The Blue Lias Stockton…now ‘Fat Bobs’ worth a visit or one to miss?

[Llamedos]

The old Blue Lias at Stockton was one of my favourite canalside pubs. It seemed to have struck the right balance between food and drink without becoming one of these awful gastro pubs. You could also moor overnight there as long as you had a meal and spent some money. It’s close to our marina and was a great place to drive over to and meet my daughter for lunch too, as she lives in nearby Rugby. 
 

I was a little horrified therefore to find out that it is now an American Diner cum Petrolhead themed place called ‘Fat Bobs.’ This put my hackles up straight away. I had a cursory look at their website and it did little to endear me to the place with things like DJs in the garden mentioned etc. 
 

So I haven’t been, but I’m now wondering whether I’m doing my usual thing and being a grumpy old git. Has anyone tried it and is it as bad as it sounds?

Edited April 6 by Llamedos
Typo

[mrsmelly]

21 minutes ago, Llamedos said:

The old Blue Lias at Southam was one of my favourite canalside pubs. It seemed to have struck the right balance between food and drink without becoming one of these awful gastro pubs. You could also moor overnight there as long as you had a meal and spent some money. It’s close to our marina and was a great place to drive over to and meet my daughter for lunch too, as she lives in nearby Rugby. 
 

I was a little horrified therefore to find out that it is now an American Diner cum Petrolhead themed place called ‘Fat Bobs.’ This put my hackles up straight away. I had a cursory look at their website and it did little to endear me to the place with things like DJs in the garden mentioned etc. 
 

So I haven’t been, but I’m now wondering whether I’m doing my usual thing and being a grumpy old git. Has anyone tried it and is it as bad as it sounds?

I dont think you are being grumpy. By your description I wouldn't go anywhere near the damn awful place. Such a shame, another closed pub in reality 😕 

[Up-Side-Down]

At least the Wednesday morning car boot is still on ...........

If, however, you go to the top of Stockton Locks, I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

Over the past five years The Boat has had a fairly chequered career with tenants in and out like the upping and downing of the proverbial fiddler's elbow.

 

I can't fault the service and friendliness of the current tenants who have taken on the tenancy on a long lease and are slowly but surely building up the business along traditional pub lines. It could well turn out to be all the things that the Blue Lias once was ... and maybe more besides!

[nicknorman]

It was a lovely pub. But I suppose these places have to diversify or die. I see it is still called the Blue Lias, the fatbob thing seems to be the restaurant. Perhaps one can still have a beer in the garden (when the DJ isn’t creating noise pollution). The most offensive thing is that their menus seem to think the hot dog is spelt dogg. Outrageous!

[Up-Side-Down]

As I expect everyone will have realised, it's all down to new owners. The previous one's had been there since the very early 80s.

[dogless]

We called in on a walk a couple of weeks ago (Blue Lias)  just sat with a beer.

 

The food is predominantly burgers, hot dogs, steaks  ... grill type food which isn't my choice.

 

Nice pub with scalextrix on the ceilings, and motorbikes on display ... friendly welcoming staff, and nothing to dislike really.

 

We also called at The Boat at Stockton top , but only had coffee.

 

Their menu was much more to my taste and the new owners each came across to chat and again were very welcoming.

 

Two jolly nice different styles of pub.

 

Rog

 

 

Edited April 6 by dogless

[Llamedos]

5 hours ago, Up-Side-Down said:

At least the Wednesday morning car boot is still on ...........

If, however, you go to the top of Stockton Locks, I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

Over the past five years The Boat has had a fairly chequered career with tenants in and out like the upping and downing of the proverbial fiddler's elbow.

 

I can't fault the service and friendliness of the current tenants who have taken on the tenancy on a long lease and are slowly but surely building up the business along traditional pub lines. It could well turn out to be all the things that the Blue Lias once was ... and maybe more besides!

Thanks. I’ll give The Boat a try. I hadn’t realised it had changed tenants and what you say explains a lot - the last time we went in, which was a couple of years back, the prices were astronomical. It now sounds much more positive and looks a lot more reasonably priced too. 

[phantom_iv]

Used to boycott the blue lias as it didn’t allow dogs - unforgivable for a canalside pub. As long as they let dogs in now and still have beer I’ll give it a try

 

edit: seems they let dogs in now. Yay!

Edited April 6 by phantom_iv

[Tonka]

13 minutes ago, phantom_iv said:

Used to boycott the blue lias as it didn’t allow dogs - unforgivable for a canalside pub. As long as they let dogs in now and still have beer I’ll give it a try

 

edit: seems they let dogs in now. Yay!

I thought the old Blue Lias only let dogs in the garden which is why we stopped using it aswell

[dogless]

The old Blue Lias used to shut at 2pm or 2.30pm (can't remember which )  and  is why I stopped visiting for years.

 

The Two Boats is generally open ... not easy or cheap  for a business but my preferred option as a customer ... I want to choose when to eat or drink , not be told when either is available, so the Two Boats is my 'go to' choice.

 

Rog

Edited April 6 by dogless

[phantom_iv]

1 hour ago, dogless said:

The Two Boats is generally open ...

