which are someone’s favourite, is a dangerous and difficult thing to do. We’ve had a go by getting 7 of us together to rate the pubs on a scoring system that’s taken us 7 years to sort out. As seen in this thread, not everyone likes the results, but thanks to those who have dared being flamed by saying that they agree with some or all of the top ten.

A lot of you have suggested other pubs that should score well, but what you haven’t been told is that most of them do. The book covers 300 pubs and bars in Brighton & Hove. We are pretty hard markers, so only 3 of them score 90% or more. The average score is 56%, so anywhere scoring more than that is obviously in the top half. This includes, for example, The Lord Nelson, which a lot of you seem to favour. What you may or may not know is that the Nelson was recently under weights & measures inspection for allegedly serving pints that aren’t full. ‘The Best Pub’ wouldn’t be doing that.

The Evening Star, Attila’s favourite, scores 93% for ‘Beer’, putting it second out of the 300 for that criteria. It is only really let down on drink by its relatively small selection of spirits, understandable given the small bar. It gets 73% overall, putting it well within the top 50.

As for some of the pubs that you have suggested, a lot of them score REALLY well and sit just outside the top ten. The Battle of Trafalgar, Hartington, Reservoir, Shakespear’s Head, Great Eastern, Greys and Bugle all score around 80% (The Wellington is 10th with 82%).

Most of the other pubs suggested score around 70%, putting them in the top 50: Rosehill Tavern, Dover Castle, London Unity, Eddy, St James, George, Montreal, Cricketers, Constant Service, Prince Albert.

Judging on this basis, you might find that the book is not as ‘moronic’ or ‘idiotic’ as it has been described, as it broadly agrees with what a lot of people in this thread have suggested.

We’ve already apologised to Attila for his name being spelt wrong on the cover – this was an error by the publisher when his name was added at the last minute after he kindly agreed to write the foreword. This is being addressed in the second print run, so all the first copies could end up being collectors items! (Which is a shame if they have ended up being ‘eaten’.)

Finally to the person whose comment about ‘almost all of the top ten being Zel or C-side’ hinted at this being some corporate book, I think you will find that only 2 of the pubs in the top ten are Zel run (Open House and Sidewinder) and I don’t think any are run by C-side. The book has been self-published by the group of us and the only sponsors are a taxi company and Harveys (who gave a small community grant towards the production).

If this book sells, then there will be a second edition produced in 2008. Any of you are quite welcome to contribute to the scoring. The only requirement is that you have to score at least 50 pubs and that your scores have to be genuine.

Someone commented on the overall mark not being reflected by the category marks for some of the pubs. This is because of 2 factors. Firstly the categories are weighted – Atmosphere and Beer are the most important categories, whilst Food is the least important. Then, because lots of averaging is being applied (of juror marks, then of categories), a ‘stretching’ algorithm is applied to the overall marks because otherwise almost all of them would be in a 50-70% range, which makes for pretty boring reading. ‘Stretching’ the marks retains the order of the pubs, but just gives a more interesting spread of marks, emphasising the best and worst scoring pubs.

All comments on any of the above would be gratefully received!

Tony of
The Pub Jury
www.pubjury.co.uk
 


Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
Fair dos for coming on this board but to reiterate a previous post:

Rosehill Tavern - I think

67% overall

atmosphere 58%
beer 60%
barstaff 50%
Food 33%
Entertainment 58%
Decor/ Garden 58%

How come 67%?

Even with a weighted average it could never be higher than the highest mark.
 




Jul 20, 2003
20,454
good stuff Tony - an excellent reply to this highly emotive issue

I will endevour to drink in 50 different pubs over the next year or so - shouldn't be too hard

The Seafield won't be one of them

:sick:
 


attila

1997 Club
Jul 17, 2003
2,258
South Central Southwick
Hi -

If you're doing a PUB guide, the beer is what counts, same as if you're doing a restaurant guide it's the food and a gig guide it's the entertainment! That's my point ...

Well done for doing it, for sure, and people who aren't beer fanatics and/or don't live in Brighton will find it useful. It's a kind of combination of the Good Beer Guide, the Good Food Guide, the Good Trendy Place To Go That Does Music Guide Guide and the Nice Frontage Guide. Which will go down well in Brighton, and I'm sure the book's doing well. I'm off to the Star to get some ale down my neck before I head off to Camden for a gig in a bloody CHURCH. Which won't be in any guides I'll be reading...

Cheers A
 


The Pub Jury

New member
Oct 6, 2006
5
Brighton
Buzzer said:
Fair dos for coming on this board but to reiterate a previous post:

Rosehill Tavern - I think

67% overall

atmosphere 58%
beer 60%
barstaff 50%
Food 33%
Entertainment 58%
Decor/ Garden 58%

How come 67%?

Even with a weighted average it could never be higher than the highest mark.

Okay, heres a good example.
Firstly there is a weighted average worked out, with beer & atmosphere being the most important, food the least, it comes out at about 56%.
Then the 'stretching' is applied. This increases the scores of the higher scoring pubs and decreases that of the lower ones. This boosts the score of the Rose Hill Tavern to 67%.
 




bristolseagull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
5,554
Lindfield
Brovian said:
The Open House? THE OPEN HOUSE? Who are these morons? The Open House isn't a pub, it's a sort of wants-to-be-trendy wine bar cum continental cafe. I'm suprised they didn't mention the now-ruined Preston Park Tavern or the Park View.

What a load of old cock.

er....no its not.
 


The Pub Jury

New member
Oct 6, 2006
5
Brighton
If this book sells, then there will be a second edition produced in 2008. Any of you are quite welcome to contribute to the scoring. The only requirement is that you have to score at least 50 pubs and that your scores have to be genuine.

Tony of
The Pub Jury
www.pubjury.co.uk
Well the book has sold, but not well enough for a second edition yet, however we have now set up www.pubjury.com where anyone can become a pub juror - you can rate pubs for Brighton, any pub/bar in the UK, or in fact any pub/bar in the world (though you'll probably have to add ones outside the UK!).

If the website does well then we will be publishing more books - on Brighton pubs or maybe other places - using the data gathered from the website.

:drink:

Cheers!

Tony
 


desprateseagull

New member
Jul 20, 2003
10,171
brighton, actually
It is a well known FACT that the Evening Star is the best pub in Brighton! Followed closely by the Lord Nelson...


ES would be good IF - they had some padding on the wodden seats, AND improved air quality (oh hold on, smoking ban has sorted that..), AND sold some proper beer, not that hand made rubbish - it gave me the runs.
 




The Open House? THE OPEN HOUSE? Who are these morons? The Open House isn't a pub, it's a sort of wants-to-be-trendy wine bar cum continental cafe. I'm suprised they didn't mention the now-ruined Preston Park Tavern or the Park View.

What a load of old cock.

When I lived round those parts, the SPRINGFIELD was the pub of choice.

Or at least one of them.
 


good stuff Tony - an excellent reply to this highly emotive issue

I will endevour to drink in 50 different pubs over the next year or so - shouldn't be too hard

The Seafield won't be one of them

:sick:

And when I lived rounds those parts, the Seafield definitely didn't rate more than a one-off, thirty-second visit and a brief conversation with someone along the lines of "Sorry ... um ... I was just looking for a friend ... um ... who's not here".
 




"2002 Bonfire Boy wins Ultimate Beer with BBQs in National Hop
Association and the Horticultural Research International Competition".


Eh?

Bonfire Boy is one of Harvey's seasonal ales. And definitely not one for the BBQ season.

Any beer that features my mate Pete on the label is worth drinking, though.

15612.jpg
 








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