The Raglan Arms on Dunchurch road in Rugby has been voted the best pub in Warwickshire! The pub that was once threatened with closure, to be turned into a block of flats, won the campaign for real ale.

It is nice to hear some positivity in the news these days. It wasn’t long ago that they were saying 52 pubs were closing a week! Did you find that a lot of pubs in your town were shutting down?
Bartending seems like quite a good job for youngsters and I hope hospitality jobs in Warwickshire, like bartending, weren’t affected too badly! I have noticed that the giant pubs seemed to have made it through.

Out of interest how much does a good old pint cost at your local pub? I have heard that some pubs are charging over £3.00 which seems a bit excessive! The cheapest I can find is £2.10 and that is at a modern bar. Any recommendations of good pubs to visit?

Its good to see some goos news about a pub for once Emily-O! Normally you seem to be reading about closures and job losses this is great news!

Bartending is a great job when your studying or quite young! I did it for three years and loved it! Much preferred it to shop work which I did until I was 18 lol! Then I went to work in a local bar and enjoyed it much more! Lets hope there are more jobs like this being created out there than lost!

Wow did you work in a pub or a club?? It sounds a lot more social then working in a shop - a lot more customer interaction (if you don't mind that is). Did you ever have any difficult customers? Any teenagers having tantrums because they didn't have any ID or old drunk perverts?

I know some people have said that ever since the smoking ban was introduced, pubs have been on the decline. To be honest I think it has made pubs better not worse! I never thought that smoking sections really worked if I am honest. Then again I am a non-smoker and may be a little biased!

Like you I am also a non-smoker and couldn't agree more! Our local is always still full!!!!!

I worked in a Bar - not quite a club or a pub lol! It was a bar/resturaunt! Some people came in to party and druink and others ate too type of thing!

it was great most of the time - I do remember this one time when I agve this rather drunk customer his change and he licked my hand though NASTY!

I don't think it was nice be able to smoke in clubs and pubs but you can understand why there is a decline if profits since the ban. Most people love smoking and drinking - and if you can have the two it’s even better.

Many friends of mine smoke and they spend half the night outside smoking.

I can understand why kids today would get irritated by this but then again it’s a huge benefit to every body’s health and that’s the main thing!

See when I go out dancing I go for that and really hate going outside every 5minutes to smoke! Personally I think the whole smoking thing is something that shouldnt take up the whole night! It just takea away the time to boogie you know?

I am happy that you can ni longer smoke inside - I remember the days of clubbing when I can home reeking of smoke and my hair stank especially! Being a non-smoker this bothered me quite considerably lol