Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Wimpy

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #51
    Just out of interest Pat, where is the Shrewsbury Wimpy?

    When I was a teen, there was one under the Market Hall and it was popular with us cool penniless kids for being, along with the National Milk Bar, the only caff in Salop that opened on a Sunday.

    I whiled away many hours a a young lad, eking out a 10-pack of Embassy and a rubbish tea peering through the steam on the windows hoping something - anything - would happen outside. Never did.

    Anyone else remember National Milk Bars?

    Comment


      #52
      That sounds like a municipal state run cafe/Clockwork Orange type thing. Could you get “milk with knives in it?”

      Comment


        #53
        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
        To the average punter there is no difference between a chain and a franchise. Who cares who "owns" the actual establishment?
        They are all widely referred to as restaurant chains or fast food chains anyway, regardless of the franchising model.

        Comment


          #54
          Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
          That sounds like a municipal state run cafe/Clockwork Orange type thing. Could you get “milk with knives in it?”
          Moloko Plus? Oh yes, my droog, real horrorshow, but we spent our cutter on cancers.

          Comment


            #55
            Originally posted by ChrisJ View Post
            Just out of interest Pat, where is the Shrewsbury Wimpy?

            When I was a teen, there was one under the Market Hall and it was popular with us cool penniless kids for being, along with the National Milk Bar, the only caff in Salop that opened on a Sunday.

            I whiled away many hours a a young lad, eking out a 10-pack of Embassy and a rubbish tea peering through the steam on the windows hoping something - anything - would happen outside. Never did.

            Anyone else remember National Milk Bars?
            I was thinking of National Milk Bars while catching up with the last couple of pages in this thread. Like Wimpy, they felt like a throwback even back in the day. There was one in Aberystwyth when I moved there in 1997, which always had an emotive resonance of sorts for me as it was the first place I ever ate in the town – it was either on the day I visited the university there or the day I actually started at the uni seven months later. I'd never heard of the chain(?) before, I have to say. I had a steak sandwich, as I recall.

            Used to walk past it umpteen times over the following years, thinking almost precisely what I said above each time I did so, yet despite living in Aber until 2006 I never once got around to going back in again. By the time I finally set foot in the town again in 2014 it – and the whole National Milk Bar concept – had gone.

            Comment


              #56
              Originally posted by Aitch View Post
              As a naďve young petal from the provinces I went into the Manchester branch in the early 70s expecting it to be a throbbing centre of Alternative Culture. Disappointingly there were no tame revolutionaries in open neck shirts being ogled by the likes of Una Stubbs. I was alone. Not even an acoustic guitar for accompaniment. The waitress smiled her way understandingly through my tongue-tied order and I drank my insipid tea quietly in a tetrisscape of formica topped counters and surfaces. I wrote some embarrassed profanity or other in the tomato sauce and coffee smeared across the table top, mumbled my thanks, blushed gracelessly at her smile and made my way back out into the rain. Not the Alternative Culture I had been expecting. But I’m still hoping.
              This is beautiful, Aitch. I especially like "tetrisscape".

              Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
              According to the website it's actually in Rotherham http://www.wimpy.uk.com/locator
              Dammit, it seems the Newark branch is no more. Bang goes my hope of replicating the above experience next time I'm up there.

              Comment


                #57
                Was trying to check my recollections with a quick Google, and found this. You missed your revisit by 4 years. I'm amazed they actually hung on that long.

                Comment


                  #58
                  Wowzers, I had no idea that a.) they were a primarily Welsh chain, such that you in Shrewsbury were on the outer edge of their range, Chris, nor b.) that the Aberystwyth one had been there since the 1950s. Incredible.

                  I wish I'd gone back in again sometime, but to be honest eating out was never something I did a lot of in Aber and my friends and I tended to stick to the same handful of favoured places when we did. I don't even know if any of them ever even went in the Milk Bar, I'll have to ask!

                  That article is telling, though: it was definitely something well out of its time by the late '90s and early 21st century.

                  Comment


                    #59
                    Originally posted by ChrisJ View Post
                    Just out of interest Pat, where is the Shrewsbury Wimpy?
                    Where the old Argos used to be. Is it Mardol Head or Shoplatch? Behind the market, anyway.

                    Comment


                      #60
                      I remember the National Milk Bar in Shrewsbury as well. It had a very 70s vibe with brown decor and a big brown sign. From memory it was on High Street but I really can't be sure.

                      Comment


                        #61
                        This is good stuff on National Milk Bars; I can remember going to one in Welshpool in 1982 (on a school trip, so sure of year) and thinking that it was a real throwback even then.

