Hello readers,
am a bit late with this as always but I am sad to announce that once again the Three Tuns on Silver Street Head in Sheffield has closed down, awaiting a new manager to be driven nearly to madness and financial ruin by pushing the boulder of pub management up the hill of unavoidable failure.
I heard about this from my friend Reason who said he had witnessed Ed's resignation speech, in which he *may have claimed that Star and Heineken still made profit from the failing pub through tax rebates and write offs and other details I have since forgotten, whilst managers struggled under the yoke of pubco imperialism.
Am so sorry for Ed, and his staff, who took on the unworkable task of running this pub out of love and devotion to regulars only to see the exercise for the unwieldy deception that it is. I genuinely thought that through his and his staff's hard wok the Tuns may return to its glory days under Reet Ale Pubs but alas that is very unlikely to happen ever again. Pubco's don't want to run pubs, except for the absolute star performers. The others are just flat or house conversions waiting to happen.
I had an interesting chat, possibly with Reason, but maybe with another human with a name, about how one could succeed running a pub or bar or venue for a pubco. The replying orator confirmed that they had chatted to a long term pub manager who advised that the best way to succeed was to not. As demonstrated by the Dog and Partridge under the stewardship of the Flynns, for whom I understand running a successful pubco pub was rewarded only with an increase in rent or other liabilities. The trick, my friend was told, is to run the pub at about even or at a minor loss, keeping you under the pubco radar so that no increases in payments are generated. In effect, assuming that is true, its actually impossible to make a good living running a pubco house. Does that not strike anyone as madness?
Of course its much less like madness if one remembers the Star Inns how to theme a pub guide which I found online when researching the Church House in 2012. Unattributable stereotypical nonsense dreamed up in a tower in la-la land by robots who have never visited earth, or met real people. Am fairly sure the link is no longer active but searching Star Inns & Bars Three Tuns Sheffield brings up a link to their page about the pub and their "Is it for me" PDf guide to running a pub with them. Well worth a look, if you can forgive there being no mention of the costs of buying all drinks through them (Ed once told me he could buy Blue Bee beers through the pubco, but only at twice the price he could from the brewery, which he was not allowed to do).
I sincerely hope somebody does take on the Three Tuns and reopens it once again as a quality boozer, so that I have somewhere to go before the Shakespeares and Bar Stewards, Dougie has somewhere permanent to do his quiz, I have somewhere I can meet A-ray, Paul-Ray, Mr Bancroft and the Professor, and so that drinkers once more have a traditional centre of town boozer to relax in and socialise.
In reality however, given its four or five closures since I started drinking there, am expecting to be writing something similar in 6 to 12 months time.
Como siempre.
Beeficus the black
*am not certain of the details of the speech. My memories tell me this was said, so you can imagine how much verisimilitude that holds.....
Showing posts with label The Three Tuns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Three Tuns. Show all posts
Sunday, 9 September 2018
Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Three Tuns, Silver Street Head, reopens
Hello all,
I was thinking the other day how much I miss the Tuns. It had a few average beers on but always at least one, sometimes two, excellent hoppy Blue Bee beers available at my starting strength, plus some great guest ales. The wine and gin was also very good. It occurred to me that it was ideally placed between work and transport home for a pint on the way there or a meeting place for a night out. The food and ale were excellent, the staff were brilliant and the atmosphere for the most part was fantastic.
On Monday Dr J announced he was popping down to see it under its "new custodianship". I was surprised, but also very pleased. I wondered if this had been just a soft launch but decided even if it was and it wasn't open, yesterday would be a great opportunity to pop down and check the place out for myself. After all, there is a certain excellent boozer five minutes walk away....
Arriving about 20.00 the pub lights were on and the doors and some windows open. Inside were Josh and Dave, although they were just moving on, along with about eight other people. It was actually refreshingly cool inside and the pub seemed very spick and span - no doubt a positive hangover from its previous stewardship.
I went to the bar to find three handpumps in use, selling Moonshine, Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Moorhouses Blonde. Being a more regular supper of Abbeydale I went for a pint of Moonshine, which was maybe a little pricey at £3.40 a pint ( ? ) and returned to sit at the back, having said goodbye to Josh and Dave. It was well kept and on decent form. No suggestion of mucky lines or rushing the beer on which I had admittedly been worried about. Its not a range that is going to see me in there every day but its decent real ale.
