DiS Beer Wankers 2.0

Hello beer wank stains! Haven’t been in here for some time but felt I needed to share this… might be the most perfectly balanced milk stout I’ve ever had. Anyone else had the pleasure?

just popped to the Hope in Carshalton on my post-Super Bowl day off for a few to sit and read. had a good Weird Beard IPA and a really good Arbor DIPA. also said hello to pubcat.

gonna stop in Tulse Hill on my way home for a pint - the Sympathetic Ear is closed on Mondays, any recommendations there?

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scrap Tulse Hill - popping to Ghost Whale instead :ghost::whale2:

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Love this place, I’m just down the road.

So there’s a new micropub in my hometown that’s opening relatively soon. I vaguely know the guy opening it and a couple of months ago he contacted me asking if I’d be interested in running the pub. I’m pretty interested (not going to lie here) but is it going to be worth my while leaving a relatively poorly paid retail management position to run a guys pub or not.

I’m sort of veering towards no here tbh, but still interested to see how it might pan out.

Hows the pay compare? I know its a risk with you expecting a kid, but it would be something you’d enjoy.

In the past, I’ve jokingly said 27k, and he said we’d talk. That’s a 3k payrise for me, but it’ll be 90 miles a day for the time being.

It’d be nice, and the work can’t be any worse than the shite I deal with everyday anyway. It’s nice to dream though

I know the feeling, I’ve had a pipe dream with a friend at work about opening a micro-pub in Caterham as its crying out for one. But in reality it’s only a pipe dream.

But yours looks far more realistic. I’d say go for it, but I guess its easy for me to say that.

DO IT and make your first action as landlord to have a DiS beer wanker meet where we all get discounts

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I mean, what’s keeping you in the current job? I guess it’s stable, but are you expecting good progression? Do you get any benefits?

The other thing to consider with a pub job is the shifts - would you be working late nights, weekends etc? I guess you might already work shitty shifts already.

If I were you I’d seriously talk to him about it.

Apathy really, coupled with the fact I’ve got no qualifications over GCSE level so will be relying on work experience if I ever did leave here. It’s certainly not the money keeping me here (24k to deal with what I have to isn’t the best.

To an extent, yes I am, but not for another year or so. In that time I’m going to have become a dad and life would have changed significantly more than I can predict. But I’m being told I’m doing the right things to get to that next level. I can’t rest on the fact it’s going to automatically happen though.

Not overly, apart from the normal bits and bobs

Pub’s open until 9pm apparently, so a 10pm finished has been proposed if I do take the job. Currently work every other Saturday and 1 in 4 Sundays and have done every other weekend since I started this 13.5yrs ago.

My main worries are pay, I’d be the assistant manager, not the pub manager like he originally proposed and he’s being a bit coy about that and I wouldn’t want to take a pay cut to do it, distance to travel (90 miles a day for a pub job definitely isn’t worth it, but the TV hasn’t ruled out returning to Chichester in the near future) and job security, which I obviously have a bit of here at Spenos, but working in a pub in an already tough market is a worry.

So I’m veering towards no at this point and he is clear about that.

Sorry this has nothing to do with beer and is a bit TL;DR

It’s a conundrum. I guess these things always are. Kids definitely complicate things. I feel like in your case a £3K payrise, if that’s what it is, would be really awesome and maybe worth the shot. I guess the future of a new pub is uncertain and that’s a risk - but there must be equivalent retail jobs you could go back into. Surely you’d be a prime candidate for those supermarket manager programmes where they give you an Audi and train you up in four years or whatever?

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Fuck knows tbf mate. Reckoning I’m done with retail tbf. Feel a bit conflicted but if he’s withholding the salary, I’m reckoning that’s the clincher for me.

Is there scope to back if bar doesn’t work out?

I’d say there would be, but I’d have no choice in the role. I’d have to take a job, where ever it is, and it’s not certain to be in a foodhall which is where my Spenos knowledge is.

And how important is that to you?

I’ve done my time of commuting 40 miles each way and currently do 20 miles, which still feel is too far. And with no control over that, it makes the decision harder. Probably feel like I’ve had my head turned, and he’s somebody I vaguely know and is a good egg.

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If it helps (it probably doesn’t) these distances seem pretty small fry comparing to yer man blind pilot more or less offering me an assured role and security back in London/UK to leave Berlin which I was seriously considering for a moment there😉

Loved the look of that but I hate liquorice so I backed off.