Pub Bitch: The Publican Awards 2010 special
A sale too far?
I see Enterprise Inns is putting 10 more of its London pubs up for sale (and leaseback) in another auction to be held later this month. The move is part of an ongoing strategy to tap into an improving property market and raise some cash to help chip away at its debt mountain. The thing is, after a flying start last year recent auctions haven't exactly gone to plan, with some of the pubs Enterprise has put forward failing to sell on the day. People getting wise, maybe? Undaunted, Enterprise has pressed on, although boss Ted Tuppen will doubtless hope the name of one of the sites up fer grabs on May 17 doesn't prove prescient in terms of its sell-off programme. The pub, in Mitcham, South London, is called A Bar 2 Far.
Always a winner
Chris Maclean, licensee of the Railway Tavern in Faversham, Kent, and columnist and blogger for The Publican, has attended many of our very own Publican Awards occasions over the years. He was much in evidence at last month's glittering ceremony, hosted by posh comic Michael McIntyre, but what we didn't realise is the cheeky monkey got in amongst the winners for the victorious group-shot that appeared on last week's front cover. And, er, it seems it's not the first time he's done it. "That's the third year running," he told me the other day. Still, at least he knows a good event when he sees — and comes along — to one…
Beardy beef
Speaking of Michael McIntyre, his warm-up act at the Publican Awards was one Beardyman, a human beatbox type. Anyway, on comes McIntyre afterwards and asks the audience who the hell is this Beardyman, then tries a spot of vocal riffing himself. The hirsute entertainer took umbrage, 'twittering' about the incident: "I now have personal beef with Michael McIntyre … Stick to stand-up fat boy. You suck." However, relations appeared to improve later. "Me and M. McIntyre hugged it out and are friends now," Beardyman tweeted the following day. "He's very cuddly. And my mum thinks he's great, which I told him. He was pleased." Relief all round then…
Relatives reunited
You meet all sorts at industry events and never know who you might be sitting next to. I suspect Marston's Stephen Oliver and Coca-Cola Enterprises boss Dave McNulty were more surprised than most at this year's Publican Awards, however, when they began chatting about life, the universe and everything. Things got really bizarre when they discovered they were related to each other, which consequently meant they were also both related to popstar Robbie Williams (we won't go there). How this all cropped up on the night is anyone's guess, but the connections were revealed after they were both spotted scribbling an interlinked family tree on a Grosvenor House serviette…
Road runners
Hats off to everyone who ran the London Marathon the other week. We know loads of you did and we tip our titfers to you all. Closer to home our very own Matt Eley, news editor extraordinaire and marathon virgin, put in a respectable time of four hours and 27 minutes, raising nearly three grand for the NSPCC in the process. Spookily, emails of congratulations from the BBPA's Brigid Simmonds - who completed the course herself in four hours and one minute - and Fair Pint figurehead Karl Harrison pinged into Matt's inbox almost simultaneously last week. Who says these otherwise-at-loggerheads types can't find areas of synchronicity?
Quote of the week
"So, to win the Corporate Social Responsibility award at your event all you need to do is close down your business for a month?"
Punch Taverns' Roger Whiteside, referring to Jennings, the Cumbria-based, Marston's-owned brewer which walked off with the CSR prize at The Publican Awards, the morning after his own company didn't.
