Archive for the ‘About’ category

Did you hear the one about the Pub, the Bishop & Twitter?

January 24th, 2012

The WHT started tweeting properly about the middle of 2011 since then we have over 300 followers, not bad for a little back street pub in St Albans.

Twitter has given the pub an interesting and fun way to communicate with customers, offering a closer social media relationship with your customers.

Last night saw this relationship grow even further when the St Albans Diocese had a “Tweet Up” in the WHT. We have had the occasional Tweet Up in the pub before but this one is a bit of a game changer, eye opener or other generic phrase which inspired this blog!! Last night the bishop of Hertford as well as the  SubDean of St Albans Cathedral attended the Tweet Up, as well as other members of the clergy from St Albans and the local area. On its own members of the St Albans Diocese meeting for a drink would not be newsworthy but to me it proved that social media and especially Twitter are now being embraced by all, including the Church! (well in St Albans anyway).

As a pub we use Twitter to communicate what’s happening at the pub as well as to have a bit of fun and tweet pictures and other nonsense to engage our customers when they are not in the Tap. We have taken bookings for Fish & Chips, made contact with numerous other pubs, breweries and other businesses in the trade as well as participate in the Tweet Ups.

From Joey Barton trying to make footballers sound intelligent by quoting philosophy in his tweets to the bishop of St Albans sending an Audioboo to one of my followers last night, Twitter is changing the way in which we communicate, the trick now is to make sure we do it properly.

This along with many other Twitter based topics will be no doubt discussed at the St Albans Tweet Up which is being held at the WHT on Thursday 23rd February. Why not come along and see what the fuss is all about. Free WiFi is available. Worst case scenario, its still a pub and you can just have a beer if that’s all you want!

Follow this lot on Twitter to find out more about the Tweet Ups above:

@mediocre_mum

@StAlbansAbbey

@riggwelter

@SimonGCutmore

@glamvicar

@tall_rich

@gabs

Happy New Year

January 3rd, 2012

A very Happy New Year to all our customers.

Here’s hoping that everyone has a prosperous 2012.

2011 was a really good year at the WHT with lots going on from beer festivals to food nights and 2012 promises to be just as eventful, keep checking the website for details of what’s going on!

Pm In The Pub Reminder

November 15th, 2011

As the title of the post suggests just a quick reminder that Pm In The Pub business social event is on tomorrow from 2 pm. A chance for local St Albans businesses to get together over a drink. Oh and there’s free curry!

and the winner of a gallon of beer is…….

August 15th, 2011

The winner of our free beer competition has just been drawn by Jackie, one of regulars, in front of an independent adjudicator (me)…

and the winner is…

Dave Ewart

who coincidentally also voted for the winning beer, Summer Lightning

Congratulations to Dave who wins a gallon of beer at the upcoming Lion Hart Beer Festival (Tap branch only Dave!!)

Enjoy your holiday Dom!!

May 24th, 2011

All the staff at the pub would like to wish our chef Dominique a very happy holiday as she returns to South Africa for a few weeks.

Hopefully she will return with some fantastic menu ideas!!

Send us a postcard Dom!

Let there be sunshine!!

May 11th, 2011

So I’ve been up a ladder with a chain saw this week and survived to write this blog!!

We have been trimming one of our Willow trees in the beer garden to allow more sunlight for the drinkers to enjoy.

Environmentallists fear not, we approached the council to get permission and the method we have used is called Pollarding which encourages future growth!

Summertime is here! (ish)

March 29th, 2011

This is to be my Mungo Jerry blog as it will detail what will be going on at the Tap ”in the summertime when the weather is high” (or low for that matter).

So the garden is mowed and some new picnic benches are on order so more people can enjoy the sun and beer of course!

As I mentioned in a blog earlier this year we are having our own pub allotment this year in the private garden attached to the pub, all thie digging has been done and the seeds are being propagated ready for planting and later in the summer will be able to offer our home grown vegetables on our menu, from picked to plate in under an hour, doesn’t get fresher than that!

We have the Easter Beer Festival in conjunction with the White Lion to look forward to in the not too distant future, as well as the annual Lion Hart August Bank Holiday Beer Festival.

In July we will be celebrating Independence Day with a Music Festival and all American BBQ!

Also we will be hosting our International Food Nights on a more regular basis over the summer months.

So there you have a small sample of what we have coming up in the summer, we look forward to seeing you at some if not all of our events!

The Year Ahead

January 4th, 2011

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all.

2010 was an interesting year with plenty of things going on at the WHT. Beer Festivals to Pie Weeks, Birthdays to Weddings and all rounded off with a brilliant festive period.

2011 promises to be even bigger and better. Here’s some of the highlights we have coming up:

  • Sausage Festival in February featuring locally produced sausages from our counties butchers
  • Smaller beer festivals throughout the year in addition to our August Bank Holiday Beer Festival
  • An improved garden that will be more family friendly
  • Our own allotment plot growing vegetables for our kitchen
  • The return of live music to the pub

These are just the start, there will be more ideas and more developments as the year goes on, but I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a pretty good starting point.

As always if anyone has any suggestions, big or small, we’re quite happy to hear them.

Once again, we wish you all a prosperous New Year!