Hellall,
as friends and regular readers, of any posts which I now infrequently find the time to write, will know, I don't consider pubs a place one goes to get scran. That said, I do often go out with the other Wees into Staffordshire and with Mumraah and Keet to Crookes for the same. Last week WF had a few issues in his flat and offered to take us out for a meal.
I have only been to the Phoenix at Ridgeway, possibly in fact at High Lane but equally not, twice before. Once when I was a child, and once back in September after coming out of A and E. That time the food was good and the ale OK so at 19.30 we headed off back for a meal. Arriving at 19.40 we dropped WF at the entrance and I ran in, put my coat on a chair and headed to the bar with three menus. Cue being ignored.
Five minutes or more later WF had finally reached the bar and me and WK ad already chosen. There were three staff behind the bar, all running between the other end and the kitchen. At 19.50 I finally got a response when I asked if I could order some food "not at this time no". As WK pointed out, it said they served til 20.00 on their website and elsewhere, and asked that since we only wanted mains could they do that, but the woman said "not tonight" before reignoring us.
We told WF to swap his glasses back and walk back to the car - he was not impressed. "what's the point of spending all that money on refurbishment if you aren't going to serve food?". It was a fair question. There had been a huge amount spent on the refurb. Five minutes later we were holding the door open for WF looking at the sign which still asked you to grab a table and number and go to the bar to order food. Keith did point out that they should take it down - its an A Frame so could just be folded shut and turned round. No answer was made.
As we awaited WK to bring the car to the bottom of the steps for WF, 10 minutes after he had been told they weren't serving food, and with a couple behind us planning to order at an Indian restaurant instead, we decided to call the White Swan in Ridgeway itself. They told us we would need to order by 20.15 and having found out there was three of us told us to grab a table in the right hand side. Five minutes later I was at the bar, and ten minutes later WF was. Me and WK had hunters chicken with the wonderful home made chips, whilst WF opted for partridge and sherry pie with chips. The food came in 20 minutes and was absolutely delicious.
We washed it don with pints of Stancill India red from a choice of three local real ales. We have been going in the Swan for nearly thirty years and the ale used to be Bass which was good but it wasn't always that impressive, and sometimes wasn't on at all. When we had last gone three years ago and sat for the first time in the room on the left, am guessing it was the present owners as they had two or three ales on then as well.
We had stopped going in because for a period they stopped doing food on a Monday but the rudeness and lack of organisation of the nearby Greedy King outpost helped to show us what we had been missing. WF had gone to the Swan for a meal for his 60th in the early noughties so we have appreciated the food, and now the beer range, for many years. I can't forget their goulash and peppered pork stews from that era.
Am not for a minute trying to pull some sort of provider and client relationship card here by the way. The Phoenix however is entirely a food venue so to get that wrong, and provide no explanation or apology, is really very bad. Its like setting up a gin wagon and running out of gin. You have one thing to do.....
The worst part is that the two pubs are s close together. Two very different sides of virtually the same coin. Oh, and the fact that they couldn't have manged to ignore WF's slow tortured walk to the bar and his looking at the menus, yet nobody ventured to tell us that we were in fact wasting our time.
At least we have rediscovered the excellent beer and food in the White Swan now. I think our next Monday night pub meal will be there.
Your very best health
Wee Beefy