I’m Gonna Set It Straight This Watergate

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Doheny and Nesbitt, Merrion Row, Dublin

A late night pint of water?

We don’t want your type here.

Anon writes:

A group of eight of us went into Dublin pub Doheny Nesbitt at around 12:30am last Saturday. Seven of us got a drink each and I asked for a pint of water. I was told (fairly abruptly) that they don’t give out glasses of water after midnight, and that I could pay €3 for a bottle of water instead.
The barman wasn’t making any apologies for the fact, and when my friend asked “What if she was the designated driver?”, she got told “I don’t f***ing care” by the barman. I have never experienced this before in a bar or club. I really thought that this kind of greedy Celtic Tiger bullshit had died a few years ago, but obviously not….

Harmless old school barmanship?

Or demented teetotalerphobia?

We may never know.

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110 thoughts on “I’m Gonna Set It Straight This Watergate

  1. Caroline

    Thank god some businesses are prepared to deal with the outrageous gremlin problem in Dublin.

    1. Domestos

      The bar has been set. Right here, people, right here. If your comment isn’t this good, don’t post it. Myself excluded.

  2. Miq

    Some places charge €0.20 for a pint of water at night or during a match. Which isn’t robbery.
    €3 is. And the attitude is disgraceful.

        1. Don Pidgeoni

          One glass out of how many over the night? And the responsibility of the pub to supply water to patrons still exists.

  3. Joe the Lion

    who cares? pubs have to pay for water – it’s not a free service – the sense of entitlement here is astounding

    1. BenTen

      Pubs have always had to pay for water, nothing new there, a few pints of it isn’t even a scratch on the amount of water used in pubs, between ice machines, toilets, dishwashers, cleaning, etc, so that’s no excuse.

      It takes all of 10 seconds to fill a glass and hand it over to the customer, I can think of countless times I’ve needed a pint or two to steady myself on, or to try to counteract the hangover, after drinking in a pub, and have never been questioned thus.

      This is pure greed, the barman is trying to push 3 euro Ballgown is all.

      Complete wankery.

      1. Joe the Lion

        I agree it’s not good customer service. But not an entitlement as the poster appears to suggest.

        1. Joe the Lion

          And doesn’t appear to be a round either. Seems that each punter went to the bar and each got a drink. After closing time. What sort of gobspoo goes into a pub after closing time and orders water?

          1. jeremy kyle

            It’s actually a good idea to encourage people to drink water in between pints rather than deride them.

          2. Joe the Lion

            I still don’t follow how the free hydration of a member of the driving public becomes the civic responsibility of a business selling alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks for profit

  4. rotide

    Rather than ask for the manager and complain and get the pint of water s/he wanted in the first place, the OP dehydrated themselves unnessecarily just so s/he could have a good outraged moan on broadsheet.
    Refusing to give you a pint of water is fantastically out of order. Obviously this whole thing is wrong. So do something about it, it’s not soviet russia.

    1. zzzzzz

      I’m sure this person did go further.

      She was right to bring it to our attention and show us what the staff are like in that pub.

      1. Bacchus

        Except that’s not what staff are like in that pub. That’s what one member of staff was like at that particular time. He should have handed over the glass of water with a smile and song in his heart but that doesn’t mean you can extrapolate the sh1t out of the situation. Generally the staff in there are absolutely sound.

        1. rotide

          Exactly. This type of post is the new ‘bloke down the pub told me’ only far more dangerous.

    2. Shypooer

      I don’t see it as an outraged moan. I for one am great full to the op for bringing this to light. I’ll never set foot in this place thanks to this post and if more people did the same then this fuppwittery wouldn’t happen in the first place.

      1. rotide

        If stuff like that makes you boycott places, then you are better off never going into anywhere ever.

        Could have been a barman having a bad day and being an arse for no reason.

        Hardly a good reason to boycott a place on third hand informatation now is it?

        1. Bobby

          So when you receive shocking treatment and service, you don’t tell anyone you know? You keep it to yourself and hope that whichever member of staff you informed about it will sort it out? That is more outrageous than the actual incident reported.

        2. MT

          A barman in a bad mood hardly resulted in their policy of charging 3e a pint after midnight.

        3. Nigel

          This things needs to be kept secret and swept under the carpet and dealt with through the ‘proper channels.’ A public fuss is the last ting we need at this sensitive time, damaging the public image and bringing potential economic ruination on all if us.

