The Big Cheese was a Greene King Hungry Horse pub in a prominent location on a roundabout just north of Bitterne town centre.
We went in last year for a meal, but didn't have a good experience. The place was big, crowded and noisy, We wanted seats for the three of us so we could sit down to eat. We found a table, but it only had two seats. I went into the second bar where I found a vacant seat. Out of politeness I asked if I could take the chair into the next bar, and the barman said no. I explained that we had a family of three, and only two chairs, so if we couldn't sit down we wouldn't be able to have a meal. The barman insisted that the chair stay in that bar. Obviously we had to leave.
Just passed it today and it is closed and boarded up. The place was always popular, just poorly managed, so Greene King would have been making money on it. Perhaps the company was concerned about its poor reputation reflecting badly on the Hungry Horse brand, but I would have though the better solution would have been to get a decent management team in. Anyway, I understand that it has been sold, though Greene King haven't said who bought it. I know that McDonald's wanted to buy The Bittern pub in order to build a drive through, so perhaps it is McDonald's who have bought it.
Feb 2017
I have been told that it is a housing company who have bought it. They intend to knock it down and build houses, but their initial plan has been turned down by the council because it had too many houses for the site. The company are revising their plans and trying again.
June 2019
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Pubs in Bitterne |
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