Inside 72 - selling up

[stereforth]

MadWorld74 asks when is 72 selling up. The process of transferring a lease can be a long drawn out and expensive business. Sometimes far more involved than buying a house. Regarding profitability with a turnover of ?4000 per week, bare in mind this will include months before the smoking ban which has hit many pubs real hard (I know from personal experience). Gastro pubs are cushioned somewhat and chains like Wetherspoons can buy stock on the open market far cheaper than we tied landlords. Independent operators like 72 or the Drum, for example, can purchase wherever they like but could never have the clout of the big chains. You may think most pubs are free houses, but most are tied to a pub company (the freeholder) for beer and much else. We could make more profit buying from supermarkets or Makro but Enterprise Inns plc would not be happy.

I'm sorry 72 is going because small bars like this are a pleasant antidote to the Palmerston or Bishop. The Palm looks like a pub but you feel like an intruder if you just want a drink and chat (if there is anyone serving) because the emphasis is on food at premium prices. It seems good business but I prefer restaurants. Less chance of a drinker's elbow in the ear.

Here's hoping someone saves 72 because we need it and others like it. Used to visit EDT on Fridays for a late drink but the club style piped music and terrible acoustics made conversation impossible. Traditional pubs are an endangered species and the smoking ban is the last straw for many. I smoke and am aware of the unpleasantness of second hand smoke but it has ripped apart the plans many of us have for our premises.

If you want your pubs to be independent, maybe eccentric, with some originality, then use them or lose them.

Some may know which is my place from posts elsewhere on this site, but I'm not saying.

By the way, Pull The Other One was brilliant.

[Huguenot]

On this subject, did anyone notice that the Slug and Lettuce chain hit the metaphorical wall?

They ween't cheap places to drink anyhow, but I was staggered to discover that last year they lost on average 30p for every 3 quid pint they sold!

And they were a big chain with plenty of clout... You'd have to run a bar for love not money.

[SeanMacGabhann]

which is made all the more difficult when chains/big business "own" everywhere

market forces or not, it doesn't HAVE to be this way (see most other civilised drinking countries)

[lozzyloz]

The biggest market force is consumer demand. In the same way that we decide on whether to buy a free range chicken or fair trade banana, if people knew more about the way big property companies, I mean breweries, operate then they'd possibly think twice about where they drink or demand a change in legislation. Scor46 is doing a great job in that dept. That said I'm off to the Plough.

[Sue]

stereforth Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>> I'm sorry 72 is going because small bars like this

> are a pleasant antidote to the Palmerston or

> Bishop. The Palm looks like a pub but you feel

> like an intruder if you just want a drink and chat

> (if there is anyone serving) because the emphasis

> is on food at premium prices.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I go the Palmerston quite often with my partner for just a drink, often before or after a meal elsewhere in ED, and I have never felt like an intruder, quite the opposite.

The bar staff are very friendly and we have never had to wait long if at all to be served, even when they are busy serving food.

The weekday set-price lunchtime menu is a bargain in my opinion. The evening menu is quite pricy but surely not out of line with the quality of the food or prices for similar food elsewhere?

I think the Palmerston has a friendly vibe whether for eating or just a pint.

:)-D

[trickeetree]

Request for planning permission to extend out the back of Inside 72 was made by the company that own Adventure Bar in Battersea and Balham. They look cocktail-y. Any one ever been?

[stereforth]

I recently mentioned the high wholesale price of beer for tied public houses (most pubs are tied to the pubco for some purchases). It is reckoned that a gross profit of 50% on sales is the minimum for most licensed premises. After the last round of increases we would have to charge ?3.48 a pint for Kronenburg. This may be acceptable in Lordship Lane, but out of the question for most pubs round my way ("Waverley Gardens" - or "off Ivydale Road"). No wonder so many premises are closing.

I read somewhere recently that our alcohol tax is eight times that in Germany, and their beer (yes, nearly all lager) is in a different world to ours, quality-wise.

These days, unless you can pack the bars most nights of the week life is very tough. If you can do so , you then get hit by increased rent and business rates. The break-up of the brewery estates, high tax, longer opening hours and cheap off-sales (and smoking ban) have combined to kill off many pubs. Many more will soon go. The large pubcos, who own the vast majority of bars, were able to borrow very easily on the strength of their asset value. With the fall in sales of drink and property values they now struggle to meet their obligations with the poor licensee being squeezed ever harder.

[macroban]

The Pubcos' finances are in a perilous state right now (be sure to read their trading statements ~carefully~). It's possible that the weakest will go bankrupt this year. Not sure where this leaves the tenants.

[macroban]

Window says the last weekend.

[benjaminty]

I'm tempted to go there on elast time tonight on my way out ... or hit it tomorrow night if it's still open.

However I spoke to the dry cleaner today and he said that it's staying as a bar ..... what type of bar we are yet to see. I would have thought that most chains woluld find the site too small.

I've never heard of the adventure bar in Balham but found this .... http://www.adventurebar.co.uk which looks far from encouraging! (td)

[SeanMacGabhann]

ok - so this was the last weekend - but they are open until Thursday night - I therefore propose one last hurrah on Wednesday night* - is anyone with me????

As many Inside 72 forumites as we can muster - names please..

* I would do Thursday but the legendary Brendon Burns is doing a show at the last night of gutrocking upstairs at EDT. I urge everyone who can to come along to that too

PS - inside 72 is set to be a wine bar - another branch of somewhere already extant in Clapham and elsewhere -

[Azul]

I will be there thursday night, can't make wednesday

[Azul]

don't want another wine bar, I like my 72 the way it is.

[lauriejane2]

A real shame 72's closing - the only decent drinking venue in East Dulwich. I fear it's another victim of the poncification of the area. Do we really need ANOTHER bland/pretentious/snotty/sterile wine bar opening up around here. Christ, I'm sick of it.

Suggestions would be welcome to the nearest 72 equivalent around here - good tunes, good crowd, dirty toilets!

Matt

[Asset]

where are the bland/pretentious/snotty/sterile wine bars?

[Michael Palaeologus]

Has somebody put something in the EDF water - there seems to be alot of vitriol pouring out of every orifice.

We have wine bars - but the arent bland. Some people may not like wine-bars as such, but that is somewhat different from condeming the examples in ED as something they arent.

[KalamityKel]

AND there are MANY "decent" drinking venues in ED other than inside72... Lauriejane mayb you need to do a bit more exploring :)

[Brendan]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ok - so this was the last weekend - but they are

> open until Thursday night - I therefore propose

> one last hurrah on Wednesday night* - is anyone

> with me????

>

> As many Inside 72 forumites as we can muster -

> names please..

I'm with you! I knew it was closing but didn't realise it was so soon. It will indeed be missed. Closest alternative for a similar (by no means the same though) type of place is the Drum.

[SeanMacGabhann]

cheers Bren - first one is on me

[SeanMacGabhann]

bumping this to see if anyone IS coming to 72 tonight - tomorrow is it's last ever night but I am otherwise engaged

Brendan has expressed an interest - Quids has been personally invited - anyone else? Come on.. don't let this place go without one last bev

[Brendan]

I will be there tonight.

Funnily I have also been invited to go tomorrow night so I will be there tomorrow too.

I am going to feel great on Friday morning. :-S

[SeanMacGabhann]

I have Friday off.... mwah ha ha. I plan to make it tomorrow night at some point - even if it's VERY late

tonight - 8ish?

[Brendan]

yeah.

[david_carnell]

I'll try and make it Sean. Hopefully see you there.

[Jah Lush]

I'll try and get down for this but it's a bit touch and go as I'm working late.