Author: chrish

How often do you eat out in pubs?

How often do you eat out in Pubs?Today’s blog post is about food. Since the smoking ban came into effect in the UK in 2007 a lot of pubs have had to adapt. Some worked, some closed. For some people it was a shame, for others it was brilliant news. Either way, a lot has changed in pubs over the last few years. It’s rare these days to find ‘wet led’ (drinks only) pubs apart from in places like Central London – who are catering purely for the workers, these pubs are often shut weekends when their regular patrons are back at home out of the city.

So, our question is – how often do you eat in a pub? Have you replaced going to restaurants to eat in pubs instead? We all know that the quality of food can differ vastly from one pub to a next. Some are obvious microwave style setups, whereas others have full on kitchens rivalling some of the best restaurants. Do you only eat in a pub if it’s a pub lunch or sunday dinner? Or would you go for a evening meal to a pub and make a night of it?

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BITE: Most viewed pubs

Top 20 Most Viewed Pubs - By MonthWe’ve launched another new feature on BITE today! You can now view the most viewed pubs by month on the main site. We’ve also backdated it to the start of 2011.

Shortly after the start of each month you will be able to see the previous month’s busiest pubs on BITE. There are also ranking indicators for each month to show you where they were compared to last month.

BITE has always been a London-heavy pub guide and the stats show just that. In January 2011, The Harp was #4 in our Top 20 pubs, by February it had got the #1 spot and it kept it throughout March too. Only one pub managed to get in during January and February from outside of London, that was The Dolphin in Plymouth. In March however a second pub, The Crown Inn from Stockport crept in – will it manage to stay in there until the end of April though?

By the end of the Summer we might see countryside pubs make it into the Top 20 from all their BBQ’s and Summer events.. Talking of BBQ’s… we should be able to help you plan those a little easier from Friday… more details soon!

To visit the Most Viewed Pubs by Month, simply click here or follow the link in the left hand menu on BITE.


20 Obscure Pub Names

In the thousands of pubs we have on BITE we come across some rather unusually named pubs sometimes. Here is a Top 20 Obscure Pub Names! Top 20 Obscure Pub Names

  1. The Cow and Snuffers in Cardiff, South Glamorgan
  2. The Nowhere Inn in Plymouth, Devon
  3. The Nobody Inn in Newington Green, London
  4. Ferret and Radiator in Dawlish, Surrey
  5. The Fawcett Inn in Southsea, Hampshire
  6. The Bleeding Wolf in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
  7. The Skiving Scholar in Plymouth, Devon
  8. The Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower in Ashtead, Surrey
  9. Old Doctor Butlers Head in Moorgate, London
  10. The Hung Drawn & Quartered in Tower Hill, London
  11. The Winking Frog in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
  12. The Bunch of Carrots in Hereford, Herefordshire
  13. The Cat and Custard Pot in Folkestone, Kent
  14. The Three Legged Mare in York, North Yorkshire
  15. The Ford Madox Brown in Rusholme, Manchester
  16. Goat and Tricycle in Bournemouth, Dorset
  17. Sweyn Forkbeard in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
  18. The Fighting Cocks in Fordingbridge, Hampshire
  19. The Bleeding Heart in Clerkenwell, London
  20. The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn (!) in Stalybridge, Cheshire

We’re sure there are many more strangely named pubs out there, which one is yours?

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The Publican 2011 Awards

On Wednesday 6th April The Publican Awards for 2011 were announced. Each year (although, maybe not from next year as The Publican and the Morning Advertiser have both just merged) licensees, staff and anyone connected to the pub industry vote for who they think should win an award. There are 17 categories and we have posted the winners below.

  1. Publican of the Year – Michael Ibbotson of The Durham Ox, North Yorkshire
  2. Barperson of the Year – Rebecca Jones of Terra Nova, South Wales
  3. Family Pub of the Year – Swiss Cottage, West Sussex
  4. Corporate Social Responsibility 2011 Award – Adnams, Suffolk
  5. Multiple Operator of the Year (2-19 Outlets) – Renaissance Pubs, London
  6. Regional Brewer of the Year – Fuller’s, London
  7. Freehouse of the Year – The Driftwood Spars, Cornwall
  8. Tenanted and Leased Pub of the Year – Cask Pub & Kitchen, London
  9. Tenanted and Leased Pub Company of the Year – Marston’s
  10. Music Pub of the Year – Golden Fleece, Essex
  11. Community Pub of the Year – The Grays Inn, Aberdeen
  12. Pub Design of the Year – Horatio Todd’s, Northern Ireland
  13. Customer Service Pub of the Year – The Station Hotel, Manchester
  14. Food Pub of the Year – Shibden Mill Inn, West Yorkshire
  15. Accommodation Pub of the Year – The Wiremill, Surrey
  16. Managed Pub Company of the Year – Fuller, Smith and Turner
  17. Newcomer of the Year – Steve Smith of the Freemasons, Lancashire

Congratulations to them all! Check out the above pubs and see if you agree with the awards. It appears it’s 50/50 with our reviewers..

Have a good weekend – hopefully the sun will be out all weekend and your local might even have a BBQ on if you are lucky!


Top 10 Pub Names in the UK

BITE Top Ten Pub NamesEach week we get the odd email from various media outlets asking us some strange questions for whatever article they are currently writing. Time upon time, we get asked ‘What is the most popular pub name in the UK?’ We thought we’d share with you what they are – is your local named the same?

(Some of them might be proceeded with ‘The’ – lots of pubs go by with and without it!)

  1. Red Lion
  2. Royal Oak
  3. White Hart
  4. Rose and Crown
  5. New Inn
  6. White Horse
  7. Crown
  8. Kings Head
  9. Crown Inn
  10. Kings Arms

 

What does this all mean? Well, if you are a ‘Red Lion’ good luck in getting people to find you in Google! Out of all the pubs on BITE we have 16,283 unique pub names listed – over half of all the pubs we have on the site have a name shared by at least 3 other pubs!

 

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