Bar snacks were 50p - its quite a limited range, probably just to clear the shelves, and its still in date - even so the guy offered me two packs of pretzels for 50p which is a bloody bargain. The gent running the pub appears to be a temporary manager. Obviously I wasn't brazen or sociologically developed enough to ask his name, which he will have one of, but he has short hair. I understand having heard a conversation in Shakespeares later that he has previously run the pub this century. So its definitely him.
A few people left just before I did and there was only one table occupied when I departed but its early days and its not been particularly well advertised. I will be popping back in, for the reasons at the beginning of the post about why it was such a cracking boozer. I don't really like Spoons so if this remains open it will make a nice change.
The interesting thing is that the pub reopening reminds me just how bloody good it was under Reet Ale Pub's management. The availability of Blue Bee was a boon but the pub employed some excellent staff such as Nate, Phil, Siobhan, Dave, Mc Miker G, Mark, Ethan and others. I will miss their service a hell of a lot and also the atmosphere that they brought with it. I would never have heard so much King gizzard and the lizard wizard without Nate's influence on the music, or persuaded anyone but Ethan to play me Cathedral's Forest of Equilibrium on a frankly wonderful Monday night. I wouldn't have written the song "Mark's got a name, Siobhan's got a nickname" without them being there and wouldn't have had to explain to so many of my younger friends who Mc Miker G was if he hadn't been there too.
In the long term I hope it can return to its comfortable, friendly, excellently aled inclusivity, attracting groups from all backgrounds and walks of life and persuasions to sit on its comfortable chairs and drink their beers and other potions. That is not a criticism of the current ownership. Its more a respectful lament for the way things were.
Welcome back old friend. You have changed. We are still however, friends.
Cheers.
Wee Beefy
I was thinking the other day how much I miss the Tuns. It had a few average beers on but always at least one, sometimes two, excellent hoppy Blue Bee beers available at my starting strength, plus some great guest ales. The wine and gin was also very good. It occurred to me that it was ideally placed between work and transport home for a pint on the way there or a meeting place for a night out. The food and ale were excellent, the staff were brilliant and the atmosphere for the most part was fantastic.
On Monday Dr J announced he was popping down to see it under its "new custodianship". I was surprised, but also very pleased. I wondered if this had been just a soft launch but decided even if it was and it wasn't open, yesterday would be a great opportunity to pop down and check the place out for myself. After all, there is a certain excellent boozer five minutes walk away....
Arriving about 20.00 the pub lights were on and the doors and some windows open. Inside were Josh and Dave, although they were just moving on, along with about eight other people. It was actually refreshingly cool inside and the pub seemed very spick and span - no doubt a positive hangover from its previous stewardship.
I went to the bar to find three handpumps in use, selling Moonshine, Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Moorhouses Blonde. Being a more regular supper of Abbeydale I went for a pint of Moonshine, which was maybe a little pricey at £3.40 a pint ( ? ) and returned to sit at the back, having said goodbye to Josh and Dave. It was well kept and on decent form. No suggestion of mucky lines or rushing the beer on which I had admittedly been worried about. Its not a range that is going to see me in there every day but its decent real ale.
Bar snacks were 50p - its quite a limited range, probably just to clear the shelves, and its still in date - even so the guy offered me two packs of pretzels for 50p which is a bloody bargain. The gent running the pub appears to be a temporary manager. Obviously I wasn't brazen or sociologically developed enough to ask his name, which he will have one of, but he has short hair. I understand having heard a conversation in Shakespeares later that he has previously run the pub this century. So its definitely him.
A few people left just before I did and there was only one table occupied when I departed but its early days and its not been particularly well advertised. I will be popping back in, for the reasons at the beginning of the post about why it was such a cracking boozer. I don't really like Spoons so if this remains open it will make a nice change.