    3. Caroline

      Yeah well if you really believe that Anon didn’t do the right thing, you’d hack into the BS servers, find her email, track her down to her home or place of work, design and construct a functioning time machine to go back to the night in question, frogmarch her to the pub, grab her by the collar and force her to go nose to nose with the barman and when he refuses to give her a pint of water, grab her by the wrist and proxy punch the head off him, then push his body off the bar and order her to fill a pint of water from the tap behind the bar.

      Anything else is just pointless whinging on Broadsheet.

    4. ohrotide

      I’d have thought that her raising the issue here and letting other people know about it is a fairly good way of dealing with it.

      Plus, I think it brings up something I’ve been seeing a lot more of these days – Celtic Tiger-style property prices, service prices and, as we’ve seen the past few weeks with Mr X, business practices.

  5. Griff

    Why not buy a ballygowan or a soft drink? The place has cover it’s overheads someway. It’s a business and not a charity so not greedy at all! I echo the above comment about the sense of entitlement of some people. Fair play to that barman.

    1. jeremy kyle

      Yeah, it’s a good thing they do this everywhere else otherwise people would stop going there…

    2. Bobby

      Considering the margin in a pint of beer that a bar receives and the negligible cost of giving away a pint of water, they have no need to charge for the water.

    3. SOMK

      Yeah bloody humans, already 60% water, what makes you think you’re entitled to anymore, you damned punk hippies?

      Meanwhile the Vinters association spends every weekday of the last decade, incessantly lobbying and spamming the liveline phone number to moan about super market booze prices until eventually the government caves and changes the tax system, I’m not sure what the word for that is, but one thing I do know is that it’s the exact opposite of entitlement, ditto their attitude to the massive burden placed on the policing and public health system every weekend cleaning up after their customers, those billions are well spent and I’m sure whatever feeling the drinks industry has about so many state resources being used up to enable their profiteering, it again is the exact opposite of entitlement, or the fact that they essentially vampirically feed off the the slow misery of alcoholism (10% of your customers give you 50% of your business), yes wonderfully gold-medal class, non-entitled behaviour right there!

      How much for that glass of water you extracted from our public water system again? Who cares? Because whatever you guys charge IT’S A BARGAIN!

      Now turn up the awful music and charge me a tenner for the air I breathe, because I’m ready to have a good time, in a traditional Irish public house with my best friend and favourite grumpy, non-entitled, state-licensed, drug dealer, Mr. Barman, hero of Irish capitalism, we salute you!

  6. Lilly

    I know a woman who is, ahem, frugal. She thinks nothing of going into a pub and ordering a pint of water. It’s embarrassing. If it were a one-off it would be ok but it’s a regular thing. Pubs have to make a profit too. What makes her think it’s ok to sit in a licenced premises with all its overheads sipping her pint of water, I’ll never know. Maybe bar men can spot the type, who knows.

        1. jeremy kyle

          Well then in fairness I think that’s fine.

          The person who wants a drink probably wouldn’t want to go into the pub on their own anyway.

          I’ve been in that position myself since once of my best friends doesn’t drink and I’m sure most places would be happier to give out a free pints of water if it keeps the person paying a fiver a pint there. I’ve even seen pubs give out free cups of tea.

          I think people scoffing naggins in the toilets are a bigger concern.

          1. Lilly

            It’s anything but fine. It reeks of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. You’re dealing with a total miser if they can’t stump up for the price of a Ballygowan, and who wants to hang out with someone that retentive. Life is too short.

          2. manolo

            So in your view, spending is not only compulsory, but anyone who dares avoid spending for whatever reason deserves to be called a ‘miser’, ‘ahem frugal’, ’embarrassing’ and ‘retentive’.

            Your criteria for judging your company amazes me. You must be just so much fun!

          3. Lilly

            No, it’s fine if a person is broke. But the individual I’m referring to still has her communion money. My point is simply if you’re going to avail of facilities that are costly to provide, be prepared to put your hand in your pocket or stay at home.

          4. Don Pidgeoni

            “It reeks of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing”

            You are reading too much into someone who drinks water rather than pints. Bottled water is 1) stupid and 2) bad for the environment.

          5. Lilly

            Yes, I’m sure Guinness is great for the environment but that’s another topic. I’m not suggesting guzzling bottled water all night but get at least one to justify planting your backside on their bar stool.

          6. Someone

            Well if it’s miserly to think that €3 for a ballygowan is robbery, then my name is Scrooge.

