Friday 6th May 2011 - The Walkers Arms Hotel
After a trip to the Pines to watch the Suns kick NT’s arse 6-0, RPF headed back to The Walkers Arms Hotel. Upon arrival we knew that this was a different place from any other place the RPF has visited. With a huge beer garden and fantastic atmosphere one other noticeable thing was the amount of TV’s in the place even to the point of mini screens on the beer taps. (2 points TVs on beer taps)
RPF regulars The CEO, Sanctuary, HRC, MD, MC, Cleaner and of course The President and First Lady, were joined by Dawso and RPF rookie Ali, while Braz and RPF New Ideas Man (Lash) made another appearance to the RPF.
Scoping the place out for suitable seating, a booth presented itself to us in the corner and everyone seemed happy with this except a certain HRC who though that our little area was unsociable and the reason why we come to a pub is because it’s for the “Pubic”, so he found his own area by himself.
With the beer of choice for me for the night being McLaren Vale Ale, and this going down a treat, food was the next to be ordered. The stock standard wedges once again were a popular choice, and add a dips platter it was a good start. Snittys seemed to be a favorite for the night and for The President and First Lady, a Presidential Suite or should I say “kids table” was provided for their dining experience. Unfortunately no one had a burger, so a true RPF rating for a Walker Burger will have to wait for another visit. This also applies to the $26 all you can eat Buffett, which seemed popular with fellow patrons. The buy of the night would have to be the $12 12 inch pizza after 9pm (2 points to pizzas) not bad value and got good reviews from MD and MC.
Whilst going for a wee walk, the RPF men were greeted with the ultimate in serviceable facilities. This being 2 massive plasma screens on the walls of the wee evacuation area, also known as the trough, and was quite a hit. I think everyone’s response was “wow I wish I had one at home”. (2 points TV screens in the men’s toilet)
As RPFers started to leave, only the CEO, Sanctuary, Cleaner and HRC remained to have one last ale and we were treated to something not witness by many people in a life time. After a short discussion on how they got here, it was concluded that the colder weather and waters had beached these lost Minki whales to the Walkers Arms and they certainly put on a show for us. Speaking in special high pitch whale tone and making graceful yet very awkwardly, some might say dance moves, with other female whales, these Minkis thought that if they try to perform for on looking bull’s (men) that their chances of mating might increase. Yet the strange noise being made were only entertaining us and driving others away (1 point for migrating whales).
The Walkers Arms Hotel RPF rating 7/10
Friday 29th April 2011 - The Royal Hotel
Not Putting 1 and 1 together and trying to forget William and Kate’s Royal wedding, RPF ventured to the Royal Hotel Kent Town to end a very short working week after a 5 day long Easter/ANZAC weekend.
Entering what seemed to be a quiet place from the outside the CEO & Human Relations Consultant are met with a packed beer garden. Some cold beers and hot chips were quickly ordered.
Enter RPF General Cleaner, RPF Rookie Dawso (Shaun), RPF Medical Consultant, RPF Managing Director and with the imminent arrival of the President and the First Lady things were about to go from normal to weird.
With some classic tunes cranking through the speakers, the night was appearing to start off a good one until we realized that the music did obviously not impress the First Lady, who had made a phone call prior to her arrival to check if the wedding was going to be shown. Then using her Presidential status, she got the tunes turned off for the sound of wedding bells. With all the main TV’s showing everything Royal, the RPF Ladies were soon fixated on the wedding while the RPF Men were fixated on Pippa Middleton’s arse (soo hot, want to touch the hinny). (10 points)
Perusing the menu for a suitable dinner for RPF members, it was obvious that some were more plugged in then others. Things on offer were the pub special $10 snitty and the $14.90 beer and burger deal being good value (2 points), but not the mix grill, which sounds better then it is and not living up to its name (-4 points).
Unfortunalty the Human Relations Consultant thought that grilled fish should be introduced to RPF and it was met with some not so welcoming moaning and groaning from the RPF General Cleaner who didn’t appreciate the introduction. Then there was a Presidential miss hap, with somebody paying full price for the burger after failing to notice the deal on his trek to the bar to order. Unfortunately the burger was another thing that didn’t meet expectations, sure it looked good but with a half cooked patty it didn’t impress. (-2 points)
Enter some more rookie RPF arrivals with T-Game and E-Lee arriving for dinner. But with it came controversy, with T-Game failing to order E-Lee’s dinner, assuming that she would nibble on what he had to offer but he was clearly wrong. Another person to make their first RPF appearance was Peter Parker who flew in specifically for the occasion and not to play NHL.
With the girl’s obsession for the wedding growing stronger by the minute, and the men trying to avoid the tough relationship questions, RPF soon came to end. One question however was left unanswered; will Max Imam Cox make an appearance one day?
The Royal Hotel RPF rating 5/10
Important Note: Burgers are finger food people, hence, from now on for comparative purposes, burgers purchased on RPF WILL be eaten by hand!
Friday 15th April 2011 - Hotel Wright St (aka The Queens Arms)
With the decision of which random pub we should visit on the shoulders of the RPF Human Relations Consultant, the “Queens Arms” was chosen for this RPF.
After spending 15 minutes trying to find a park we – RPF CEO, Secretary, Medical Advisor (Sam) and Managing Director (Pearsy) – finally walked into the place which fulfilled the word of “random”, as the pub is currently under construction but still functioning with minimum facilities. (-1 point to pub not completed).
Looking around there wasn’t much to the place, and not too many people were actually there – all of 3 to be exact. Meaning we soon took over the place, as we tripled the attendance without even trying.
