What kind of landlord are you?

I was taking a cup of coffee over to one of our 'fiddle-i-deer's' (we have an Irish folk session twice a month) last night and suddenly had a flashback to being in a little village pub years and years ago where this lovely landlady made me a cuppa before I headed back to our tent.

It was in the days when we had a social life i.e. pre-pub not post-pub and we used to have those rare things called holidays. Alain and I used to go camping a lot and always took our battered Good Beer Guide with us - we chose a lot of campsites based on pub recommendations in there. It was long before the internet and mobile phones - I sound soooo old - I'm not honestly!!

But this evening, the weather had turned a little chilly. We'd been in the pub all night and had a great time but I wasn't looking forward to the walk home so I asked if it was possible to get a cup of tea - thinking back it must have been after midnight, they didn't know us from Adam and yet it wasn't a problem at all - this mug of tea arrived with a smile.

The thought of this kinda made me stop and think about how my customers see me and what kind of landlady I am. Having been in pubs on the right side of the bar all my drinking life, I can remember the good landlords, the ones that seemed happy to see me and not just my money, the ones who went that little bit extra to make my visit a nice one.

And as much as I rate a pub on the beer they sell and how well they keep it, the person behind the bar is so important too.

I guess all those people had a knock on effect on us too - they certainly influenced the type of pub we wanted to have 13 years ago when we were looking for somewhere to start our business, and they've given us the standard that we want to have whether that's with the pub or the brewery.