The Cuttle Inn was pretty good on my last visit too

[ditchcrawler]

31 minutes ago, phantom_iv said:

The Cuttle Inn was pretty good on my last visit too

I have only ever been there for breakfast 

[Victor Vectis]

2 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

Used to boycott the blue lias as it didn’t allow dogs - unforgivable for a canalside pub. As long as they let dogs in now and still have beer I’ll give it a try

 

edit: seems they let dogs in now. Yay!

I gave it the elbow as the only beer on the wicket was London Pride.

Much better to stop at Long Itchington and take the pleasant walk into the village for The Harvester.

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

Used to boycott the blue lias as it didn’t allow dogs - unforgivable for a canalside pub. As long as they let dogs in now and still have beer I’ll give it a try

 

edit: seems they let dogs in now. Yay!

In the pubs I ran which were very busy, we had two rules both of which proved very good for business. All dogs were allowed and no children were allowed in 👍 

Standards and laws have since fallen so kids are in every pub 😒 

We did not allow our own kids in the serving areas even during open hours. 

[nicknorman]

10 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

In the pubs I ran which were very busy, we had two rules both of which proved very good for business. All dogs were allowed and no children were allowed in 👍 

Standards and laws have since fallen so kids are in every pub 😒 

We did not allow our own kids in the serving areas even during open hours. 

Well if it were up to me I would let well behaved dogs and children in. The only difficulty being that well behaved dogs and children are a rarity these days. Dogs are anthropomorphised and “just want to play with you”, and children are spoilt and “must be allowed to express themselves at all times”. So probably my pub would be fairly empty. But I would enjoy throwing out the owners of badly behaved dogs and children.

[mrsmelly]

4 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Well if it were up to me I would let well behaved dogs and children in. The only difficulty being that well behaved dogs and children are a rarity these days. Dogs are anthropomorphised and “just want to play with you”, and children are spoilt and “must be allowed to express themselves at all times”. So probably my pub would be fairly empty. But I would enjoy throwing out the owners of badly behaved dogs and children.

In our days we had kids who were 

Little shits!! 

Today to qualify kids have to have one or both of the " standard" diagnosis!! 

ADHD or Autism

[Up-Side-Down]

One of the significant things about this debate is the density of pubs in what is a pretty rural area: eight in less than 2 miles!

[Llamedos]

20 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

In our days we had kids who were 

Little shits!! 

Today to qualify kids have to have one or both of the " standard" diagnosis!! 

ADHD or Autism

I think I might have been in the ‘little shit’ category.  😁 

[Mike Coombes]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Well if it were up to me I would let well behaved dogs and children in. The only difficulty being that well behaved dogs and children are a rarity these days. Dogs are anthropomorphised and “just want to play with you”, and children are spoilt and “must be allowed to express themselves at all times”. So probably my pub would be fairly empty. But I would enjoy throwing out the owners of badly behaved dogs and children.

 

I agree.

 

We were visiting a riverside resturant in O'Connor, Washington State some years ago.

 

The owners/operators were obviously skilled and experienced in handling difficult children and their parents. It was in the days before the Red Bull energy drink, or that might have been a substitute.

 

A large sign was on the wall in each area. "Out of control children will be given a triple expresso and a puppy!"

 

The mind boggles how parents might have dealt with a child so treated...........................😁

[Cheese]

I remember walking to the Blue Lias from Leamington when a student in about 1975. Funnily enough I can't remember walking back again!

[frahkn]

2 hours ago, Mike Coombes said:

 

I agree.

 

We were visiting a riverside resturant in O'Connor, Washington State some years ago.

 

The owners/operators were obviously skilled and experienced in handling difficult children and their parents. It was in the days before the Red Bull energy drink, or that might have been a substitute.

 

A large sign was on the wall in each area. "Out of control children will be given a triple expresso and a puppy!"

 

The mind boggles how parents might have dealt with a child so treated...........................😁

I was in an outer London pub which had a notice "if you can't control your children please speak to a member of staff, they will be happy to nail the child's hand to the table".

[mrsmelly]

10 hours ago, frahkn said:

I was in an outer London pub which had a notice "if you can't control your children please speak to a member of staff, they will be happy to nail the child's hand to the table".

I had a large A board written outside my pub door which was phohotographed and ended up as an article in the Sunday posh papers. 

I wrote on the board.... 

Children are wonderful we all would agree, but not in my pub it's for grown ups you see. 

Children allowed in the garden dogs welcome in the pub. 

 

We were megga busy!! 

 

Edited April 7 by mrsmelly

[Llamedos]

When I was a kid back in the 60s early 70s children were expected to sit in the car with a ‘gas of pop’ and a bag of Golden Wonder each and you’re right, @mrsmelly the dog went into the pub with the grown ups. 

[David Mack]

2 hours ago, Llamedos said:

When I was a kid back in the 60s early 70s children were expected to sit in the car with a ‘gas of pop’ and a bag of Golden Wonder each

... or sat in the room at the back, where kids were allowed, the walls painted plain white, red quarry tiles on the floor, a single bare bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling, no pictures on the walls, no decorations or pub nick-nacks, formica topped tables, hard wooden chairs...

[cuthound]

12 hours ago, David Mack said:

... or sat in the room at the back, where kids were allowed, the walls painted plain white, red quarry tiles on the floor, a single bare bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling, no pictures on the walls, no decorations or pub nick-nacks, formica topped tables, hard wooden chairs...

 

And yet we still considered it to be a treat. 😂