I will be open from the open. I live in Byfleet Village and I have been proud to have a traditional pub here. I occasionally drink in the pub, grab a pint and then head out to the garden in the summer or off to a table in the winter.
I went in last night with a couple of friends and was planning to spend only about enough time for two rounds. There were two women sitting on the table near to us who were chatting and waiting for their taxi to arrive. These were two normal looking women who looked like they had come from work. Their taxi arrived early and so the landlord spoke to the driver to ask him to come back in 20mins. I went to the bar to buy the second round and at this time the ladies left saying thanks to the landlord. As they disappeared out the door he commented to me "S!uts!". I was so shocked by what I thought was ironic humor that I laughed and commented that I was only thinking about the fact that on this rare occasion I had a £50 note in my wallet. He said bitterly "It will cost you more than that for one of them." - he was being serious! I ignored this strange outburst and returned to the table.
I started talking to my girlfriend about comparing one of the beers we were drinking to the same brand we had just made at home. The landlord pricked up his ears and we got into a bit of banter. One of the other locals joined in and we had a laugh at the expense of CAMRA members. It was all very jovial and then the landlord flipped shouting at me for being rude and taking things too far. The other local looked at me and expressed surprise at this sudden turn. The landlord continued this tirade of verbal abuse for about a minute while he stormed up and down the bar moving glasses. Our side of the pub went dead quiet. We quickly finished up our drinks and headed off. As we were leaving the pub he sneered "Enjoy your bitter!" referring to the beer that we had made.
As we got home, in a bit of a shock, I realised that I had seen this kind of interaction happen before at that pub. The last time I was in there with a different friend the landlord was hurling abuse at some customers who were leaving as we were coming in. At the time I assumed that the customers were out of order but perhaps this wasn't the case.
So these three isolated incidents have convinced me that the landlord at present in February 2014 is dire enough that I do not wish to ever return to this place to spend my money. It's a shame as I had a large group of friends scheduled to come over to here for the next three Sundays and I would have liked to have taken them here - I will find another pub to go to now.
My advice is to wait until the landlord gets replaced by anyone else. I like beer but I prefer for it not to be served with a shot of customer abuse. read more