The Gooseberry Bush - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Nottingham

I visited the Gooseberry Bush with two friends of mine. We had a great evening until one of my friends struck up a conversation with a young lady he had previously met, and purchased her a drink. I was present for the conversation and it was friendly and cordial on the side of my friend. Less could be said of the young lady. Shortly thereafter, bar staff refused us service on the basis that we were ‘too drunk’. We had caused no problems, kept to ourselves, and had a minimal amount of alcohol each. I can only assume that said young lady had made a complaint about my friend’s generous and harmless approach, even though he purchased a drink for her, and suggested we should not be served any longer. I may be incorrect in this assumption, but due to the fact we were neither raucous nor outspoken, this is the only feasible explanation I can imagine.

I have worked behind the bar in the hospitality industry for six years, and although I understand that the establishment reserves the right to refuse service if customers are intoxicated, it is very much an unspoken rule unless customers cause overt disturbances. Therefore, I can only guess that the reason we were refused service is because the young lady felt so disturbed by the free drink she was bought by my friend (after which was consumed and all verbal/non verbal contact ceased) that she felt the need to make a complaint.

We promptly exited the pub after being refused service, seeing it as a waste of time to argue the ruling.

I would hope, in future, the pub staff seek a fair and diplomatic approach to such claims before making such a decision as to eject quiet, respectful, paying customers for no reason other than that a young lady who accepted a drink purchased for her, and had a conversation that lasted all of two minutes felt ‘uncomfortable’ and chose to make a complaint to staff hours after the aforementioned interaction.

If I am misinformed on my perspective of events, I accept full responsibility. However, the fact we caused no outspoken disturbances, kept our conversation limited to the three of us, and did nothing but laugh and have a good time, I cannot understand why we refused service outside of the innocent interaction my friend held with a woman he had previously met.

I also find it ironic that we were refused service when there were several young men taking cocaine in the men’s toilets. As I say, I worked in the pub industry for six years across the country. I recognise the sound of a coke baggie being opened and a person snorting a line in the cubicle very well. These sounds recurred almost every time I went to the men’s toilet, with young men (possibly students) leaving the cubicles moments later.

All I ask is, in future, staff and/or management take a moment to reflect on the possibility of the broader situation at play. It is not always a man’s fault for having a harmless conversation with a woman and being stitched up as the baddie, especially when he purchases her a drink and she accepts it without any further pressure to engage in interaction. Maybe keep an eye on the junkies and coke heads abusing your toilets for a quick fix (as I understand, JD Wetherspoon has a zero tolerance policy to drug consumption on site) before bastardising innocent, recluse customers who stirred up no trouble other than the baseless claims of a young lady who felt so uncomfortable, she took a pre-purchased drink from my friend, and all contact ceased thereafter.

Again, if I am misinformed as to why were refused service, and there was an alternate reason, I am open to being enlightened, and will accept full responsibility for our actions. However, I find this unlikely, as my friends and I purely sat at a table and reminisced on nostalgia quietly all night. Hardly a crime to do...

Shambles of a manager running this pub.

We arrived the other day to have a few pints to which we were greeted at the front door by an angry looking woman with manager in bold letters on her chest.

She said "can you scan the track and trace" to which we said "we don't have the app and there isn't any service here, can we just fill out one of the forms you have?"

You wouldn't think this would be an issue as all other Wetherspoons do this, but she said "no we don't have any" I look through the window and there's loads of the forms and the box you put them into so I said "I can see the forms are right there, cant we just fill one out and get a drink?"

She says "No you cant" to which I respond "Are you having a bad day?" not sure what's wrong with this moody agitated manager, head office really needs to look at removing her she is only ruining your business and preventing custom.

She then got the weird security guard who was touching me telling me to leave as we were not welcome in this pub as we have a bad attitude, when all we wanted to do was fill out a form and have a drink.

What a weird set of management you...

I used to believe that this place was very good until I was in there the other day. We were celebrating my uncles 50th birthday and there was a small group of us together just celebrating his birthday. We got there at 7 and were kicked out by 9 even thought we were calmly sat eating and talking quietly. They told us we were being too loud which was ludicrous because the youngest person was me and I am 28 and I was completely sober intact all of us were. It was me my uncle my dad and my grandfather who is 78. I find it utterly preposterous that we were removed from the establishment and I realised the actual reason was because of the fact we were Asian. I am appalled that in the 21st century people are still being discriminated. We are all professional individuals and if they are going to kick us out for our race they should have came up with a better excuse than “you are too loud” and “this is a student pub not a family pub especially for you coloured people”. I would not recommend entering this establishment if you are not their ideal people which is students. P.S the 1 star is because there’s no 0...