American Reacts to The Great British Pub Culture 

Well said, I always find that if a stranger enters a country pub, as long as they are respectful they will be welcomed warmly. You can learn so much from chatting and listening to the older folk, the tales they can tell, and only sometimes with a twinkle in their eye 😉

However, if you go in as the stereotypical "American tourist", brash, loud, flashing your money and generally being a dick then you probably will meet a wall of scorn and people will be less willing to talk to you. The Country Pub especially is a hallowed place and it's best to act like you'd walked into someone's front room, just showing a bit of respect and courtesy will soon have you making good friends with the locals.

​@@DruncanUKthere's a lot of British folk move to country and no better than the stereotype Yank you allude to.

@@neilwilliams2409 Yes - it applies to everyone!

Depends on the type of outsider as well. Some towns get a lot of people from major cities buying holiday homes that they only visit a handful of times a year, and the locals can sometimes be quite standoffish because they feel that it's devaluing their town and its culture. If you have an American accent and aren't planning on buying any holiday homes in the town/village then you'll be fine for the most part.

And you don't take your family there for lunch

Same here, I started drinking in pubs late 70's and in my town of 20k people there were 11 pubs just on the high street, at that time you could not buy drink from supermarkets only off licences so it was no cheaper than pubs, pubs really took a hit when drink was available from supermarkets , no smoking in pubs and tighter drink drive laws came in. Of the 11 pubs which were predominately just drinking establishments if they have survived are now pretty much all providing food etc so the clientele has changed from mainly men to families who don't go to them everyday/night

@@zo7034 Sad but true. Luckily my local is a free house, but surprisingly, not a ‘Spoons’.

Na,I'd rather go to the supermarket and buy 10 cans for the same price as 2 pints in the pub, pubs are a rip off these days

@@derekdelboytrotter8881 I only go to the pub occasionally, now. Usually when my son comes over and wants dad to spend his pension. Health issues means beer doesn’t sit well, but I got two bottles of Rioja today from Aldi. £5.99 each. Can’t knock that.

I always remember my dear old dad saying if pubs are closing down things must be bad

Immense words of wisdom from your dad, there.

Bless your dad for that note of experience.

Lol good advice!

I always say avoid pubs where they refill your glass and dont give you a fresh glass…and if you hear swearing,leave immediately..

That actually makes sense 😅

That's awesome! The original social media :)

I'll definitely be sure to avoid Spoons, then haha

Wetherspoons have bombed in ireland(republic).They are still five in dublin but they had to sell there pubs outside dublin.Hpefully it will stay that way though liked them when i lived in england.

@@reactingtomyroots You shouldn`t. There is no snobbery in a Spoons.

​​@@reactingtomyrootsspoons are good if your in a city and want to grab a quick pint bad food but good selection of drinks and reasonably priced

As long as someone else is the dedicated driver or you are in, say, The Lake District and are walking in and walking out.

Well said Tass - I stopped watching at the comment ' scorned' - he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about .

That’s right at most them mean the young party heads from the traditional pubs would be scorned especially is the are a hectic/lively bunch. Being very loud.

I think maybe he meant that the locals would scorn those townies recently moved from the city to the local area and don't share their lifelong attachment to the area.

@@AC-um2mk - Yes - I can understand that .I've travelled all over the UK staying at pubs and they are more than likely just interested in who you are and what are you doing in their villiage .

That's awesome :)

Yeah, it's a shame how inflation has affected a lot of businesses in that manner.

They've been closing for years anyway. Many just don't have the customers they once did, especially in more working class areas.

@@reactingtomyroots Here is a video about the history of the irish pub.Good bit of it is specific to ireland ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dlMnuCeGhS4.html

​@@reactingtomyroots Its less to do with inflation and more to do with culture change. Less young people drink. I believe this is down to two things. Young people don't need to meet to socialise anymore (thank you social media) and they are having to work longer hours (thanks capitalism). In the olden days, virtually all jobs were 9-5. Nowadays, most jobs are 6-2, 2-10 alternating which are crap hours for socialising. Add in the inflation and cost-of-living issues and the pub is in a perfect storm of demise.

The smoking ban was a good move but it was the first nail in the coffin for a lot of old school working man's pubs and clubs. A lot closed within a year or 2 of that. Breweries buying over wee family pubs was another nail, the rise of big chains made them more like bars than pubs. Most city centre establishments are more bar like than pub like. The cost of living crisis means a night out is now so expensive. Why go out and spend a fiver on a glass of wine when you could get a bottle at home for that? Lastly the changes in society means people don't socialise in the same way, especially the young ones. They connect online, through gaming or meeting up for nights in.

