ach! Bain of my life (well, OK, that's a little over-dramatic and it's very much a first-world problem)...is good pubs allowing all their tables to be booked of an evening.
We arrived in Bristol after a flawless train journey and, coincidentally, find out that a local bunch of internet-introduced friends were planning a pub meet. We suggested the Barleymow (obviously) and everyone was excited to fall in line.
We arrived there about 4.45 to find that all but one small table in the pub had been booked. One booking of about 20 people and another for 15. On a Thursday night.
I have to say we were really grumpy at the barman on duty (I'm sorry about that, I really am...it's really not your fault that your pub allows booking out of the place). He did what he could to suggest an alternative (ie sitting outside) but we decided to pass after an inital pint (which was lovely).
So we somewhere else instead (the Old Market Assembly) which has more space but they only really had one beer on cask and had only 3 pizza bases available to people who hadn't booked.
The pizza was OK (but not as good as previous visits) and the lack of beer variety was very sad but we had a fun evening with pals we haven't seen for ages.
Now - I can't tell pub how to maximise their business model but I think I'd like to suggest that you're careful about how you run your space but if you're a pub, perhaps consider limiting the number of tables you allow to be booked so that "ordinary" drop-by punters can fill the rest of your evening eating and drinking.
The best example I saw of this was a pub/cafe/bistro in Kingsand. There were about 5 tables just inside the door that they never allowed to be booked and as a result you could swing by and have a pint and a meal and slot into their less busy times without feeling the impending deadline of a table hand-over.
Rant over. this afternoon we'll be off to the Moor Brewery tap. It'll probably get quite busy but there won't be any pre-booked tables...
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