Wait until next year

Many people go to the pub for the beer. Others, the food. Some for the peace, the escape. There are those who go for the architecture. A few just like a good example of banquette seating to rest their weary legs. All of the above, in turn, gets its degree of scrutiny. Which pubs take care of their beer? Or have a decent menu? Or just look great?

But one area that often gets overlooked is what are the best pubs for a chat.

If you spend any time in pubs you’ll soon work that out. Some pubs are insular, there is a communal chat, but not for you. Others are for couples and groups to chat but there is no central discussion. There are the quiet pubs, places of contemplation rather than conversation. But then there are the places where you can rock up on your own and join the chat.

If you sit or stand at the bar you’ll almost certainly be brought into the fold. Get the friendly glance, the shared joke, the shared opinion, the invitation to share your own. In some pubs you’ll find people chipping in no matter where they sit or stand. A pub as one big conversation to tune in and out of, company there if you want it and, maybe, sometimes when you don’t.

And so, when I find I have a spare half-hour for a pint, I don’t just think about where I might get a decent pint. I also think about if it would be nice to have a bit of peace and quiet, or if it would be better to be somewhere a bit more social.

When we talk about pubs as being at the heart of the community it can all feel a bit…nebulous. Do we mean somewhere run by the community? Somewhere that puts on events, hosts clubs and the like? Or do we mean somewhere where you can walk in and actually engage with your community, talk to your neighbours and near-neighbours, build connections, friendships even?

And for that to truly work you need staff who are as comfortable curating a conversation as they are at choosing a beer list. There is a fine art to steering the discussion away from the sorts of subjects that might alienate people – the usual suspects of politics and religion, but, no doubt, other things too.

To know how to gently discourage the resident Pub Bore from holding court, but also how to bring the quieter patrons out of their shell. When to diffuse a situation with a joke, when to gently scold, when to just change the subject. Maybe to be the arbiter, the judge, when disputes arise. The final authority on both trivia and matters of great pub importance.

To understand that pub chat can be both serious and daft, but shouldn’t go too far in either direction. But to also get things going when it all goes a little quiet.

I have seen the finest Pub Talk experts navigate all of this with guile and grace, and ultimately turn a good pub into a great one – where you can have a chat, a laugh and always feel welcome and listened to. I have also been in pubs where the conversation has lost its way and soured the whole place – when racism or misogyny creep in, or on a more banal level when the room is dominated by a know-all, a bore or a blusterer. Pubs thrive when they get all this right, but they die when they don’t.

Pubs should be for everyone – and the Pub Talk is integral to that.

I had thought of further illuminating the beauty of pub conversations by sharing some subjects I’ve overheard being discussed, or have discussed myself, but it felt like I would be breaking the sanctity of Pub Talk. What we talk about in the pub stays in the pub. However, I will say this – who knew Bisto is an acronym?

Image from the National Library of Ireland, via Flickr Commons