          7. Lilly

            Talk about missing the point. Think about it, why should that bar man be on his feet all night to serve you water when he could be on the other side of the counter with his feet up? Don’t you think he has better things to do with his time. If you object to the prices, leave. Don’t just sit there expecting something for nothing. The world does not need another parasite.

          8. manolo

            If the girl is good company, why don’t you take as that? Her hesitation to transfer her savings to pub landlords shouldn’t cloud your judgement of her.

            Why don’t you try telling her what you think of her? I would find her negative views of you far better founded than yours of her.

          9. manolo

            Parasite? Screw this, you are either a troll, a publican or both. I’m done with this discussion.

          10. Lilly

            Thanks for the suggestion Caroline but my mother wouldn’t dream of setting foot in a pub and expecting free drinks.

          11. Anne

            Some pubs even give out baskets of cocktail sausages and fried chicken.. and they put on a live band too.

            Not up in Scobesville by the sounds of it though.

            In fairness though, I do find the barman up that way don’t have that friendly culchie way about um that you get down the countryside.

  7. PaddyMac

    Barman was dead right, water drinking w**kers taking up prime real estate on a saturday night! Go home and pay for your own water..

    1. jeremy kyle

      or better yet, get your friends round to you home and drink for a fraction of the price – you can talk at at a normal volume, listen to music you like, not have any drunkards start on you on the way home and not be made feel like a prick for wanting a sup of water.

      1. Joe the Lion

        Sure. I’m going to your gaff tonight Jeremy at half twelve and there better be water there or I will be posting on here tomorrow

    2. Murtles

      Bear Grylls has the right idea. Drink your own piss as it’d be less contaminated that Dublin tap water.

  8. BA BARACUS

    It’s bullsh*t alright!! Had the same happen to me in The Dropping Well. Barman was mad unsound about giving me a pint of water, even though I was clearly pouring sweat having busted a gut on my bike to get there for a match. And I’d made it very clear that I would be buying a ‘real’ drink after the water… Douchebags!

  9. Someone

    Leave, there’s loads of pubs in that area.
    I would have waited for him to fill the pints, then told him to shove his bottled water up his arse and have the rest of the gang go elsewhere.

    THEN, I would have posted the story on d’internet.

    1. Markus

      Bar man wages, floor staff wages, security staff wages, insurance, commercial rates, light, heat, license cost, commercial water charges, stools, chairs, tables, glasses. Just a few costs incurred in the bar.

      Owner can charge what he wants.

      1. Anne

        Stools?
        How very upscale… Stools.. In a pub, wha?
        And chairs too. Go way our’da. And tables as well?

        Owner can charge what he wants sure.. and customer can tell him to pull the other one.

        1. Markus

          The point I am making is it all costs the publican money. you are right about the customer too of course. there are any number of other places they can go instead

          1. Anne

            Are those charges less before midnight?
            He could get the glass of water for free before midnight.

            We all have costs.. it costs to live.. it costs to eat.. it costs to get to the pub and to get home. It’s not really a customer’s problem what a publican’s costs are.

            Some pubs try and entice people into their pubs.. others don’t.. that’s their prerogative, but that sort of pub is not one I’d go back to.

            I think costs like a drink of water for non drinkers is something that a publican could absorb.

          2. Lilly

            Yes I agree Anne, that would be good hospitality. But for a non-drinking (ie non-paying) customer to expect it, and bitch about it if it’s not forthcoming is a bit rich.

          3. Anne

            That’s the nature of people.. they complain and expect things.. I don’t think a glass of tap water is too much to expect, considering he was there with a few paying friends..
            He could also expect to use the bathroom for free..to enjoy the music for free, to sit on a stool for free. If he’d have ordered absolutely nothing, but was with drinking friends, he could have expected all those things.

      2. Lilly

        Exactly. And punters are free to meet their friends for a walk if they don’t fancy buying a drink.

        1. Anne

          It was after midnight though..

          If only he had known he could have ordered 3 pints of water before the clock stuck 12.

  10. Digs

    Should simply have asked for a glass of water. A pint of water sounds greedy and uppity. You’d never offer anyone a “pint” of water, so why would you ask for one. Entitlement at its worst. Chav nation.

  11. kylie o'reilly

    back in the days of Yore (Yokes) when pubs wouldn’t give water for free I’d just ask for a pint of water with a splash of blackcurrant and pay about 30p

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