Here's to a new management for Hunters?

Beano has brightened up my Friday afternoon by rumour-mongering that the ‘Deez’ incarnation of Hunters’ pub might already be approaching its end and the pub may soon be under new management (yet again).

 He has written a wonderfully vitriolic post detailing his objections to the ‘600 capacity venue’ (as it styles itself) and its ‘insufferable vulgarity’. My own contribution on this topic, bemoaning the re-branding of Hunters, was written only in March, so if Beano is correct, Deez took less than four months to prove an abject failure.

Unlike Beano I must admit that I have not boycotted Hunters since its name change, although I have been more inclined to walk the extra few yards to Ryans. But I felt strangely compelled to find out whether my own prediction of its demise would prove accurate or whether the new management had actually cleverly identified a gap in the market for a structurally old fashioned pub, decked out in day-glo yellow, with pretensions of being a club.

During the day or in the early evening, it is almost possible to ignore the horrible colour scheme and gaudy flyers and imagine that you are simply in a plain old fashioned pub again. I went to Hunters one evening to watch the Carlisle vs. Leeds play-off semi-final and was quite content, until five minutes from the end when a racket that could dislodge fillings began to thump from the upper level.

I would advise any prospective visitor to Deez, should they choose to go there before it changes hands once again, to watch out for certain signs. If a plethora of idiots starts running up and down the stairs clutching CD cases and take-away pizzas, vacate the premises, the amateur DJs and their hangers on have arrived and in 30 minutes lamentable music will be thumpingly audible wherever you might choose to sit.

In his Everything Ulster piece Beano queried whether the pool tables had survived Hunters’ restyling. He really shouldn’t have asked. The actual tables remain but they have been outfitted with a vomit-inducing cloth of red and yellow swirls. How any sane owner could spring to the conclusion that such a surface would provide a stylish counterpoint to his premises’ décor is beyond me.

Naturally I join Beano in welcoming Deez imminent demise. Although if this incarnation of the pub has a saving grace, it is that the bar-staff are helpful and pleasant, any new owners could do worse than retain them. Still, the idea for Deez was terrible and the execution was worse. In his article Beano pleads ‘give us our f**king pub back’. I'll raise a glass to that.