The interesting thing is that the pub reopening reminds me just how bloody good it was under Reet Ale Pub's management. The availability of Blue Bee was a boon but the pub employed some excellent staff such as Nate, Phil, Siobhan, Dave, Mc Miker G, Mark, Ethan and others. I will miss their service a hell of a lot and also the atmosphere that they brought with it. I would never have heard so much King gizzard and the lizard wizard without Nate's influence on the music, or persuaded anyone but Ethan to play me Cathedral's Forest of Equilibrium on a frankly wonderful Monday night. I wouldn't have written the song "Mark's got a name, Siobhan's got a nickname" without them being there and wouldn't have had to explain to so many of my younger friends who Mc Miker G was if he hadn't been there too.
In the long term I hope it can return to its comfortable, friendly, excellently aled inclusivity, attracting groups from all backgrounds and walks of life and persuasions to sit on its comfortable chairs and drink their beers and other potions. That is not a criticism of the current ownership. Its more a respectful lament for the way things were.
Welcome back old friend. You have changed. We are still however, friends.
Cheers.
Wee Beefy
Monday, 14 March 2016
Drowning In Paradise Again - Cloudwater DIPA V2
Hello,
I named two Cloudwater beers in my surprisingly early best beers of 2016, back in January. I only heard about the brewery in August or September last year when the Two Beer Geeks and Rich were discussing the hype that surrounded Cloudwater. Hype I knew none - but I understand there was plenty. That week I tried a Cloudwater pale ale at the Shakespeares. It was about 4.2% and quite nice tasting. I wasn't sure if the hype was justified - but I soon became aware of their incredible quality strong beers.
The Bath Hotel had a number of their special IPAs, almost all at 7.4%, on keg and cask from October to December. On the 21st December I had a stonking gret pile of em. Hugely hoppy, well balanced and seasonal IPAs to tempt the taste buds. The same appeared at Shakespeares as well. I heard suggestions that the lower gravity beers were watery, but until recently I only tried one, and it was fine. More recently, the Juniper Table Beer at the Beer Engine at 4.3% was a masterclass in blending hops and other flavours. It was a perfect start to a wonderful night.
A few weeks ago I attended "an gig" at the Queens Social Club. Assuming, correctly, that there would be little I wanted to sup, I prepared for the visit in the Three Tuns, where I had four and a half pints of wonderful 5.7% Dark Star Revelation. In an hour. This highly enjoyable and equally impractical start to the evening more than made up for the bottle of Newky Brown and half a bottle of sweetish white wine I supped at the gig. Afterwards, Lee and Katie drove is to Shakespeares.
There, with pride of place (amongst four others) was the Cloudwater DIPA2 on keg. It was £5.10 a pint, I think, and tasted bloody lovely. It was late, granted, but I still had at least two pints, at 9.6%, as did Tash, of this marvelous hoppy ale.
Earlier that week I had posted a question on Twitter asking if anyone was selling bottles of the DIPA2. Am not suggesting that Josh read that, am just letting you know that the first thing he said to me upon my arrival days later, was that there were bottles of the DIPA2 available. I bought one for me and one for Tash and Matty bought many. It was striking how different the colour was - a dark orange as opposed to the pale yellow of DIPA 1 and a different taste, more rounded and maltier, yet retaining that gorgeous hit of hops, blended to perfection.
Alas the stock of bottles quickly ran out and so in fact, I didn't buy any more DIPA tp take home, but the day after the gig I bumped into my friend Mr Grant. I asked him if he wanted a pint, and he did, so I suggested we went to Shakespeares. Not only was it a delight to catch up, but I had about four more pints of the DIPA.
I realise that this post may, rather than avouch the values and qualities of Cloudwater DIPA, suggest that I am a sot. Obviously, that is not the case (clears throat), but it does demonstrate, I hope, that I love tasting Cloudwater beers of all strengths, and that the DIPA versions one and two, are far away the best beers I have tried thus far this year.
Hic!
Cheers,
Wee Beefy
I named two Cloudwater beers in my surprisingly early best beers of 2016, back in January. I only heard about the brewery in August or September last year when the Two Beer Geeks and Rich were discussing the hype that surrounded Cloudwater. Hype I knew none - but I understand there was plenty. That week I tried a Cloudwater pale ale at the Shakespeares. It was about 4.2% and quite nice tasting. I wasn't sure if the hype was justified - but I soon became aware of their incredible quality strong beers.
