The Argyle is the superior boozer and is right round the corner. For shame.
I agree, but I didn't mention The Argyle because they've been open and appear to be doing quite well. I've been back twice but there are only four tables inside now and most times I've tried to get in they've all been taken, and it's too cold to sit outside now. No music or TV on either and I used to enjoy the soundtrack and the weird American college sports on the telly.
In other Embra boozer news The Aviator- the pub formerly known as Scotch-Hop and known as The Wayside before that- has closed again and there's a sign up advertising a vacancy for a new landlord. It's also being renovated and it looks like it's going to reopen under yet another new name.
I think it was doing alright- during lockdown they were selling lots of takeaway pints in plastic glasses and it looked busy once it properly reopened- but the latest landlord had probably just had enough. That pub has a reputation as the pub to go to if you've been banned from everywhere else and a succession of landlords have tried and failed to smarten it up a bit. The patrons buying those takeaway pints were making the area really unpleasant for a while, upsetting the locals by using car parks as makeshift beer gardens and nipping behind the bins outside Tesco for a piss.
It's not the roughest pub- not up there with The Grapes or The International Bar- but it's also not particularly great and there are superior boozers nearby.
In other rough Embra pub news The Victoria Bar And Lounge closed last year and the new tenants gave it a major overhaul and reopened it as Damm 27, a more family-friendly licensed restaurant and cafe. It was apparently quite nice but I never got round to checking it out before it closed, and it still hasn't reopened and the windows are still boarded up. That seems to be a theme round here- people trying really hard to make a place all nice and smart and pleasant and managing to some extent before having their dreams smashed :'(