That's what I was thinking ( great film ) .

I think the "out out" reference will be lost on Steve 😂 But absolutely agree. A bar is somewhere a bit trendy, somewhere to get dressed up to go to, is generally a nighttime only place, and can be a bit pretentious...such as only serving the "latest" drink craze...like Prosecco or Gin specifically, decked out all boujee with a flower wall and matchy matchy Instagram photoshoot worthy decor, meaning they tend to attract people either out on the pull, or those who think they're a bit of a local somebody - the decor appeals for all those social media selfies, and those social media selfies ensure the bar remains popular. It's the "place to be seen at" for would-be models, celebrities or W.A.G.S etc. It's all a front for the most part, there's nothing of any depth making it a "better" night out than having tea with your Nan and Granddad, but it thrives because of that "fear of missing out" vibe it portrays. And of course for younger people, that F.O.M.O is 100% real, even though it's built on illusion. It's survival quite literally depends on it's social media appeal, if people aren't queueing up to get in making it look like the best venue in town, it would go under. Likewise the young crowd that hang around, depend on the trendy appeal to make their selfies look like they are somebody. That's the latest bar tends IMO, a few years back it was trendy to put out a middle-class vibe to attract city slickers and Y.U.P.P.I.E.S., ordinary people from council estates who like to think of themselves as ladies or gentlemen. Basically they are ideal for people who pay for everything on plastic, pay the bare minimum off the interest monthly, and rack up huge debts they seem oblivious to, to buy things of momentary value. No property, education or investments, but plenty of designer outfits they'll only wear once because they can't be seen in anything twice! They have far too many clothes sweetie, to need to or be forced to wear anything twice. A pub can have the exact same people in too, as well as every other riff raff or gentry found in society. Pubs are also entirely different venues, changing at times of the day or days of the week. One pub can be the place to hold a quiz, two Mothers to take their toddlers to play while they catch up over a glass of wine, a lunchtime drink for builders dripping in sweat and trailing cement across the floor, a quiet afternoon "Knit and Natter" drop in for crafty ladies, somewhere to stop for a hearty meal, somewhere for friends to meet up, somewhere for people on their own to wander into at lunch time, and fall out of at midnight with their bunch of new best friends, a place to hold a relaxed business lunch, a raucous disco night, tone-deaf singers on karaoke night, charity raffles, theme nights, curry nights, big screen special football match nights, birthday parties, hen dos/stag nights, fancy dress, promotional pint of the week, happy hour, afternoon bingo, local band playing, 60's 70's 80's 90's or noughties music nights, comedy nights, games tournaments, Sunday lunch or weekend barbecue, pizza and pint night, family fun days, or be festooned with bunting and be the hub at the centre of a festival or village fête taking place. A bar = same atmosphere 24-7, same crowd, only ever adjusting to fulfill the latest social media trends. A pub = sometimes a bit sparse, a bit dull, sometimes dressed up to the nines and the greatest night out you'll laugh about for decades to come. A pub offers something for everyone, and they mean EVERYONE! it provides what the locals need in their lives, not what tiktok trends have got all the teenage "influencers" buzzing about. A pub is for people to be themselves, a bar is for people who have no idea even who they actually are themselves! 😂

A bar is American, is no way a trendy dress up place.😄

@@dianeleitch a bar *IN* America may not be trendy... But we were talking about bars in the UK. Ours are usually so trendy they're fake! 🙄 From the plastic people, with their plastic fillers down to the fake plastic floral displays. You can smell the vinyl before you open the door! And you get to pay double the prices too, for the same drink as the pub next door! But it's SOOOOOOOO boujee... 🧐

Oh, okay! Thanks for explaining :)

@@reactingtomyroots you’re welcome ☺️

Good thinking not good to piss and talk.

hahaha, yeah definitely don't have to worry about that. On any account 😂

Rooms within a pub can be called "bar": there's the "public bar" with harder, less comfortable seating and bar stools typically, where the darts board and other pub games might be located e.g. bar billards, shove ha'penny, skittles (9 pins), more likely to have a hard floor such as bare floor boards, lino or stone paving. Historically, the floor might be covered in sawdust. Then there's the "lounge bar" or "saloon bar" where there might be upholstered seating, an open fire and a carpeted floor, more genteel than the public bar. Originally, there was a class divide between the clientele of each. Both would have a bar counter, of course. Then there is the "snug bar" (aka bar snug or snug), an area of the pub with wood and glass partitions, originally intended to allow ladies a safe place to drink.

