Just up the road from us there's a former community pub that has now reinvented itself as an upmarket bar restaurant. It has retained the original name - "The Prince of Wales" but is very different from how it used to be.
Since the conversion - around five years ago - I have avoided visiting this hostelry. It was as if the developers had stolen away one of our local pubs without even asking if that would be okay.
However, on Friday I had to step over the pub's threshold once again. The visit was obligatory because Shirley and I had been invited to a special birthday celebration in "The Prince of Wales". The birthday girl was the mother of the young man who recently killed himself so inevitably the evening had the character of a wake. We were saying goodbye to him.
We arrived at 6pm and left at 11.30pm. The next day I felt awful. It was the first hangover I have had in many years and I did not like it. It reminded me of my student days when I frequently drank like a fish and woke up feeling like a dog.
Costwise, this evening of over-indulgence would have been bad enough if it happened in an ordinary pub but in "The Prince of Wales" it was almost ridiculous.
Early in the evening, Shirley sent me to the bar to buy a bottle of wine. As I was waiting to be served I spotted a bottle of New Zealand savignon blanc in the glass fronted cold cupboard behind the bar.
I said to the young barman that I would have it and he he keyed it in on the till before looking up at me and saying, "That will be £42!" £42? £42! £42 is currently $54US or $80AUS. Though shocked to the core, I regathered my composure and ended the transaction asking what other bottles of sauvignon blanc were available. I ended up paying half the price for a similar bottle which was still exorbitant but not capable of causing very sudden heart failure.
I looked around the rest of the clientelle. They were so different from ordinary pubgoers. They smelled of affluence. Their clothes had the look of money and style just like the women's hair-dos and the men's wristwatches. Out in the car park there were Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar cars. Clint would not have fitted in so it was fortunate that we had walked up to "The Prince".
If I never go in that establishment again I will be very happy. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, we were there on Friday night to support a couple we have known for over thirty years in a time of enormous grief and desolation. I guess that in the great scheme of things it did not really matter that the wine cost £42 a bottle for that was merely another feature of the pain that coloured the night.
It's been a long while since I've had a hangover, too...and I'm in no hurry to have one. Better ways to spend a day...better ways to wake up in the morning.
ReplyDeleteExpensive though it was...that would have been a great Sauvignon Blanc. It was probably one from NZ's Marlborough Sounds...a northern area of the South Island. Terrific wines come from Marlborough Sounds.
It would have been an emotional evening...and one I know you and Shirley would not have missed...in respect to the family.
We are very familiar with normal NZ sauvignon blanc prices but "The Prince of Wales" takes the bloody Michael with its marking up of prices.
DeleteAs much as I love Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, I too would have demurred from paying that much for a bottle.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Lidl and Aldi wine prices.
DeleteMaybe it's because I'm old but I do not like the new pubs either. I particularly dislike the way they serve a roast dinner, all piled up in the middle to look like you have a lot when in fact there isn't much there.
ReplyDeleteBriony
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I like old-fashioned Sunday dinners. In fact I much prefer the dinners I prepare myself. If you and Tom are ever UpNorth you are welcome to invite yourselves round for s Sunday roast dinner even though we will not be able to understand your southern accents.
DeletePeople do say that our accent is very much like a cockney. Not very flattering, lol
DeleteI am sorry. Could you repeat that - perhaps a little more slowly. Are you Eastern European?
DeleteTo justify such a price tag, the wine would have to be utterly fantastic - I can not even begin to imagine buying something like that! But we all know that more often than not, the price has not much to do with the real value of a product, be it clothes or food, a car or a watch, a hairdo or a night at a hotel.
ReplyDeleteLast year, a couple of friends gave me a voucher for a posh dinner with wine at a super posh restaurant (where normally O.K. and I would not set foot in). The voucher was for one person only (as if I'd go there on my own), so O.K.'s bill was my birthday gift to him. If we had been without the voucher, we would have had to pay over 400 Euros. Can you imagine that?!
The food was delicious (a set menue) and the accompanying wines certainly good, the staff knew their stuff and the ambience was spotless and luxurious, but 400 Euros?! Certainly never again!
Gulp! 400 euros! I cannot imagine what was on the menu... caviar, roasted peacock, extinct animals coated in gold leaf? Incredible.
DeleteYou clearly have expensive tastes, Mr. P, despite your disregard for the Prince and its clientele! It does seem to be a trend among pubs to "upscale," but from what I've seen, the ones that don't often close. I think the upscale ones can pull a bit more profit which helps them stay afloat. It's a sad phenomenon, but I suspect there's just not much money to be made on chips and Carling.
ReplyDeleteI have never drunk a pint of Carling in my life Mr Reed! Yorkshiremen are bitter and drink bitter... but your economic reading probably contains a large kernel of truth.
DeleteWouldn't it be awful if the clientelle had to pay more tax.
ReplyDeleteYes because then that bottle of wine would cost £50.
DeleteSometimes evenings like that must be gotten through and the consequences simply have to be dealt with. There are no true guidelines for what to do about the birthday of a woman who's son has just died of his own hand. I can't imagine anything sadder.
ReplyDeleteThe event helped the parents to experience a degree of distraction and semblance of normality.
DeleteSounds like the kind of place where I'd not even dare ask for a glass of tap water...
ReplyDeleteThat will be eleven pounds please Lady Dawn Treader or thirteen with an ice cube.
DeleteThe reason the new pubs are full of a new breed of client, is that the old breed that you and I were once stopped going. It's simple really. Supply and demand. If we all wanted to go to the old pubs and spend some money they would still be there.
ReplyDeleteThere are some other factors like the excessive greed of breweries pumping up prices.
DeleteThe prices of such establishments are certainly outrageous but your reason for going was the best. Parents in such a situation deserve all the support they can get and I'm sure they very much appreciate you and Shirley.
ReplyDeleteMostly Shirley I think. She has been very close to the mother.
DeleteI think if my child had just taken his or her life, I would not be in a frame of mind to go anywhere for a good long time. Kudos to that couple for carrying on with life and kudos to you and your wife and all their other friends who are supporting them. Your final sentence is very moving.
ReplyDeleteLife must of course move on. This was eight days after the son's untimely death. I can't imagine how I would cope.
DeleteNot a BYO sort of place then.
ReplyDeleteNo. I like those places.
DeleteThat's an unbelievable price ! A good Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc costs less than $20NZD. I hate rip offs. Here in NZ it seems to be standard practice for restaurants and hotels to serve you 150 ml glasses of wine and charge as much as you would pay for a 750 ml bottle across the road at the supermarket or bottle store.
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