[Food] So far this year we have served more free tap waters than any other drink…..

[Kinky Gerbil]

and this is another reason why number of nightclubs in the UK is now under 1000, whereas back in the 80's (my day) it was 36000

I don't know if I feel sorry for youngsters these day or jealous they will never get to know the Event 2

 

[Nitram]

One Paston Place?

No I do remember that one though. The one I thinking of It was on the end of a road, it got converted into a residential house. Chesham Road?

 

[Cordwainer]

The only restaurants I went to in Brighton in the seventies were either Pickwick or Henekeys, when trying to impress a girlfriend or the Great American Disaster and Browns with mates when it did spag Bol and salad. Uncle Sam’s on the way back to Worthing where I lived after a skinful.

When I moved to Brighton in the eighties the three Italian’s Al Duomo, Al Forno and Clems in Queens Road were visited regularly. The Swan Indian in the Drive always seemed very posh but was very good.

There was also a very good French Restaurant in Kemptown that we used to go to on special occasions, but I can’t remember its name.

The French Cellar was also a brilliant restaurant.

I lived opposite the Swan on the Drive and it may have been in its last days/memory fail but couple of times I went there it was poor..reheating poppadoms on the grill of an old school gas cooker was great when a curry house opened up next door to the Indiana though as for several months we lived like kings as the Hove curry wars kicked off!

 

[Weststander]

I lived opposite the Swan on the Drive and it may have been in its last days/memory fail but couple of times I went there it was poor..reheating poppadoms on the grill of an old school gas cooker was great when a curry house opened up next door to the Indiana though as for several months we lived like kings as the Hove curry wars kicked off!

Indiana was nice, as was Ganges Brasserie.

 

[Weststander]

No I do remember that one though. The one I thinking of It was on the end of a road, it got converted into a residential house. Chesham Road?

On the south side of the street, a narrow-ish restaurant? That may’ve been the expensive nouvelle cuisine place in 1990.

 

[BLOCK F]

Le Français restaurant in Paston Place, The Laughing Onion in St Georges Road, were others.

Late 80’s with an ex we went to a small nouvelle cuisine at the far east end of Kemp Town near The Rock pub. Incredibly expensive and I left hungry .

Nouvelle Cuisine…….probably the biggest load of pretentious piss take rip off bollocks that ever had the nerve to be served up on a plate!
No, I wasn’t impressed!

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Nouvelle Cuisine…….probably the biggest load of pretentious piss take rip off bollocks that ever had the nerve to be served up on a plate!
No, I wasn’t impressed!

A mate of mine and I were on a training course in London back in the time of Nouvelle Cuisine and stayed at a nice hotel. First night, dinner turned up, started was a poached egg on a bed of hay, main course was a couple of bits of meat about the size of a (new) 50p piece and a couple of pretty carrots. Looked beautiful but not at all what a couple of guys in their early 20's needed for dinner.

Rang the boss the following morning to ask if we could claim evening meal allowance instead so spent the rest of the week eating lunch at the training centre and used the meal allowance to go drinking at the old Break For The Border in Charing Cross Road and getting a kebab on the way back to the hotel.

 

[Nitram]

On the south side of the street, a narrow-ish restaurant? That may’ve been the expensive nouvelle cuisine place in 1990.

No it was the North side and definitely not nouvelle cuisine which has now morphed into small plates.

 

[BLOCK F]

A mate of mine and I were on a training course in London back in the time of Nouvelle Cuisine and stayed at a nice hotel. First night, dinner turned up, started was a poached egg on a bed of hay, main course was a couple of bits of meat about the size of a (new) 50p piece and a couple of pretty carrots. Looked beautiful but not at all what a couple of guys in their early 20's needed for dinner.

Rang the boss the following morning to ask if we could claim evening meal allowance instead so spent the rest of the week eating lunch at the training centre and used the meal allowance to go drinking at the old Break For The Border in Charing Cross Road and getting a kebab on the way back to the hotel.

I suffered quite a few ridiculous NC ‘meals’ in the past, usually when having to attend a business dinner. However, on one occasion, my girlfriend and I were having a weekend away in York in a newly opened hotel, a couple of weeks before Christmas. We were served this pathetic NC meal and decided that for the following 2 nights we would eat in the hotel’s less formal bistro style restaurant and get some decent food. Anyway, in come a party of hungry young Yorkshire lads with their girlfriends and they order the Christmas Party menu, obviously expecting the full works. When the food arrived and the waiters, with a great flourish, removed from silver covers from the plates, the look on their faces and the language, expressed in true loud Yorkshire style was something to behold! I think they probably all went down the chippie afterwards to fill up.

 

[Weststander]

I suffered quite a few ridiculous NC ‘meals’ in the past,usually when having to attend a business dinner. However, on one occasion, my girlfriend and I were having a weekend away in York in a newly opened hotel, a couple of weeks before Christmas. We were served this pathetic NC meal and decided that for the following 2 nights we would eat in the hotel’s less formal bistro style restaurant and get some decent food. Anyway, in come a party of hungry young Yorkshire lads with their girlfriends and they order the Christmas Party menu, obviously expecting the full works. When the food arrived and the waiters, with a great flourish, removed from silver covers from the plates, the look on their faces and the language, expressed in true loud Yorkshire style was something to behold! I think they probably all went down the chippie afterwards to fill up.

