A stumble at The Stumble?

For a while, The Stumble Inn over on 'Lucky Street' had seemed like a very promising new venue - and perhaps even the answer to the city's ongoing sports bar crisis (of which, more later in the week, I think). It has a great beer selection, friendly owners, decent staff, and a beguilingly cheap promotion on (these days) my favourite beer, Stella.

However, its location (in a dingy basement, too far out on the east side) was always working powerfully against it. And it does seem to be suffering something of a crisis of identity. In the old days (when it first opened 18 months or so ago as Sangria; before the revamp of the decor, the infusion of new investment, the introduction of the huge beer list...), it was purely and simply a football bar. Evidently, it was not viable as just a football bar (as its predecessor, the late lamented Club Football - where Sangria owner Simon had been the head barman for several years - had not been either: I had heard that it was losing a six-figure sum annually, despite being absolutely packed every weekend during the season), and since the relaunch it has been trying desperately to find ways to draw in other crowds...... even on football nights.

Yep, on Saturdays, they've been offering free Breezers to the ladies - aiming, with some success, to attract the trendy clubbing crowd before they head on (around midnight) to popular underground dance club White Rabbit which is just next door. These gay young things often don't pay that much attention to the football, and would rather have the music turned up loud - a most unwelcome distraction if you have come there to watch the football!

Even worse, they seem to have given up on attracting a football crowd - or any sort of crowd very much - on Sundays, and are advertising it as a movie night (despite the fact that, these days, Sunday is usually a bigger day than Saturday for the English Premier League fixtures). Why, oh why??

When I went in there a week or two ago on a Sunday evening, they were not in fact showing a movie after all. But neither were they showing any football. None of the three main owner/investors was on hand (for the first time since I've been there - bar promotion guru Glenn Phelan has, I fear, been distracted by taking on the managership of the huge, awful, pointless 'Irish' bar, Danger Doyle's [about which I have another rant - or two - bubbling up inside me]), which meant that there was no-one who knew how to hook up the TV satellite feeds. What's more, the music playlist was stuck on the stuff they'd been playing for the Rabbit crowd the previous evening - extremely repetitive and abrasive stuff, and far too loud for the handful of people in the bar at that time (I rather think they all left after one drink, as I did).

Oh dear, this is not a promising sign at all. Doubleplusungood.