We do have "wine bars", though. I mention them because I have one a few doors from where I live: a former pub built in the 1860s which closed its doors 25 years ago and became a "wine bar". It sells the full range of alcoholic drinks including beer (including a real ale), cider and spirits. The decor looks little different from when it was last a pub: oak-panelled walls and a horseshoe-shaped bar counter, for example.

Sad to hear that many are closing down. It's a shame.

Yeah, I could see that

Too busy working mate, just had a break for dinner now back to work. That's life in 2023 for millions of younger people (as in, under 60).

@@alexmckee4683 lots over 60 still working, especially in the NHS.

@@no-oneinparticular7264 didn't say there wasn't 😀 I was clarifying what I meant by "younger people". If you're over 60 and working two jobs then I am surprised. The comment that I was replying to was that younger people don't socialise like previous generations, I was explaining why that is.

​@@alexmckee4683 Exactly this. When you're working 6-2, 2-10 alternating weeks, going the pub is not top of the pops. You're either too tired after work (since we have to do more for less these days) or you're actually at work when the pub is open. There is the weekend but that minimum wage pay check just doesn't stretch to going the pub regularly.

I was down in chipping Norton last week, absolutely loved it. Such a beautiful place.

He was clearly taking the piss, the whole video was humorous. There's no need to take it so seriously. Plus, stereotypes do exist for a reason, and I've been in a few pubs where the whole place stops when a strange face walks in.

Agree think this person on video talking about somewhere different to the England l live in

When I see people say this kind of thing, I wonder if introverts/people with social anxiety/shy people just don't exist in the rest of the country? That obviously can't be true.

The majority of people you encounter on the London Underground. Don't live in London most are commuters or tourists.

Pubs and bars... Bars are generally inner city or larger towns and cater for the more transient customer... Mostly younger demographic... For instance ...my wife and I run a traditional country pub... Next to a canal... We serve ' pub grub'... Most customers are local characters whose families have used the pub for generations ( it's been here since the 17th century)... The pub has a special place in their hearts and they are fiercely pationate about it!... Everyone is treated as a friend, even visitors from the barges...bars...( generally) ...will be full of people who don't know each other

haha that's great! Glad to hear it

I, along with 3 other family members (3 women and one bloke)were driving from one destination to another on day, I didn't have a satnav, but had to drive somewhere I had never been before and I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up with what felt like ground hog day and deJa vu, as I felt like I was going around in circles, then I spotted this little pub in the distance, we were in the middle of nowhere literally and surrounded by woods, quite eary as it was just starting to get dark as well, I thought we should go into this pub , one for direction, and 2 to get a drink and food and use the WC, well as soon as we walked in, the whole pub fell silent, all eyes were on us, it felt like they would burn you at the stakes type of thing, they are curious and suspicious of anyone not local and if looks could kill. We went to have a game of pool to be told no because the table was reserved for some others, we went to play on a machine to them switching it off and saying it was broken, in otherwords they made us so unwelcome to make us leave, just because we were not local. To be fair, I personally have only experienced this twice, their loss really, they lose money and customers.

Yep, definitely still have a lot to learn :)

@@reactingtomyroots That's quite okay, Steve because I am 70 now and still learning (oops - meant to be encouraging, not disheartening lol !!) 🤗🖖

Yeah I think if he saw the cost increase in beer for example over the last decade, that would explain a lot...

500 more like.

Spot on.

and i think the smoking ban had a lot for places to close nothing better to have apint and a smoke if you told my dad he would have to go onto the pavement for a fag he would have said get stuffed

Old Bill... love it!❤

I appreciate that!

In most pubs you would not want to have your children with you after 9pm (except pubs focused on dining). Think by law under 14 s had to leave by nine ?

@shaunsmith2914 My local says no children after 9pm. Sometimes they can be annoying if their parents do not control them. When in the USA My daughter was 20 and she couldn't go in a bar. A black mood for 2 weeks.

Remind me never to go wherever they are🤣😂🤣😂🤣Turn the music up please!😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

That's pretty shocking that that many have been closed! Hate to hear it