Louth – The Joseph Morton

Whilst in Louth, we popped in the JD Wetherspoon outlet in the town, the Joseph Morton which is named after a local ironmonger. The pub opened in 2011 and it’s a sizeable affair, with a large ground floor area that has been created from former residential and commercial properties.

The rear part of the pub, with nearly all customers for some reason being in the front section. The pub, which was relatively quiet, had a bizarre set-up where customers had to wait at the entrance for a member of bar staff to shout from behind the bar to say that they could go in. The customers therefore just stood there for no reason before being told they could take a seat, all the time getting in the way of customers trying to get sauces which are located in the same area. Anyway, that’s a matter for the pub to deal with, although they should perhaps check with a little more care whether customers are filling in track and trace.

This is the upstairs of the pub and I’m assuming that there are usually a few tables here, as otherwise they have a grand entrance area to their toilets.

Richard went for a decadent hot chocolate drink, which he had to make for himself from the coffee machine. He looked initially scared, but after plenty of time stirring the chocolate lump in, he was more than content with the quality of the drink. I went for half a pint of the Honey Porter from Milestone Brewery, a decent beer that was keenly priced at just £1.

I had a little look on TripAdvisor, where the pub isn’t doing what could be termed as brilliantly, as I find reviews intriguing and I accept that I should probably get out more. Anyway, I wish I knew more about the back story behind this 1/5 review…

“Odd to ban my 17-year old daughter for a genuine complaint articulated politely and courteously.”

I’d very much like to know what the complaint was…. JD Wetherspoon don’t let pubs reply now on TripAdvisor, which makes it harder to understand what has happened. One review, which seemed believable at first sight, was met with:

“I understand that you were offered free drinks, a refund and apologised to profusely. The statement above has been taken out of context to my knowledge. The staff member on shift after offering multiple things didn’t know how to resolve this to make you happy so said that statement “what would you like me to do”.

Which probably gives customers the context that they need to understand what went on here…. Although I think I’m with the customer on this one:

“We went for lunch and ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad, which came as: lettuce, croutons and chicken pieces. Full stop. “Sorry we’ve run out of Caesar Dressing.” So why accept the order?”

I liked this one though:

“My very mature 16 year old daughter and her equally mature 16 year old friend went to Joseph Morton tonight for a celebration. The waitress refused to serve them because they hadn’t taken their passports and therefore couldn’t prove they were both 16.”

I’m frequently bemused as to how many people think it’s reasonable for what might be two younger teenagers in, for all the pub know, and then get angry that the pub wants ID to ensure they are 16.

I’m not sure that the new manager should have posted this though in a response to another complaint as the previous manager would unlikely be impressed with it:

“We have recently had a change in both front and back of house management and we are currently trying to build the reputation of the pub back to where it was.”

Anyway, I digress. All in all, this is a pleasant pub, although it could have been a little cleaner and the track and trace needed better supervision. They are also operating with the new JD Wetherspoon menu and I’ve yet to work out how the chain decide which pubs get selected for this. But, it has to be said, the half-pint of Honey Porter for £1 really is excellent value, and it’s positive to see that these real ales can be ordered via the app now.