The Bath Hotel had a number of their special IPAs, almost all at 7.4%, on keg and cask from October to December. On the 21st December I had a stonking gret pile of em. Hugely hoppy, well balanced and seasonal IPAs to tempt the taste buds. The same appeared at Shakespeares as well. I heard suggestions that the lower gravity beers were watery, but until recently I only tried one, and it was fine. More recently, the Juniper Table Beer at the Beer Engine at 4.3% was a masterclass in blending hops and other flavours. It was a perfect start to a wonderful night.
A few weeks ago I attended "an gig" at the Queens Social Club. Assuming, correctly, that there would be little I wanted to sup, I prepared for the visit in the Three Tuns, where I had four and a half pints of wonderful 5.7% Dark Star Revelation. In an hour. This highly enjoyable and equally impractical start to the evening more than made up for the bottle of Newky Brown and half a bottle of sweetish white wine I supped at the gig. Afterwards, Lee and Katie drove is to Shakespeares.
There, with pride of place (amongst four others) was the Cloudwater DIPA2 on keg. It was £5.10 a pint, I think, and tasted bloody lovely. It was late, granted, but I still had at least two pints, at 9.6%, as did Tash, of this marvelous hoppy ale.
Earlier that week I had posted a question on Twitter asking if anyone was selling bottles of the DIPA2. Am not suggesting that Josh read that, am just letting you know that the first thing he said to me upon my arrival days later, was that there were bottles of the DIPA2 available. I bought one for me and one for Tash and Matty bought many. It was striking how different the colour was - a dark orange as opposed to the pale yellow of DIPA 1 and a different taste, more rounded and maltier, yet retaining that gorgeous hit of hops, blended to perfection.
Alas the stock of bottles quickly ran out and so in fact, I didn't buy any more DIPA tp take home, but the day after the gig I bumped into my friend Mr Grant. I asked him if he wanted a pint, and he did, so I suggested we went to Shakespeares. Not only was it a delight to catch up, but I had about four more pints of the DIPA.
I realise that this post may, rather than avouch the values and qualities of Cloudwater DIPA, suggest that I am a sot. Obviously, that is not the case (clears throat), but it does demonstrate, I hope, that I love tasting Cloudwater beers of all strengths, and that the DIPA versions one and two, are far away the best beers I have tried thus far this year.
Hic!
Cheers,
Wee Beefy
Friday, 15 January 2016
The Three Tuns is pub of the month!
Hello,
as per usual with my blog am behind the times - after all, its Friday and the award was made on Tuesday night. That's not actually that bad by recent standards. So here's what happened on Tuesday at the Three Tuns public house Silver Street Head in Sheffield.
The Three Tuns public house Silver Street Head in Sheffield is a lovely long, thin, almost ships bow shaped pub not unlike the Talbot Tap or similar in Ripley. You've all been there. It has a bar opposite the top and bottom entrance, the lower being where all the lovely real ales are kept, the upper where the less meritable lagers ciders and one keg ale live.
The pub is fitted out to a high standard with lots of old woodwork and a wonderful area which I call the bow, probably erroneously, at the right end of the pub. The seating is mostly fixed in the right end and with stools and more fixed seating at the left where the entrance to the loos are. The sating is form the lovely wooden and brass bar. Its really rather attractive I have to say. A lovely place, assuming the quiz isn't on, to go for a quiet pint.
They also do food - much less now Phil has left, but the pork pies an chip butties with bacon and blue cheese are excellent, and I believe they still do a stew or curry - a note though, food is only served til 19.00. On Tuesday I asked Ethan if there would be any food - it was 19.15 so he said he would have thought not. Gawd blezzim. He was "pulling my leg". It was a POTM award night. Food was on its way!
On the bar I and Tash had pints of the interesting Ashover Fabrick Pale Ale, and Matty the Blue Bee Tempest Stout. After this opener, all of us moved onto the 6% Blue Bee Into the Void, a delicious Black IPA. Several, if not numerous, pints were supped, as the pub started to fill up, and we were soon joined by Mr P and Sean. Soon after the food arrived,and thronged by CAMRA folks and regulars alike, everyone massed to celebrate the recent achievements of one of my most frequently visited pubs.
