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I don't know if it's bad form to bring up an older thread as I'm new here, but I thought I'd add a little information...

If any of you fine people remember the Sawyer's Arms and the Manageress that ran the place during the 60s and 70s, that lady was the very first 'lady manager' within the Berni Inn chain and she passed away last week, aged 86.

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Had a date with a Waitress from the Grovesnor name of Linda,,don't know if it was same one Fly,tall skinny lass with short blonde hair.....be about 1968........went in 2 or 3 Pubs in town,,and i notic

I THINK IF MY MEMORY SERVES ME CORRECTLY THE FLYING HORSE WAS ALSO A BERNI INN IN THE 60S EARLY 70S

I delivered Bernis' steaks from Mason Bros. Derby Road branch in the mid sixties...The Flying Horse wasn't a Berni then.My round was...Grosvenor,Cricketers,Brittannia,Chateau,Sawyers,and a newly opened Trattoria Conti on James Street.

I was in the Sawyers shortly after Bernis took it over when a group of Canadian soldiers came in.They stood there looking round in amazement.It seems it had changed a bit since their last visit...I directed them over the road to the Towers where the local

crumpet had transferred their 'business'... ;)

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A couple of links for anyone who may have a fleeting interest... Obviously they centre around the Manageress, but also give a bit of an idea of how the Sawyer's Arms was run.

http://www.flickr.co...N04/6284175138/

http://www.flickr.co...N04/6284185104/

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I was in the Sawyers shortly after Bernis took it over when a group of Canadian soldiers came in.They stood there looking round in amazement.It seems it had changed a bit since their last visit...I directed them over the road to the Towers where the local

crumpet had transferred their 'business'... ;)

HA! Wonderful :D

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At the height of their popularity, a big attraction at Berni Inns was the method they used to marinate, and cook, their steaks.

The same presentation seemed to apply nationwide, as the tasty steaks were universally popular...

Another common feature in the dozens of branches was the grilling was always done on gas burners furnished by Stott's of Oldham

Given their seeming success, the eventual rapid demise was rather surprising.

Cheers

Robt P.

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...Given their seeming success, the eventual rapid demise was rather surprising.

I have often wondered about that. When I left England in 1976 for South Africa, they were a booming business - a few years later, all but gone. Now I believe they are extinct but replaced by a number of chains that have, more or less, copied their model. Perhaps the most successful at the moment are Wetherspoons. But, I suppose, even some of the newer chains have gone through a "boom to bust" cycle.

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Interesting if you look up the subject on Wikipedia, we find it's the chains (much beloved of certain people here) who were partly responsible for the Berni downfall; and Nottingham gets a reference on the subject which Moobug mentioned a few posts back

Unlike other restaurants, they did not do their own butchery but brought in steaks already chopped. The chain was sold to Grand Metropolitan for £14.5m in 1970 and then sold to Whitbread in 1995[5]. Over the following years, British tastes had changed due to foreign travel, and by the late 1990s the chain started losing money. Whitbread announced the closure of the chain, by converting many of the former premises into other Whitbread owned brands, including the steak-orientated Beefeater or more generalised pub-oriented Brewers Fayre.[citation needed]

Aldo Berni died in 1997 at the age of 88[6]. Frank died 10 July 2000, aged 96[7].

The first female manager within the Berni Inn franchise was Mrs Gerda Thut[8], who took over The Sawyer's Arms in Nottingham in the 1960s. This was noted as a progressive step in management and equality at the time, and Mrs Thut was known as 'The Lady with the Keys'[9]. Mrs Thut died on the 17th October 2011, aged 86

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I added that :) I hope it stays. If enough people say that the information is interesting/helpful, eventually I can start adding scans of things like the Berni Inn menu, other news articles, information about budget cuts and policy changes... it would be nice if Berni Inn info didn't get lost in historical ether.

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I have just returned from a little 'sojourn' down to 'The Cotswolds' and the surrounds staying with friends mostly , but in a couple of 'Premier Inns' too. These places always have a Pub/Restaurant attached (Where we have breakfast) The one we stayed in last night (Cheltenham) was attached to a TGI Fridays, and there's always a menu in your roon enticing you to their wares.

Last night was no different , on perusing the delacasies I got to thinking two things. Firstly , "TGI Friday" must be an American chain , the reason being (Apart from the fact that they're all done out in a style like our concept of a 'U,S diner' would be !) that all the spellings on the menu were in 'American English' ie 'Flavor' instead of 'Flavour' and the prices were more American than English, ie 2.99 for a 'Portion of Fries' which if it were dollars and cents it would equate to about 2 quid , which is what they cost in an English diner!! (I know chains like MacDonalds and KFC charge the same world wide , ie a burger of $1.99cents would cost £1.99p over here but only 1 euro 99c in France.)

The other thing being that no where seems to do fillet steak anymore, it seems to have been replaced by 'Rib Eye' and T Bone, the latter is of course fillet and sirloin cut the opposite direction. Any body know of a 'chain' that does Fillet (My favourite) on it's own any more ??

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Firstly Welcome Moonbug.

The images are excellent sadly cannot be linked for direct display here?

Ian

Witherspoons on St James Street do a sirloin and a pint meal deal on Tuesdays

and it is excellent.

I was in there today, and the service was dreadful, the two staff on the bar were painfully slow.

After4 waiting to be served for 15 minutes, I asked one in passing if she could put a meal order in for me?

"There is a queue and there is a 15-20 minute wait for meals" was the reply

"Yes thats why I would like you to put me an order in, I am on a tight schedule".

The barmaid then part pulled a pint of guest ale and left it to stand,

Ten minutes later she had to be reminded to finish the job!

The food (chicken Balti) when it actually came was excellent.

But I arrived for my 1.45pm appointment at 1.55pm!

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just heard this week that whitehart will reopen as a meet and eat pup on november 15th waiting ti get a look at the menu now.

but the rose and crown on derby rd lento will close for a short tome in novemberand reopen again on 1st december pub changing owners got the posible new christmas fair menu . last night not very impressed no traditional turkey or beef replaced with turkey kababs rump steak ect nothing very christmassy about that things we can have most days in any pub or take away and its gone up by a pound for3 course and 2 pound for the two course meal.

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Moobug, please tell how you got your moniker!

Do you know, I honestly can't remember.

I think it was something to do with my husband naming my area of the computer 'Stinkbug' (he's a charmer). I believe we had a bit of banter over whether I was deserving of said title, and eventually the term 'daft moo' was thrown in for good measure... anyway, several months down the line a combination of the two sprang to mind when I realised that most shortenings of my real name were taken on forums, and the rest is poorly-documented history. ;)

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There was the "New Sawyers Arms" somewhere,

Wasn't the "New Welbeck" on the Milton street side of the Vic centre a Berni too !

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The Black Boy was on Long Row, long gone, [sniff]

'Sniff' indeed...

But who needs a magnificent edifice like the Black Boy in the city center. When it could be replaced with the blessing of our wonderful councillors with 5000 tons of pretty grey concrete.

Jesus wept!!

5da83478.jpg

185f3002.jpg

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I did hear (And have posted it on here before , that there were some serious subsidence problems with the BB dropping into the caves and the such like.

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