The Star - Saturday night
Last Saturday the Star pub had a superb band on. Guitars, an accordian, drums and young women playing the violin and cello. Sounds dull maybe? Not at all. It was fantastic, really lively and full of energy. One of the best I have seen in the town in recent years. Introducing the band at the end of the night apparently some of the members had come from Canada.
The Star has always been building a reputation for hosting artistic acts as well as inviting local people to come along and perform. The pub is taking part in this years Arts Alive under the Culture Conspiracy brand which it is building.
In the past I have occasionally complained that the slant on performing acts has sometimes hampered the pub, but now I can see it makes sense. The pub is always great to visit as you never know what to expect. It is also always very friendly and attracts a varied crowd.
posted by The Cockerel @ 11:45 PM
4 Comments:
Totally agree with your observations of The Star pub down on West Street. It is a very lively, friendly pub, with a good mix of people with an incredibly outgoing and energetic landlord. The staff are also brilliant. They are knowledgeable and their customer service skills are second to none.
The Star does attract a very artistic crowd and makes a very welcome change to the pubs which are just geared at cheap drink specials for students and SKY television - I won't name any names!!
The Star has good bands, offers poetry readings, vinyl nites, comedy, talks etc. etc. Ian (the landlord) has done a wonderful transforming this once very clickish pub and turning into a lively alternative to the testosterone filled pubs fulls of chavs and chavettes. Thank god for The Star and it is even better recently thanks to the smoking legislation introduced on July 1st. This pub suffered a great deal from being incredibly smoky and it seemed that 90% of the clientele, the landlord and the staff all smoked. Thank goodness, that entering this pubs (and all the others in Dorking!) are now smoke free.
Keep up the good work Ian. It is nice to go to a pub without the fear of trouble breaking out, bad language and the general anti-social behaviour that continues to plague some of our pubs in Dorking. ~AP~
It's things like this that I'm looking forward when I move to Dorking in the very near future...
I went to The Star last night with a couple of friends and found the atmosphere to be somewhat lacking. It was really annoying that the large tables were all occupied by a lone person. One of them spent a hour and a half sipping on a glass of water. The six of us spend most of the time sitting around a table meant for two! When we looked at the people sat at the large tables, they decided to text, make calls on their mobiles or look outside at the traffic clogging up West Street.
It was vinyl night last night and the choice of music was very strange - African samba music, followed by awful 70's punk rock which was followed by cheesy folk music. I had to leave in the end as the music was a real turn off for all my friends. The girl behind the bar spent most of her time talking to her friends ignoring some of the (not so) regulars desperate fo a drink, that is by the way, is NOT good customer service!
When I was in The Star, I found it to be very clickish, insular and is the type of pub that is very typical of a Surrey town. The locals were unfriendly and the landlord made no effort to serve behind, when things got busy. The beer (IPA and Speckled Hen) was lousy and very, very pricey.
Rating - NOUGHT out of FIVE, I am afraid for The Star on West Street.
The Beer Master.
Ahh. Another satisfied customer..
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