How do you consider that the lack of provision (or otherwise) of beermats reflects upon the (perceived or actual) quality of the pub in question?
In anticipation of being deluged with complaints of being off ITM topic, I should point out that lack of beermats = wet table = potential damage to instruments/recorders/cameras/waistcoats&ties etc, not to mention the dreaded sheet music (you've smeared my dots!).
This discussion brings to mind the words of that old song....
... But there's nothing so lonesome, so dull or so drear -
As to stand in the bar, of a pub with no beer ...
... which would be a lot worse than standing in the bar of a pub just with no beermats.
But now that Rick has alerted us all to the potential damage to our clothing when attending such establishments, as a protest we should all stop wearing our " waistcoats and ties" to sessions ....
Not to a session, nor indeed to anywhere else, if I can possibly help it.
But according to Rick's intitial post, some do! Reckon that his session pub (the White Lion) must be something of an upmarket drinking establishment ...
We have a very strict dress code at the White Lion.
Gentlemen: black tie & tuxedo. Waistcoats are acceptable but generally frowned on. Cummerbunds are preferred.
Ladies: ballgown and tiara. Ankles may be displayed.
The lack of beer mats is not normally a problem, as the waiters or our personal staff stand in attendance with the champagne buckets. However, we do allow (from time to time) the banjo players to drink beer. Nasty fellows. On one occasion Rick dribbled on my Stradivarius. My butler was furious and wanted to correct him with my riding crop, but I didn't mind. I never take my best Strad to the session.
At the Blythe there's what you might call the "Table of Doom", which is on a bit of the floor that slopes, so when all the thumping's going on (feet not people - that happens somewhere else), pints bounce along this table and kamikaze off the edge. So yes, beermats are essential for dry keks and avoiding disappointment.
At our Monday night session they give you little folded napkins under the beer, which they deliver to the table with a little tray with your change on. I think it's all the antipodean barstaff getting London experience for their CV.
We take no offence.
Your discourse about "the dress code" at the White Lion reminded me of the chorus of an old Adge Cutler song:
Ark at 'e , Jacko,
It's a yarn I 'eard,
Down one morning at the ol' White Lion,
Ver nigh* word fer word;
Ark at 'e, Jacko,
True as it can be;
Old Dan'l Whiddon 'e told I,
And 'es a bigger liar than me!
* ""Ver nigh" = very nigh = very near (Bristol/Somerset dialect)
There's nothing so lonesome, so dull or so drear, than to sit at a lopsided, unbalanced table, in a pub with no beer mats to use as shims. [sniff sniff]
Ok, I confess that my use of "waistcoats & ties" was merely to serve as an illustration of the kind of attire which (if their own) most people would object to being soaked in beer slops.
Of course, banjo dribble, whistle spit and other unwanted leakage of bodily fluids are all well accepted hazards to the seasoned session player.
I should also clarify that our own session host@The White Lion provides a more than ample supply of beermats, and that our drinks are generally served up by nubile bar wenches (Joel's butler notwithstanding).
Only "theoretical" waistcoats and ties at your pub then Rick?
But what about all those cameras and recorders that you mentioned? It's OK to spill beer, Guiness etc over such things, presumably? They never work quite as well after such accidents, which I would deem to be quite a good thing!
I like Henk's thoughts on dotted beermats, also ...
Apart from providing us all with some light relief, this discussion has at least cleared up one international misundertanding:
American English = coaster
UK English = beermat
Q. Why coaster? Don't you Americans ever get them in inland pubs?
We still refer to the things which we place under our drinks as "coasters" no matter how far inland we live or go to sessions.
The last time I had to wear a tie was when I got married and I haven't had to wear one since then.
Rick Payman, if I wasn't a "respectable" married man I might want to know how much or how little those "nubile bar wenches" at your local session wear and/or don't wear.
Perhaps the dress code at an establishment such as the White Lion should follow the color in the name of the place.
I suppose we could always take the extra precaution of using an under-water camera and/or case; even that wouldn't have been of much use last week, as mine had obviously been dropped and/or sat upon. My campaign for stoutmats starts here!
As for those bar wenches, being a "respectable" married man myself, I couldn't possibly begin to comment...
In the good olde days, we used to have overszed glasses with a line on and they used to fill the beer up to the line with any froth being over the top.
Up North, the beer was pulled with a head and it only just fitted in the glass so beermats were needed.
The posy Southern toss-pots (allegedly) who drank flat beer complained about not getting a full glass, so lined glasses became illegal.
Beer mats are still readily available up North where we still get a head on top.
The allegedly silly Southern toss-pots fill the glass up to the top, but are too tight to order beermats so we get beer all over the table at the session!
Discuss.
I miss the old beermats that use to be around - You could
easy pull them apart and write in new tunes you hear, to look them up on thesession - sunday morn, with a sore head..
