The Old Chemist have the boards outside
and will be reopening on 22nd August. Good luck to them on their relaunch after staff changes.
Over the road William Hill have closed. William Hill announced a month ago that they would be closing around 700 of their licensed betting shops after the government changed the maximum stake on betting machines from £100 to £2.
I wonder what really happened at The Old Chemist. Very strange for that to happen to a newly opened business
Will it make it till Christmas?
I hope they don’t get their windows smashed by the village idiot.
One weakness was that they did not display a menu outside for people on the street. Given the hazyness of the windows and how dark it appears when looking in from the street it was also difficult to work out if they were open
Other feedback from people who dined there was that the food was not what you expect from a smokehouse. Simply had BBQ sauce on the meat rather than actually being smoked
It was so dark and claustrophobic inside and hard to find a menu. I didn’t actually stop to try the food or notice what the staff were like.
We went in and there were some nice pictures on the walls. The Maltsmiths IPA is one of the best lighter styles on the market. However, if you are a Real Ale or Bitter drinker don’t bother as there was nothing, a couple of pumps but nothing actually on (same a few weeks later so we didn’t stay that time). Not sure if there were any ciders other than the fruity ones. The owner needs to sort his priorities out. Clicking his fingers at bar staff and pointing to the latest group of females so they get served, before the others who had been queuing for service for a while (not just me, but happened all the time we were in there). At the time I am not sure how many staff were employed but the two I saw were obviously new to it. It didn’t help that every cocktail on the menu was explained and customers then took an age to select. This would be all ok if there were other staff to clear the waiting customers. The owner did not serve any one. There was a menu on every table at that time.
From Oxford Mail, looking at the comments, seems to reflect those on your Blog.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17791484.old-chemist-smokehouse-abingdon-shuts-managers-walk/