The new landlord at my local, the Nag’s Head, just isn’t fitting in. He’s seriously annoyed the locals by insisting on closing at the legal time. In our part of the country, if a pub gets visited by the police after hours, it’s because they want a drink. To quote one regular: he got thrown out of the Nag’s at eleven fifteen, only to pass the Star and Garter ten minutes away which was clearly open with half–a–dozen cars outside, and wondered why he was going home so early.
J doesn’t seem to fit in with the social atmosphere either. His wife, W, is better at it, but I got put off when I turned up to an empty Nag’s Head a week or so ago to encounter them arguing. Fair enough, couples do that, but to continue arguing, in quite a bitter manner, in front of a regular customer, was embarrassing. I suspect many Nag’s drinkers may end up going to another pub.