They just rip off in little bits now,,,,
So you have to ask around or at the bar,, Cant be A**ed
so I never bouther Now!
lol..
jim,,,,,
I prefer to drink my beer straight out of the bottle instead of a glass.
When I was in the military, one of the men whom I worked with was from New Jersey. He jokingly told me that if you drank your beer straight from the bottle, you were being macho but if you drank your beer from a glass, you were sophisticated.
There are arguments about which brand of beer is best, but most people can agree that beer from a barrel ( real ale, not keg stuff ) is definitely different from even the same brand of beer from a bottle. Hence it will come in a glass for sure, not a bottle. It's only in establishments where they don't have a cellar of beer barrels that you would need to drink from a bottle.
And others will argue that if you have to chill it to just above freezing then all you can taste is the cold, not the beer. But I understand that people will find that hard to believe in the US, or Australia.
in fact, there is a large faction of beer connoisseurs here. Even the brew-pub that hosts our session keeps a hand-drawn, cask-conditioned ESB on hand which is quite nice.
Fauxcelt, have you ever been to the Shiner brewery?
No, pipewatcher, I haven't been to the Shiner brewery yet but I have every intention of visiting it one of these years. Both myself and my wife have relatives in Texas whom we try to visit once a year. Shiner, Texas isn't that far from where our relatives live.
Pubs without beermats
Pubs without beermats
How do you consider that the lack of provision (or otherwise) of beermats reflects upon the (perceived or actual) quality of the pub in question?
In anticipation of being deluged with complaints of being off ITM topic, I should point out that lack of beermats = wet table = potential damage to instruments/recorders/cameras/waistcoats&ties etc, not to mention the dreaded sheet music (you've smeared my dots!).
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Rick Payman
Re: Pubs without beermats
I've always thought beer mats were the standard engineering solution to tables with one leg shorter than the others.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Pubs without beermats
Beermats = Coasters?
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by rob_handel
Re: Pubs without beermats
Yes.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Pubs without beermats
This discussion brings to mind the words of that old song....
... But there's nothing so lonesome, so dull or so drear -
As to stand in the bar, of a pub with no beer ...
... which would be a lot worse than standing in the bar of a pub just with no beermats.
But now that Rick has alerted us all to the potential damage to our clothing when attending such establishments, as a protest we should all stop wearing our " waistcoats and ties" to sessions ....
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
... but if all those recorders, cameras and music scores got a good dowsing of ale to render them unusable, that would be a definite benefit ...
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
Who wears a tie to a session ?
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Pubs without beermats
Not I, Gurnsey Pete.
Not to a session, nor indeed to anywhere else, if I can possibly help it.
But according to Rick's intitial post, some do! Reckon that his session pub (the White Lion) must be something of an upmarket drinking establishment ...
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
We have a very strict dress code at the White Lion.
Gentlemen: black tie & tuxedo. Waistcoats are acceptable but generally frowned on. Cummerbunds are preferred.
Ladies: ballgown and tiara. Ankles may be displayed.
The lack of beer mats is not normally a problem, as the waiters or our personal staff stand in attendance with the champagne buckets. However, we do allow (from time to time) the banjo players to drink beer. Nasty fellows. On one occasion Rick dribbled on my Stradivarius. My butler was furious and wanted to correct him with my riding crop, but I didn't mind. I never take my best Strad to the session.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by McDermott
Re: Pubs without beermats
I find drinking with a straw helps.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mando Deb
Re: Pubs without beermats
At the Blythe there's what you might call the "Table of Doom", which is on a bit of the floor that slopes, so when all the thumping's going on (feet not people - that happens somewhere else), pints bounce along this table and kamikaze off the edge. So yes, beermats are essential for dry keks and avoiding disappointment.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by cyber-bullying is a criminal offence
Re: Pubs without beermats
At our Monday night session they give you little folded napkins under the beer, which they deliver to the table with a little tray with your change on. I think it's all the antipodean barstaff getting London experience for their CV.
We take no offence.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Pubs without beermats
It goes without saying, after all, in a "proper" Irish pub, ie one in Ireland you (usually) get a new mat with a pint.
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by TomB-R
Re: Pubs without beermats
Joel -
Your discourse about "the dress code" at the White Lion reminded me of the chorus of an old Adge Cutler song:
Ark at 'e , Jacko,
It's a yarn I 'eard,
Down one morning at the ol' White Lion,
Ver nigh* word fer word;
Ark at 'e, Jacko,
True as it can be;
Old Dan'l Whiddon 'e told I,
And 'es a bigger liar than me!
* ""Ver nigh" = very nigh = very near (Bristol/Somerset dialect)
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
... forgot to mention: "Ark at 'e" = "Listen to him".
