The Pubs Around Nunhead 21 - The Rye

And now, as promised, The Rye.

No longer The Rye Hotel, please note - not that it was a hotel for some time beforehand, so far as I could see.  As previously described it is mentioned in The Ballad of Peckham Rye, which may be its most significant claim to fame.

The newly (re-)opened The Rye smells of paint, and someone has spent significant sums in remodelling the place.  Physically, the old L-shaped bar has been knocked through, so now there is a central island bar (retaining some of the old woodwork and the clock) with seats all around.  The kitchen and loos have been moved and the entrance to the (still huge) garden at the rear changed and opened out. 

It does feel more open and airy - lots of white walls and varied seating - some more comfortable than others.  The kitchen seems large and they are obviously pushing the menu, while the bar drink prices seemed cheapish, at least for the present.

It does currently feel very, very new, and somewhat soulless.  The smell of new paint and clean walls are part of that, plus the new awnings and lighting.  It still needs to develop a character.

It is also true that the staff are still feeling their way.  The chap who served me couldn't be sure about the wine they had available, then he discovered he couldn't log in to the cash terminal.  Lots of  'how do I...' questions shouted around.

And there were an awful lot of staff there when I called in (around 5pm-ish a couple of days ago, a weekday in sunny weather).  Five in chef's full fig in the kitchens, plus another 5 or 6 behind the bar at various times.  Maybe they were expecting crowds later, or it was a training day.  Certainly there were few customers around.

And did I mention, it smells of paint?

The old Rye Hotel (I don't mean the temporary MeatWagon incarnation, which was always transitional, but the previous management) was indeed very far from perfect.  Eg staff did occasionally get bullied and let go for no good reason, and there were issues around stock sometimes.  But it had character.  It had live music (sometimes) and events.  The new The Rye will have to build that all afresh.

TANH will, of course, continue to monitor the situation in a hands-on kind of way.