I got some photos of the staff behind the bar, showing off their award proudly. At this point a bloke in the crowd at the front said to Kate, or Dave as you will know her if you read this blog and don't visit the Tuns "Get yer tits out love". I wasn't aware of this, I just saw Kate look at someone and say "why the hell would you say that to me?". Apparently the sexist prick thought it was hilarious and looked around us for support, as if it were 1951 in a town called Retard. It was not. He was still a prick. When confronted about it, he said that the pub was shit - despite having been there four or five hours and spending £40.00. Like I said. A prick.
Still, this din;t put a downer on the evening and after Tash and Mr P went, I finished off some of the excellent Blue Bee Geek (I did not see which one because it wasn't officially on yet, if you get me) and left about 23.30, five hours after arriving, whilst Siobhan and Methane took down the bunting and balloons.
Well done once again to Andrew Inns and their hard working staff, Nathan, Ethan, Mark (possibly?) Kate, Jamie and a lady with a French name which I have forgotten since last night (sorry lady with a French name that I have forgotten since last night). Its great to see for their customer service, hard work, choice of beer and tolerance, rarely I am happy to report, of simpletons from the past rewarded. Long may this excellent recipe for success continue.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
as per usual with my blog am behind the times - after all, its Friday and the award was made on Tuesday night. That's not actually that bad by recent standards. So here's what happened on Tuesday at the Three Tuns public house Silver Street Head in Sheffield.
The Three Tuns public house Silver Street Head in Sheffield is a lovely long, thin, almost ships bow shaped pub not unlike the Talbot Tap or similar in Ripley. You've all been there. It has a bar opposite the top and bottom entrance, the lower being where all the lovely real ales are kept, the upper where the less meritable lagers ciders and one keg ale live.
The pub is fitted out to a high standard with lots of old woodwork and a wonderful area which I call the bow, probably erroneously, at the right end of the pub. The seating is mostly fixed in the right end and with stools and more fixed seating at the left where the entrance to the loos are. The sating is form the lovely wooden and brass bar. Its really rather attractive I have to say. A lovely place, assuming the quiz isn't on, to go for a quiet pint.
They also do food - much less now Phil has left, but the pork pies an chip butties with bacon and blue cheese are excellent, and I believe they still do a stew or curry - a note though, food is only served til 19.00. On Tuesday I asked Ethan if there would be any food - it was 19.15 so he said he would have thought not. Gawd blezzim. He was "pulling my leg". It was a POTM award night. Food was on its way!
On the bar I and Tash had pints of the interesting Ashover Fabrick Pale Ale, and Matty the Blue Bee Tempest Stout. After this opener, all of us moved onto the 6% Blue Bee Into the Void, a delicious Black IPA. Several, if not numerous, pints were supped, as the pub started to fill up, and we were soon joined by Mr P and Sean. Soon after the food arrived,and thronged by CAMRA folks and regulars alike, everyone massed to celebrate the recent achievements of one of my most frequently visited pubs.
I got some photos of the staff behind the bar, showing off their award proudly. At this point a bloke in the crowd at the front said to Kate, or Dave as you will know her if you read this blog and don't visit the Tuns "Get yer tits out love". I wasn't aware of this, I just saw Kate look at someone and say "why the hell would you say that to me?". Apparently the sexist prick thought it was hilarious and looked around us for support, as if it were 1951 in a town called Retard. It was not. He was still a prick. When confronted about it, he said that the pub was shit - despite having been there four or five hours and spending £40.00. Like I said. A prick.
Still, this din;t put a downer on the evening and after Tash and Mr P went, I finished off some of the excellent Blue Bee Geek (I did not see which one because it wasn't officially on yet, if you get me) and left about 23.30, five hours after arriving, whilst Siobhan and Methane took down the bunting and balloons.
Well done once again to Andrew Inns and their hard working staff, Nathan, Ethan, Mark (possibly?) Kate, Jamie and a lady with a French name which I have forgotten since last night (sorry lady with a French name that I have forgotten since last night). Its great to see for their customer service, hard work, choice of beer and tolerance, rarely I am happy to report, of simpletons from the past rewarded. Long may this excellent recipe for success continue.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
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