Average food cost as a percentage of revenue from food sales was always quoted at 28% to 35%. Ramsey, Polizzi and others often mentioned this when examining the books of restaurants seeking their help. I'd be pretty sure that restaurants who've maintained high end prices, but cut plate sizes and/or offer the 2025 equivalent of NC, enjoy far greater margins than that. A local small chain of high end restaurants whose courses have shrunk noticeably make upwards of £500k bottom line profits just now ... I've nosed at their online accounts. This is despite increased energy, food and staff costs. Long term patrons of theirs since 1998, in the end we voted with our feet, we were leaving family events there hungry, it was a p-take.

 

[BLOCK F]

Average food cost as a percentage of revenue from food sales was always quoted at 28% to 35%. Ramsey, Polizzi and others often mentioned this when examining the books of restaurants seeking their help. I'd be pretty sure that restaurants who've maintained high end prices, but cut plate sizes and/or offer the 2025 equivalent of NC, enjoy far greater margins than that. A local small chain of high end restaurants whose courses have shrunk noticeably make upwards of £500k bottom line profits just now ... I've nosed at their online accounts. This is despite increased energy, food and staff costs. Long term patrons of theirs since 1998, in the end we voted with our feet, we were leaving family events there hungry, it was a p-take.

As a lifetimer in the brewing, pub and hospitality industry, on the now rare occasions I visit pubs restaurants and hotels, I can’t help but look at everything with at least one eye on my past job. It sometimes drives my wife nuts, but that is the way it is.
I have followed this thread with interest and can see where people are coming from. There is absolutely no doubt that the hospitality business is a tough one, but I think to try and blame the customers is dangerous territory, rather like politicians blaming the electorate.
My view is that if customers feel that they have been treated well and have got value for money, they will return and that applies equally to whether they are spending their ‘hard earned’ in top end establishments or the corner cafe.

 

[SeagullinExile]

Well my conscience is clear, the boy (15) who often CHOOSES to come down the pub with me and his mother only drinks tap water. They rarely complain about how much we put in the till

Not to your face they don’t.....

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Went to the place in question this evening. First of all for context, it’s a kitchen/canteen style venue. Second, they had a decent and reasonably wide range of drinks, and if the issue with the free water drinkers is alcohol, they had two non-alcohol beers, still and sparkling mineral water, cola options, healthy fruit based drinks and if you wanted fizzy sweet stuff then Organgina snd Ginger beer.

I stand by my original assertion that it’s a bit shitty in the current tough economic climate to ask for free tap water: there’s no real excuse given the options on offer. Let’s support our local businesses as best we can.

For the record we ordered 5 craft beers, 4 Mexicana shots and one Pilsner.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

 

[Littlemo]

Went to the place in question this evening. First of all for context, it’s a kitchen/canteen style venue. Second, they had a decent and reasonably wide range of drinks, and if the issue with the free water drinkers is alcohol, they had two non-alcohol beers, still and sparkling mineral water, cola options, healthy fruit based drinks and if you wanted fizzy sweet stuff then Organgina snd Ginger beer.

I stand by my original assertion that it’s a bit shitty in the current tough economic climate to ask for free tap water: there’s no real excuse given the options on offer. Let’s support our local businesses as best we can.

For the record we ordered 5 craft beers, 4 Mexicana shots and one Pilsner.

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Fritz Cola! That takes me back to Vienna when myself and my partner were on holiday and I bought one in a pub. It is f***ing rancid. Ended up in a flower pot because we didn’t want to leave the whole thing basically untouched

That was a great holiday though and the Apfelsaft and Orringina are decent options. I was in Germany last summer and drank tons of Apple juice. I have it in pubs usually as I don’t drink (much anyway).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Fritz Cola! That takes me back to Vienna when myself and my partner were on holiday and I bought one in a pub. It is f***ing rancid. Ended up in a flower pot because we didn’t want to leave the whole thing basically untouched

That was a great holiday though and the Apfelsaft and Orringina are decent options. I was in Germany last summer and drank tons of Apple juice. I have it in pubs usually as I don’t drink (much anyway).

I rather like Fritz Cola, and it’s very popular. I always have the sugar-free one though. I find any sugary drink leaves my teeth feeling weird.

 

[Nitram]

I rather like Fritz Cola, and it’s very popular. I always have the sugar-free one though (I’m a marketing whore) I find any sugary drink leaves my teeth reaching for the tap water option

Very sensible

 

[WATFORD zero]

House parties have changed a bit as well. The wife (Gen X) went to a Gen Z house party over Xmas….background music, a big pot of risotto and f***ing board games all evening; everyone seemingly worked for an NGO. Little booze, no loud music, no cigarettes stubbed out on plates, no shagging in the bathroom, no one racking up in the kitchen and no neighbours banging on the door to complain.

Bloody kids these days