Douglas Pubs
Went for a meal at The Old Courthouse on Thursday (great food) and our table was the only one in use for most of the night. A few other customers did come in for a meal as we were leaving but still, it left me wondering how they can justify being open.
Thursday nights used to be heaving in Douglas, specially down the quay side. Just over a year ago you could catch 3 different live acts on a Thursday night, 4 if you wanted to nip into the piano bar for a swift one on your way to The Office.
You go out now on a Thursday and it might as well be a Monday or Tuesday night, ie. dead. Jaks always has a few in but then it would, it’s a free house.
Maybe Heron and Brearley should change their business model and go the tenant route rather than just filling all their properties with managers?
At least that would generate a bit of healthy competition and get the landlords/landladies motivated.
I thought they were moving in the right direction when they did up Strand 58. With all the big screens it was clear they were hoping to pinch a bit of the trade from Jaks, or at least get the over spill.
They spent a fair bit of money on the place and then go and blow it by leaving the manager in who ran it into the ground in the first place. That makes sense, well done H&B.
You go in on a Saturday for the football and the jukebox is blasting out while Soccer Saturday is on something like 15 big screens spread around the place and no one has a clue what’s happening because they are all muted, WTF?
So after asking a few times if there’s any chance of either 1. they turn off the mute or 2. they supply a lip reader, you give up and head around to Jaks where every sports event currently taking place is on a screen somewhere and the place is absolutely bouncing and you wonder how the f@*k Heron and Brearley have survived so long.
There’s now a Liverpool supporters bar upstairs at Strand 58 or The Rendezvous as it’s now called. It’s all a bit hush hush so don’t tell anyone and it’s invite only at the moment (probably waiting on a license or something before they go public).
While supplying a room hidden away for Liverpool fans to watch their game in peace is a fine idea, I would have thought getting football fans to come to your main bar to watch all the other matches would have been the first priority?
It’s really not difficult:
- You leave the jukebox turned off on a Saturday
- You understand the football fan wants, nay, NEEDS to see the build up
- You crank up the volume
- You put 3 staff on the bar and have someone collecting glasses
- You show your staff how to wipe a table
Chapters opens soon and to me it looks like another old Courthouse although its hard to tell. They’ve spent a fortune on advertising without actually letting on what the hell it is. From what I can gather from the site and adverts, each floor is a different ‘chapter’ with (I’m guessing) a bar/wine bar on one, a restaurant on another and the 3rd hopefully a nightclub.
Douglas needs more nightclubs, it doesn’t need another restaurant.
Have a pint for Jimmy!
Tags: chapters, heron and brearley, jaks, the old courthouse, the strand
