Under New Management! One thing we haven’t really talked a whole lot about here on the Publog is the tricky art of being a landlord. We can bang on about the decor and beers on tap all we like, but in the end it is the management who really give a pub its identity. Its unsurprising we have not mentioned it. The last twenty years have seen the big breweries and pub chains destroying the concept themselves. Removing live in landlords with managers, rotating from one Wetherspoon’s to another does have the effect of creating a homogenous pub style – something the chains are happy with. Unfortunately it leaves you with pubs which are perfectly competent but nothing special.
I mention this because the one thing lousy small pubs do when they change management is to happily exclaim Under New Management – as if all the woes of the previous regime will now be banished. But without actually explaining how this newness will change the pub it only really means one thing. If you were barred before you can go back to the pub.