New Year - New Venue!
We have returned to The Robin Hood in Baslow, after a 2 year absence. When the Robin Hood (RH) shut 2 years ago for 'Refurbishment', we relocated down the road to The Devonshire, who looked after us well but unfortunately, commercial needs meant that we could no longer have exclusive use of the room which we had originally been promised and indeed enjoyed initially. The sheer demand for dining following the lifting of lockdown meant that The Devonshire needed the room to be full, which we could not guarantee. Indeed, our usual monthly quota of just over 30 meant that there were up to 20 unfilled seats and The Devonshire, understandably, needed to fill them. This was not ideal - Geoff had to severely edit his normal jokes in order not to offend non-members. If you have heard Geoff in full flow, you will know what I mean!
So the Committee decided to see what other venues were available.
The Robin Hood had changed hands, and we therefore decided to meet with the new management to assess whether it was suitable to return.
The new owners were keen to welcome us back, and the pub has been extensively refurbished. We have exclusive use of the back room for our meetings.
January was the first meeting, on Tuesday 11th January (second Tuesday), with 37 turning up, and the consensus was that the pub, the room, and the food were significantly improved. The lunchtime time slot, chosen for reasons of the likelihood of bad weather and difficulties of night-time driving, seemed to go down well and will be repeated in February.
Hopefully this positive reception will be maintained going forward.