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
There's nothing so lonesome, so dull or so drear, than to sit at a lopsided, unbalanced table, in a pub with no beer mats to use as shims. [sniff sniff]
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Pubs without beermats
Of course: that's what the dots are for in a session: as a substitute for the beer mats in case there aren't any !
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Henk Bos
Re: Pubs without beermats
Ok, I confess that my use of "waistcoats & ties" was merely to serve as an illustration of the kind of attire which (if their own) most people would object to being soaked in beer slops.
Of course, banjo dribble, whistle spit and other unwanted leakage of bodily fluids are all well accepted hazards to the seasoned session player.
I should also clarify that our own session host@The White Lion provides a more than ample supply of beermats, and that our drinks are generally served up by nubile bar wenches (Joel's butler notwithstanding).
# Posted on October 13th 2008 by Rick Payman
Re: Pubs without beermats
Only "theoretical" waistcoats and ties at your pub then Rick?
But what about all those cameras and recorders that you mentioned? It's OK to spill beer, Guiness etc over such things, presumably? They never work quite as well after such accidents, which I would deem to be quite a good thing!
I like Henk's thoughts on dotted beermats, also ...
Apart from providing us all with some light relief, this discussion has at least cleared up one international misundertanding:
American English = coaster
UK English = beermat
Q. Why coaster? Don't you Americans ever get them in inland pubs?
Q. Why beermat? Don't us Brits ever drink Guinness, cider, lager etc.?
Let's have a new international word: tablelegshim ...
# Posted on October 14th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Pubs without beermats
We still refer to the things which we place under our drinks as "coasters" no matter how far inland we live or go to sessions.
The last time I had to wear a tie was when I got married and I haven't had to wear one since then.
Rick Payman, if I wasn't a "respectable" married man I might want to know how much or how little those "nubile bar wenches" at your local session wear and/or don't wear.
Perhaps the dress code at an establishment such as the White Lion should follow the color in the name of the place.
# Posted on October 14th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Pubs without beermats
I suppose we could always take the extra precaution of using an under-water camera and/or case; even that wouldn't have been of much use last week, as mine had obviously been dropped and/or sat upon. My campaign for stoutmats starts here!
As for those bar wenches, being a "respectable" married man myself, I couldn't possibly begin to comment...
# Posted on October 14th 2008 by Rick Payman
Re: Pubs without beermats
Okay, thank you Rick Payman.
My wife says I can look at other women but I can't touch.
# Posted on October 15th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Pubs without beermats
In the good olde days, we used to have overszed glasses with a line on and they used to fill the beer up to the line with any froth being over the top.
Up North, the beer was pulled with a head and it only just fitted in the glass so beermats were needed.
The posy Southern toss-pots (allegedly) who drank flat beer complained about not getting a full glass, so lined glasses became illegal.
Beer mats are still readily available up North where we still get a head on top.
The allegedly silly Southern toss-pots fill the glass up to the top, but are too tight to order beermats so we get beer all over the table at the session!
Discuss.
# Posted on October 15th 2008 by geoffwright
Re: Pubs without beermats
I miss the old beermats that use to be around - You could
easy pull them apart and write in new tunes you hear, to look them up on thesession - sunday morn, with a sore head..
They just rip off in little bits now,,,,
So you have to ask around or at the bar,, Cant be A**ed
so I never bouther Now!
lol..
jim,,,,,
# Posted on October 15th 2008 by FIDDLE4
Re: Pubs without beermats
I prefer to drink my beer straight out of the bottle instead of a glass.
When I was in the military, one of the men whom I worked with was from New Jersey. He jokingly told me that if you drank your beer straight from the bottle, you were being macho but if you drank your beer from a glass, you were sophisticated.
# Posted on October 16th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Pubs without beermats
There are arguments about which brand of beer is best, but most people can agree that beer from a barrel ( real ale, not keg stuff ) is definitely different from even the same brand of beer from a bottle. Hence it will come in a glass for sure, not a bottle. It's only in establishments where they don't have a cellar of beer barrels that you would need to drink from a bottle.
And others will argue that if you have to chill it to just above freezing then all you can taste is the cold, not the beer. But I understand that people will find that hard to believe in the US, or Australia.
# Posted on October 16th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Pubs without beermats
in fact, there is a large faction of beer connoisseurs here. Even the brew-pub that hosts our session keeps a hand-drawn, cask-conditioned ESB on hand which is quite nice.
Fauxcelt, have you ever been to the Shiner brewery?
# Posted on October 16th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: Pubs without beermats
No, pipewatcher, I haven't been to the Shiner brewery yet but I have every intention of visiting it one of these years. Both myself and my wife have relatives in Texas whom we try to visit once a year. Shiner, Texas isn't that far from where our relatives live.
# Posted on October 19th 2008 by fauxcelt