AN ECCENTRIC landlord has decided to retain his notorious advertising board and has added another poking fun at a rival business.
Mike Mercer’s infamous advertising hoarding outside The Albion informs passers-by on the Walls his hostelry is “family hostile”, does not serve meals with chips, has no gaming machines and does not allow pub crawls.
He had considered making his marketing strategy more positive in the light of the credit crunch but there was such a backlash from customers he decided to keep the old slogans after all.
However, Mike has created another board headed “The Albion & Piano”, poking fun at The Pitcher and Piano around the corner as his pub has a piano whereas the Pitcher and Piano does not.
He said: “One of our staff went over there for a drink and this guy said to him ‘Excuse me, your boss wouldn’t by any chance be taking the mickey out of us?’ He said ‘Perish the thought. He wouldn’t do that sort of thing’.”
Mr Mercer said of his original blackboard: “When I was going to tone it down there were a lot who said ‘For God’s sake don’t change it. We like it the way it is’.
“A lot of pubs say what they do but don’t say what they don’t do. If I go for a drink, it pulls me up sharpish when I see that they don’t do chips, don’t do fry-ups, they don’t do UHT milk, they don’t do children’s playgrounds and they are family hostile.
“There’s nothing worse than going in a pub and it’s full of kids,” added Mr Mercer, who has two grandchildren.
“It’s a pub dedicated to the First World War and it’s of absolutely no interest whatsoever to a five-year-old. To me it’s doing five-year-olds a favour as they don’t have to go with stupid parents who want to get drunk.”
Another new board inside the porch tells pub crawls as well as hen and stag parties they are not welcome. Mr Mercer says the prevalence of such groups is changing the character of Chester at night.
“I threw one out on Saturday,” said Mr Mercer. “I said I’m sorry we don’t do stag nights and hen nights and pub crawls, you’ll have to find somewhere else. They persisted and I asked the staff not to serve them. My wife Christina was feeding the neighbour’s cat and she heard them going past calling me all kinds of names.
“I can’t think of anything worse than going on a stag party and dressing up as Tarzan or something.”
