​NEWCASTLE PUBS

With a turnover of brands that makes Jordan's revolving door of husbands seem like an exercise in domestic stability, this bar is particularly sensitive to changes of management. 

 

It's hard to say whether the  refurbishment to the Head of Steam brand is corporate brilliance or a leaves a set of area managers cacking themselves when they see their flagship bar shitting out money like a tramp with amoebic dysentry.  Time will tell...

 

Right now Camerons seem likely to make the same error as every other operator, spending money on a refurbishment with the fiscal controls normally associated with defence procurement in the middle east in the expectation that their design genius will leave a queue of happy customers desperate to empty their wallets. It certainly has a queue, but the customers don't seem happy.

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It looks nice, the beer is decent. The staff on the whole seem to have been transported from a zombie movie, albeit one where more piercings than a postage stamp is de rigueur and the ability to serve customers in anything more rapid than geological speed is discouraged.

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When Camerons first purchased the bar their then light touch showed real promise but the current staffing zig zags the line between lazy and lobotomised I don't give it much chance.