Saturday, August 25, 2007

name change, euphemism, smokers

The pub in Grosvenor Road, which used to be called the Orson Wells, recently closed and has reopened as The Black Pig. It is setting out to be an altogether different sort of place - smarter you might say. No need to go into details, but a printed notice by the door gives some idea of its intentions, which seem to exclude me as a potential customer.

A Civilised Pub for Civilised
People, Over 21's(sic) only but
children welcome when
dining.
Good behaviour always
rewarded.
No louche or rude attitudes.
No bad language or scruffy
attire
The staff have the right
to refuse entry.
Thank you for playing along.

The Management


An old friend who was brought up on a farm in what is now the Czech Republic. She says that when she was a little girl she thought of the rabbits and sheep on the farm as her friends. When from time to time, they they were slaughtered and served up at table, her mother told her they had gone on a journey.

In the Gents at the Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells, there are photographs of Sigmund Freud, Che Guevara, Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx and others. They are there because the hotel specialises in expensive cigars, which it sells from a special cigar bar; all were cigar smokers.
In the last few months, the hotel has erected a "cigar shack" , wide open at the sides, where patrons can smoke untroubled by the law.

4 comments:

Lucy said...

Naturally, I am interested to know which of these rules you feel you cannot conform to...
One can well imagine your average Anti-social Elements thinking to themselves 'Best not go in there, my behaviour is just too louche...'

Fire Bird said...

Fascinating to wonder exactly HOW good behaviour is to be rewarded ...(a 10% discount?)

tristan said...

izzit the rude attitudes an the bad lagwidge wot lets you down ?

Unknown said...

What you like about pubs is that they are free and easy. This makes a pub sound more like a minor public school than a pub. But I enjoyed the prose.