tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody) (10/17/85)
[]
In 1975, I worked as a bartender (illegally) in a London (West
Kensington) pub. For the edification of Americans, I should point
out that many of the pubs are, in effect, brewery-owned franchises.
I won't mention the brewery that owned this particular pub, except
to note that it exports a reasonably popular ale to the USA.
Here are the two things that I learned during my tenure behind the
bar that struck me as bizarre:
(1) Every morning, we would fill every bottle of blended Scotch
whiskey with VAT 69. All of them, Teacher's, Haig, Cutty, J&B,
Bell's, Dewars's, you name it. The only ones we didn't "plug"
were the 12-yr. Scotches and the single-malt Scotches. I worked
in this place about 65 hours a week for six months. I talked with
bartenders from other pubs, owned by the same and other breweries,
and learned that this was standard practice. No one ever complained
that they were getting the wrong whiskey! And I would estimate that
80% of the customers ordered by brand. Now, I have nothing against
VAT 69, nor do I believe that most people know what they are drinking.
But NONE of them?
(2) When people would leave part of a pint of beer, ale, or stout in
the glass, it would be poured into a bucket. What none of the
customers seemed to realize was that the contents of this bucket
got poured back into the keg at the end of the night! Mind you,
we are talking about a non-pressurized, *open* keg in the basement;
the beer was drawn off by a hand pump. Once again, I was able to
verify that other pubs did the same thing. At least, those that
had hand-drawn suds did it; pressurized draft systems were taking
over, at most places.
This was not what you'd call a lower-class pub, by any means. What
I find bizarre is not that these things were practiced, but that
apparently none of the customers knew about it.
Todd Moody | {allegra|astrovax|bpa|burdvax}!sjuvax!tmoody
Philosophy Department |
St. Joseph's U. | "I couldn't fail to
Philadelphia, PA 19131 | disagree with you less."