PUB GOERS. As a bar person in a Tier 2 pub, I'm going to attempt to explain the rules re drinking and eating, and how you can follow them if you want to support pubs, without making life needlessly difficult for staff: THREAD.

As I understand it, the idea behind the rules is to effectively turn pubs into restaurants, i.e. places you go to eat (with a drink) rather than drink (possibly with food), the rationale being to discourage people from getting pissed and neglecting to follow the other rules AND

to prevent people hanging around in pubs all evening, increasing the risk of exposure. As such, it is not (or shouldnt be) that food entitles you to drink as normal. Rather, as long as you are eating, you can also have drinks as part of the meal. When the meal is finished,

bearing in mind you can order desserts etc to extend it, as in a restaurant, you can no longer order booze.

Obvs these are v nebulous rules which are difficult to enforce, which haven't been fully and properly explained to the public and for which pub staff are not responsible

If you're desperate to go to/support a pub, go when you're hungry. Aside from the APALLING food waste I've witnessed over the last two days (scraping whole meals, untouched, into the bin because the people who bought them fancied one pint before catching the train home)...

...you really should be actually eating in order to be able to enjoy alcoholic drinks.

While I can sort of see the rationale behind the rules, they're horribly vague and put bar staff in a difficult position. Each pub will interpret the rules differently. Accept it. Please...

...dont put pressure on staff to bend the rules/lose your temper for enforcing them (looking at you, regulars).

The rules *sort of* make sense when followed correctly, but they are also quite dumb and are making things needlessly difficult for pubs. Pls help make things easier x