Cafes, Restaurants, Pubs & Takeaways

[Yorkie]

The Mulberry on Conwy Marina are charging £30 a head for New Years Eve http://bit.ly/rUuwpF ouch!

Ah!  But the rest of the body goes free!     

[wrex]

Do we know the restaurant chain that is going under theTravelodge.

[Micox]

  Is my memory finally shattering in smithereens or was the National Milk Bar originally between Marks & Sparks and St John's church?

[Hugo]

Is my memory finally shattering in smithereens or was the National Milk Bar originally between Marks & Sparks and St John's church?

I used to go to the National Milk Bar with the lads from Cwm Place but the only location I can remember it was by the old Princes Cinema in Mostyn Street.  That was about 53 years ago.

[DaveR]

Do we know the restaurant chain that is going under theTravelodge.

It might not cost a lot to go there....

[DaveR]

THE Welsh Government would back plans by David Cameron for a minimum price for alcohol.

The Prime Minister will overrule Cabinet colleagues to push through plans setting a 40-50p unit floor price in English shops and supermarkets, the Daily Telegaph reported yesterday.

The move is expected to cost drinkers an extra £700m a year and the tax could go to the NHS.

Minimum pricing has the biggest impact on the cheapest and strongest drinks. Leading academics and health experts claimed the move would save thousands of lives.

A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “The Prime Minister has decided that when it comes to alcohol, something pretty radical now has to be done and he is keen on the minimum price. It is complicated how this can be delivered, particularly under European law, but it is clear that the voluntary approach has not worked.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We would like to see a minimum price per unit of alcohol introduced in Wales. While we believe that the case for the introduction of a minimum price remains strong, the power to introduce such measures in Wales lie with the UK Government. We requested power to legislate on alcohol licensing but this was rejected by the UK Government. This would have enabled us to take action to introduce our own controls.”

First Minister Carwyn Jones said last month: “If you have different prices either side of the border, people will just cross the border to buy alcohol on the other side. It would be far more effective if the same policy were to be adopted in England, Scotland and Wales.”

The cost of alcohol disease is around £70-85m a year to NHS Wales and 1,000 deaths.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2011/12/29/welsh-government-backing-for-minimum-price-for-alcohol-55578-30026700/

[Llechwedd]

The National Milk Bar back in the 50's and 60's was where the empty shop next to the Word is now.  We thought we were frightfully sophisticated going to "the Nash for a  coff" when we were in the 4th form!

[Hugo]

That's the place Llechwedd, in the 60's we had a rivalry with the Venezia Coffee Bar and in the Winter of 1963 we rolled a giant snowball into the Venezia.
It was massive and took about 7 of us to push it and it blocked the glass doors to the coffee bar.   

[snowcap]

we used to go in the local milk bar in brynteg, glass of milk shake and a threepenny bit in the juke box or you could put a tanner in and get three plays. mid 50s

[DaveR]

Llandudno is really busy with people today, just as busy as a Summer's day in fact. Yet quite a few of the smaller cafes and shops are closed - will these be the same businesses complaining about poor trading later this year, I wonder? 

[DaveR]

Roadside restaurant chain Little Chef has confirmed it is closing 67 of its 161 outlets, resulting in the loss of up to 600 jobs.

Bosses broke the news to staff across the UK on Wednesday. Almost a third of the workforce will be cut while less than 100 branches will remain open. The troubled restaurant chain fell into administration in 2007 but it was saved by private equity firm RCapital. The turnaround group bought the majority of the business and assets - saving 193 of the 235 restaurants, and more than 3,500 jobs. In 2008 Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal was hired to try and revive the business but so far his menu is available in only ten Little Chef restaurants.

[Fester]

Little Chef, another outmoded business model.
Serving very average and unimaginative fodder at ludicrous high prices.

Wherever you see a Little Chef, a KFC or McDonalds is close by... and hoovering up all the trade.

In the 70's, if you were on a long jouney, you had little option but to stop and have a Little Chef meal.
But as more and more choice became available, Little Chef stood still.... and eventual closure is the price they will pay.

[martin]

I agree with Fester, it is many years since I have set foot in one, but I well remember the poor menu and very high prices.  As he said, in those days there was little option, but I would rather go hungry than pay their prices for a small uninteresting meal.

[Merddin Emrys]

We stopped going in them many years ago, vastly overpriced and rubber mushrooms!  For many years now we take our own food and drink with us when we go out for the day  D)

[DaveR]

For a chain that had a reputation for high prices (its not nicknamed the 'Little Thief' for nothing), Little Chef suffered from lack of consistency in its food offering. You could go to one, have a decent enough if pricey meal with good service, then go to another one for a similar meal and receive both very poor food and service. If you charge a premium price, you have to deliver a premium offering on a consistent basis or people will go elsewhere. The Heston Blumenthal rebranded Little Chefs are very good but most of the others are tired and struggling.

I'm sorry to see them struggling, a visit there was always regarded as a treat when I was a kid and they are a bit of a British icon.