Enter RPF Debutants Crying (Ryan), Perv, Reach, Marcus, Lash and the very suave looking Braz… and I can’t forget the RPF Random Bike Rider.
With only 3 beers on tap, the choice of beer for the night was down to Pale (straight out of the Torrens) Ale, Pure Blonde and Carlton Draught. Not really the greatest line up, but one we would have to stomach. So for me it was Carlton Draught and others who were drinking Pure Blonde, were actually drink Carlton Draught as the kegs must have got mixed up. (-1 points to mixing up the kegs).
One thing that was really impressive us was how adaptable the pub's Manager was to our needs. The menu had no chips on it but he kindly went and got us 2 bowls of “hot” wedges (2 points for adaptability). There was no burgers on the menu but he created a special CEO burger which include a massive piece of porterhouse steak and left me stuffed when I completed it (5 points to CEO burger). The majority of the other meals ordered were snitty, with ordered fish, and the RPF pasta eater of the week, the secretary, all giving rave reviews.
So thinking that everyone was satisfied with their meals I had to warn the bar staff that someone was still hungry. Apparently the snitty wasn’t fulfilling enough for our Human Relations Consultant so he decided to partake in the smashing of a CEO Burger. On a sour note his did eat a burger with a knife and fork, not real cool.
After dinner was done and dusted and a some more drinks had, a few things became apparent about the pub. An essential thing for RPF is a TV to watch the footy, there was no TV to be found (-1 point). Another was the lack of atmosphere due to the lack of patrons in the place, apart from what we created. On a plus note there were some awesome tunes being cranked out through the speakers (1 point).
Some notable absentees from this RPF were The President and General Cleaner, who were obviously under the influences of the powers unbeknown the fellow members of RPF, and chose to partake in other activities. The President was on Presidential duties at lawn bowls, hopefully spreading the word to new members of RPF, while the General Cleaner was well, no were to be found, possibly still trying to find out how many sauces there are.
Since the Pub is under construction and has potential for further visits I feel the Hotel Wright St (aka Queens Arms) PRF rating 5/10.
Please note: RPF will be not be occurring next week due to Good Friday. See you in 2 weeks.
Friday 8th April 2011 - The Hackney Hotel
Well RPF is off and running with the first random pub visited was The Hackney.
After Amy (RPF Secretary) and myself (RPF CEO) wandered around for a few moments trying to find a table to sit at, the only place that was free was the smokers area out the front. This didn't bother us though as it was such an awesome night to be outside enjoying a beer.
First stop was the bar. To my horror the beer of choice (for myself) for the night "Super Dry" was $7.50 a pint. I was like WTF this is ridiculous! Everywhere else it is about $5.50. So I decided to go for a Heini which was $6.50, and it was well worth it because I refuse to drink "Extra Dry" which was a dollar cheaper but not worth the bad taste. I would like to thank the bar man for telling me the price guide first, otherwise it could have been an expensive night. (1 point to the Bar Staff).
Daniel (RPF Human Relations Consultant) and Emily (RPF General Cleaner) soon arrive and immediately get into the swing of it. Daniel went straight to the bar to get a Hieni and a wine and also order a bowl hot chips. Hmmm how interesting these chips would turn out to be...
Once the chips arrive and we start to devour them, we all look at each other and are like “these are stone cold and crap”. So Daniel, being the brave man that he is, jumps up and trudges off to the bar to complain about our cold snack, which most likely are to have sat in the kitchen for some time. Finally the new or probably re-heated chips arrive, and are quickly eaten by us. (-2 points for cold chips).
In the time for waiting for the chips and more RPF attendees, we had time to peruse the menu for the meal that was going to satisfy our growing hunger pains. Immediately the burgers were a topic of discussion. Do we all get one each or do we try something else?? It was a tough call...
Enter Mr RPF President aka Gobbo and Minnie (RPF First Lady) and Pearsy (RPF Title TBC) to the RPF table. After a quick check of the menu, it's off to the order our food. Unfortunately somebody thought that Pasta was part of the RPF rules, but as he is the President we thought we should let this slide on this occasion. However, if it happens again I fear a leadership challenge might be needed and some serious questions might be asked about his choice of pub meal.
We ended up ordering every burger on the menu, 3 beef, 1 chicken, 1 vego and one waygu steak. All of which get thumbs up (6 points to the burgers), oh and of course the President’s pasta marinara. Now I don’t like to use the word unfortunately to many times, but it's the only thing that can describe what happened to the CEO, Human Relations Consultant and Title TBC meals, which were all ordered at the same time as everyone's else’s, but took an extra 40 minutes to arrive from when everyone else got their main meal, and of course meant everyone else had finished (-3 points to the burgers).
NOT HAPPY about the wait we had, although they did give us a round of beers which kind of kept us a little happy but only made our hunger grow more (2 points for free beers). Thank god the burger was tasty and made up for the wait.
Fraser (RPF Phantom) and Ruben (RPF Random Bike Rider) stuck with the theme of randomness by making some quite bizarre entrances. Fraser appears like the ghost who walks and Ruben, after coping some serious questions from the RPF Human Relations Consultant about his were abouts, casually rides in from Malvern, like it’s just around the corner and all, to join the RPF festivities.
After a few more drinks and the departure of the President and First Lady, and some rather brash and quite bizarre bets made, that could scope the season of many teams and players and the hip pocket of a couple of individuals, it seemed that the first RPF was coming to a successful end. One question asked will still remain unanswered for some time "how many sauces are there?”.
The Hackney Hotel RPF rating 4/10
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