Thursday afternoon in Brighton

Time for a pub review or two

I'm at the Bath Arms. I rate is a solid 'meh'. Nothing wrong with the place – the decor has character – but the feel is just a bit copy and paste.

I'm now [17:22 ] [back] at the Great Eastern, a pub that is much more me. I picked up something earlier which suggest the place might have been recently bought by a chain, but I'm guessing it would be a small, local group rather than a soul sapping mega corp. The place is has made an effort to be stylish, and succeeded. It's a mix of old school boozer with rock-hipster. The guy in charge of the bar is 90s goth rock band leader material. There are a couple of decks next to shelves of books with a small reserved sign for DJs, which will almost certainly be playing rare groove 45s rather than techno.

The playlist at the last place was part of the 'meh' rating. It was probably aimed at a demographic that I'm supposed to be in - Fleetwood Mac, Little Richard, etc. whereas the current one is a bit less ordinary.

'Considered' is word that registered with me strongly eons ago when my life was design and print. It was a comment to do with the layout of some advertising material and how the lettering and white space looked considered - as if someone had thought about it rather than, well, not. It's a word and an idea that has stayed with me ever since and it still comes to mind when I think about the difference between 'meh' places and places that connect.

Consideration by itself is not a formula, but it can be a catalyst for one. Considering how you might feel if you walked into your own establishment might be loaded with your own biases and taste preferences, but it's still a better than not.

For the short time I had skin in a game I used to regularly have sessions where I'd sit in every seat and ask myself what the first thing that would catch my eye was, what the shittest thing was, what could either be made better or at least be dressed better. You can't always fix everything, but you can usually do something to make something ok better or something crap less crap. A light here, a cushion there - most of the time no-one will notice or say they have, but I reckon it's why I used to have people saying "I wish this was my local"

Note to self: Riddle & Finns: Fantastic