Malt Shovel / Dr Brown's

[Billy Horner]

Gold mine on a match day now the Nops has gone.

Even actual gold mines wouldn’t stay in business if they only made money for about 2 hours, once a fortnight, 9 months of the year.

 

[London_Boro]

Was a great pub as The Malt Shovel in the early 90's and the live music scene was amazing. My band played a few of the Bank Hol Monday 'all-dayers'

Wonderful times as a late teen.

 

[Ravs]

Pig Iron?

Yes that’s the one. 4-0 Boro win and Karaoke was good I recall.

 

[Juninhoburger]

Yes that’s the one. Karaoke was good I recall.

Used to be The Hairy Lemon.

Sticky carpets but cheap pints of Diesel

 

[Badonde]

The pub game must be one of the toughest markets to be in at the moment.
Loads of well known pubs being sold. Seems that after a few months of no interest they are having their asking prices halved.
Can anyone provide an update on that pub near the train station on the way to the ground 'Hit the Bar' - that was for sale last year.

As a business owner myself I'd recommend keeping away from any ideas of purchasing a pub until late '24 at the earliest.
Times are tough now but wait until those interest rate rises kick in

 

[Capybara]

The Malt Shovel was great. I used to go there before games at Ayresome Park - I don't think I could manage that walk after a pub these days. The North Yorkshire beer was excellent and I particularly liked it when they had Cereal Killer on. My last visit was for the last game at Ayresome Park against Luton. Just as I was wanting to order another, a coach trip of old people turned up and they formed a queue and all wanted to pay for their own. There was only one member of staff on so it was going to be ages until I got served so I moved on to the Tap and Barrel. I kept going there until it started to go downhill.

 

[Blf]

Went in the odd time when it was the Borough in the 1970 s but it was an old man's pub and too far out to be on the regular town circuit.
Went a few times when it was Touchdown as the fella who used to run the Salty had it. Don't think I've been in under any of its names since.

 

[Lottowyn]

Remember it as the Borough Hotel but not really worth a visit when I was a lad. It sold Beverleys beer which was like drinking sour milk.

 

[Smellyhelly]

We were sat in there September 11 2001, watching the news reports about the Twin Towers, I think we were playing Northampton in the Carling Cup, or whatever it was called in them days, thought the game might be called off but it went ahead, can’t remember the result if I’m honest, didn’t seem that important

 

[JustTheGent]

It's crazy how an attractive traditional pub in that location can't do good business. In terms of footfall - you've got a crown court, a major new office development, council offices and a couple of colleges nearby. If that pub had a bit of creativity and ambition it would do a good daily trade.

In saying that, it probably isn't as easy as it used to be and people will probably want to put their money into a place not like Middlesbrough. Things went into massive decline whilst Andy Preston was running the town and it's going to take a while for things to recover.

It's a changed world as well, especially in terms of towns like the Boro. Back in the day you could go into the Star & Garta, Doctor Browns or even pubs like The Hogs Head - they'd have people in them all day and all week. Lunch times seemed to be pretty popular.

In terms of Doctor Browns, it definitely could do alright under the right circumstances. You'd have to think it could survive as a pub moving forward under the right guidance.

 

[delgrapos]

It's crazy how an attractive traditional pub in that location can't do good business. In terms of footfall - you've got a crown court, a major new office development, council offices and a couple of colleges nearby. If that pub had a bit of creativity and ambition it would do a good daily trade.

In saying that, it probably isn't as easy as it used to be and people will probably want to put their money into a place not like Middlesbrough. Things went into massive decline whilst Andy Preston was running the town and it's going to take a while for things to recover.

It's a changed world as well, especially in terms of towns like the Boro. Back in the day you could go into the Star & Garta, Doctor Browns or even pubs like The Hogs Head - they'd have people in them all day and all week. Lunch times seemed to be pretty popular.

In terms of Doctor Browns, it definitely could do alright under the right circumstances. You'd have to think it could survive as a pub moving forward under the right guidance.

The problem has always been with ruthless and greedy companies that buy these pubs in bulk, as soon as the tenants or landlords start making the business viable, they increase the rent as they are allowed to in the contract. Pi$$e$ me off tbh, but what can you do, when money dictates sociality?