Table Talk

Public house may be a bit too public Bar chain Brannigans is so fed up with women spending too long in the toilet that it plans to install cubicle doors which spring open one minute after they're locked. Brannigans is to trial the system, called "Bog Off", after customer research found that the queue for the ladies was the most-complained-about aspect of a night out in its bars. The self-release mechanism is designed to stop pairs of gossiping girls hogging the loos. Despite some customers complaining that 60 seconds isn't long enough, once the door springs open, it can't be re-shut. If the initial trial is a success, the spring-open loos will be installed at all 12 Brannigans bars by Christmas.

How to turn a White Lion into a white elephant
For the past 26 years, thirsty customers of the White Lion hotel in Stafford have been waiting in vain to find out what happened to their missing pub. In 1978 the pub was dismantled - lock, stock and beer barrel - to make way for a ring road, but the regulars were assured by the authorities that it would be rebuilt on another site. The component parts of the inn, built in 1850, were carefully labelled and put into storage to await reopening time. But with no sign of the White Lion after a quarter of a century, borough councillor Robert Simpson finally asked officials when residents could expect to go to their local again. Then came the bitter truth: they've lost it, the whole pub. A spokesman for Staffordshire County Council said: "Nobody really knows what happened to the White Lion and we certainly don't know where it is. It was such a long time ago, none of the officers involved is working here any more."

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 26 August 2004