At the weekend, slimline Richard and I thought that we’d pop to the Spread Eagle in Acocks Green near Birmingham. As usual, I’ll take the history of the pub name from the JD Wetherspoon web-site:
“Named after one of the oldest pubs in Warwickshire, which stood close by, until it was demolished in 1929, through road-widening, The Spread Eagle (the first pub) was pulled down in 1929. The green, far from being an age-old local landmark, was created in the early 1930s.”
The pub is located at the ‘413’ in the above map from the 1870s. It’s certainly all got a lot more developed in the area in the last 150 years.
One of the display boards in the pub mentioned Hancock’s Half Hour and this intrigued me. There’s no direct link between Tony Hancock (1924-1968) and the pub, but he did live in nearby Hall Green.
But, back to the food planning. Richard decided that he would treat himself to some toast which was the most that his diet would allow, and even that was pushing it. He ordered his toast and waited excitedly. I was pleased to discover that the pub was in the lowest JD Wetherspoon price band and so I went for a traditional breakfast and unlimited coffee.
My traditional breakfast was served promptly and just as a team member came over and said to Richard that they didn’t have any toast and they wondered if he would like anything else, as they assumed he wouldn’t want raw bread. The team member obviously didn’t really expect to have a customer come in that wasn’t really meant to be eating anything as decadent as toast, so there was little else that could be offered. Meanwhile, I had lost interest in his problems at this point as I had food to eat and although I would have rather had toast than raw bread myself, this food and unlimited coffee came in at under £5 so I didn’t feel the need to be overly disappointed. Full marks for the eggs still be runny and the bacon not being fatty. Richard was contemplating his entire day as his hopes to just have a little toast were shattered and I did wonder whether it might have been easier for them to buy a small-scale toaster until their commercial arrangement was fixed.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I felt the need to have a little look through the on-line reviews and see if anything there surprised or delighted me.
“We were having fun as a family for a Birthday and the old blonde dragon came over and told us to be quiet in a very rude way”
I bet “having fun” meant being loud and disturbing other customers as why otherwise would a team member even be engaged in worrying about matters?
“The manager a move her station threatened to bar customers spending money for singing and having the craic for no reason obviously feels insecure in her job and cannot control the clientel on her establishment.”
It sounds very much like she was in full control of the customers.
“To noisy stink of smoking as you enter”
There are a few of these and they’re right, the smokers are dominating the entry doors….
“Staff very rude and got barred for no reason”
I’m not convinced.
“I am getting sick of people deciding what we can and cannot do in pubs. Now this pub, on an empty Thursday evening, is telling me I cannot stand at the end of the bar and have a beer.”
Probably as the team members know that customers blocking the bar is sub-optimal.
“Dreadful typical weatherspoons pub to be avoided if possible if you have any taste in pubs you visit.”
I like it 🙂 Anyway, lack of toast aside, this seemed a well run venue although the coffee machine was struggling to cope with the number of customers seeking to use it. I liked it here, although I tend to like nearly anywhere, and although it was too early for beer there were a number of keenly priced real ales. All really rather lovely.