                        Comment


                          #62
                          At least I made it to the the Newark Wimpy, before it went the same way as the Milk Bars. If it was the last time I was in town, then it can only have been 9 or 10 months before it closed:
                          Posted May 21, 2015
                          The Wimpy in Newark has just closed down. It's been there as long as I can remember.
                          Here is as it was, six photos down this blog entry on Art Deco architecture still remaining around the shopfronts in the town: http://creamcrackerednature.blogspot...-heritage.html

                          And here's the same unit on Middlegate now, alas a nondescript menswear shop: https://www.google.com/maps/@53.0765...7i13312!8i6656

                          The rather striking Art Deco 'tower' window beside it belonged to the town's old Odeon cinema.

                          Comment


                            #63
                            I have a fear that all this Wimpy nostalgia is going to result in a flurry of visits causing a short lived spike in sales for the chain - quickly raising - and dashing - their hopes that they're suddenly 'cool again'.

                            Comment


                              #64
                              I have today learned that there is a massive Wimpy in Woolwich. Didn't go in.

                              Comment


                                #65
                                When I was a kid, I had cousins who lived in Bradford-in-Avon. When they came to visit, my father used to pick them up, meaning we'd enter Bristol from the south-east, which entailed passing the Wimpey Homes office block.

                                Every time, every single time, my cousins would get their knickers in a twist and start squawking, "Ooh, look! Wimpy! Uncle treibeis's father, Uncle treibeis's father, can we go and have a Wimpy? Please! Ple-eese!"

                                And every time, every single time, my sister would look at them as though they'd just exited a dog's behind and say, "You country bumpkins are really, really stupid."

                                And then we'd ignore them for the remainder of their visit.

                                Comment


                                  #66
                                  During the 80s, there was a Wimpy in the Arndale Centre, Nelson.

                                  Which is as exciting as it sounds. I mean, in the 80s, Nelson was so shit it couldn't get itself a McDonalds. We used to drive every other Friday to the KFC for a Bargain Bucket. I say KFC, because it stopped being a proper Kentucky Fried Chicken and became a Krunchy Fried Chicken. We neither cared, nor could tell the difference.

                                  Comment


                                    #67
                                    There is a Milk Bar in Llanwrst (a place I recommend to say rather than Bets Y Coed if a short break in Snowdonia is considered, much less touristy and busy), not sure it is still open mind....

                                    Comment


                                      #68
                                      My one and only visit to Aberystwyth in 1988 for two Wolves poly pals’ wedding included a fondly remembered hungover brunch in the Nat Milk bar the day after.
                                      Going back next month for a reunion, as the same couple have (early) retired thre so a shame not get a milk bar revisit too

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
                                        During the 80s, there was a Wimpy in the Arndale Centre, Nelson.

                                        Which is as exciting as it sounds. I mean, in the 80s, Nelson was so shit it couldn't get itself a McDonalds. We used to drive every other Friday to the KFC for a Bargain Bucket. I say KFC, because it stopped being a proper Kentucky Fried Chicken and became a Krunchy Fried Chicken. We neither cared, nor could tell the difference.
                                        'Krunchy' fried chicken? 'Krispy', I could understand, but that just makes it sound as though the proprietors are dishing up sh*t that's been left out for several days.

                                        Comment


                                          #70
                                          I had occasion to take a picture of the one that is still in one of the shopping centres in Nottingham last year, would be remiss of me not to share it in all of it's glory:

                                          Comment


                                            #71
                                            Shrewsbury's new Wimpy opened on Thursday. Mrs Thistle and I were in the town centre today so decided to take a trip down retro lane.

                                            It was quite nicely done out and very busy. The staff were all too young to remember Wimpy in its pomp. Food was good. The menu is hilarious. We both had the seasonal special - a hash brown with a fried egg in a muffin with fried mushrooms. The fries were crispy not soggy and freshly hot. There are two veggie options on the burger menu, the famous beanburger of yore, and a lemon pepper quorn thing.

                                            I'd definitely consider going back.

                                            Comment


                                              #72
                                              Originally posted by ChrisJ View Post
                                              Just out of interest Pat, where is the Shrewsbury Wimpy?
                                              Claremont Street. I couldn't remember last time.

                                              Comment


                                                #73
                                                Are the prices still written entirely in pence?

                                                Comment


                                                  #74
                                                  No. And you can pay with contactless and everything.

                                                  You have to take your order number up to the till to pay though which is quite old skool.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #75
                                                    Fantastic PT, thanks for the update. Almost makes me want to make the pilgrimage to Shrewsbury (a town I like a lot anyway) specially, now that I know I can't go back to the one in Newark whenever I'm next up there.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X