I note that The Drunken Duck in Walsall Wood High St is closed and looking for a new tenant, as a business opportunity, and this is probably the time that I can say it was the pub behind my pub lifecycle post, though the concept applies elsewhere.

The Duck was my local pub of choice for some years: it’s nearby, it’s very near to (and the same side of the busy A461 as) the curry house, the shops, and the nearest ATM, it has mostly served good beer, and, if you’ve chosen your time, it can be quiet enough to talk. Basically, while going up and down around the cycle, it’s overall been a pleasant, welcoming pub.

I’ve seen it go through at least 3 landlords/landladies in the time I’ve been using it regularly, and even more in the time I’ve been here, and depressingly, it’s matched the cycle well. The just-departed landlord seemed like a nice guy and seemed interested at first: I remember taking recovery walks past the pub while he was working on it to smarten it up and add a proper kitchen (more of that in a moment), but for the last few months, he seemed to lose interest. The local troublemakers moved in, the real ale moved out, then even some of the keg disappeared. All the signs were there, and it was only a matter of time: I gave up, and went elsewhere. It had a short race to the bottom with discounted lager with another nearby pub, and has evidently lost.

One of the factors may have been that the landlord had ideas of food- Indian food. This is a common thing, and works well in places, given the whole desi pub thing but here in Walsall Wood, there’s the aforementioned excellent Simla restaurant, and another takeaway within 100 yards, and another decent restaurant about 3/4 mile away, so it was going to have to be incredible. It actually turned out to be OK, but not the success it might have been, but it would have been a tough gig, so it probably wasn’t as profitable as was hoped.

I’m now hoping we can get back to the top of the cycle: it’s a pub I like a lot, and with some decent beer I’ll be back- Walsall Wood luckily has held on to more of its pubs than other areas of Walsall and I’d hate to lose it, and there’s plenty of people around here willing to exchange money for beer.