The Sand Martin: What's in a name?

What’s in a pub name? Nothing really, according to Marston’s Inns and Taverns, whose new “family dining pub restaurant” The Sand Martin opens today next to Cardiff City Stadium. They have also recently refurbished The Old College in Barry and renamed it The Cherry Orchard.

Once, pub names reflected local geography, history, culture or community. However, this is no longer the case. Marston’s policy is to choose “neutral” pub names, just like town councils naming roads around arbitrary themes on new housing estates.

The Sand Martin joins McDonalds, KFC, Subway et al. around the stadium that is home to Cardiff City Football Club and Cardiff Blues rugby club. Letters were sent to Marston’s suggesting names for the pub; for instance, The Leckwith to reflect the pub’s location, The Fred Keenor after the cup-winning Cardiff City captain (the road by the pub is already called Fred Keenor Avenue), The Gareth Edwards or other Welsh rugby legends, or The Bluebird after the football club’s nickname. Indeed, the latter suggestion fits with Marston’s nature theme (e.g., see also Otter at Newbridge, The Willow Tree at Brynmawr, The Dragonfly at Merthyr Tydfil and The Bumble Bee at Blackwood). However, in an open letter published in Jan 2011, Marston’s defended their pub naming policy by stating they always choose non-partisan names for their outlets so as not to offend anyone.

The Old College in Barry was opened around 1986 on the site of a recently demolished college. To my knowledge, there has never been a Cherry Orchard in Barry. A link to the past has been lost.

So, meaningless “neutral” names for family dining experience pubs are the order of the day. On a more positive note, Marston’s have put interesting local photographs around their establishments (e.g., a large panorama of Porthkerry viaduct in The Cherry Orchard and numerous Cardiff scenes in The Sand Martin), they are child-friendly (The Sand Martin has a play area), there are no TVs showing sport (makes a change these days), they have some good beers (not always the case in family dining pubs) and, as long as they keep the 2-for-1 and other offers, the food is good and reasonably-priced.

http://www.marstonstaverns.co.uk/cardiff/sandmartin

http://www.cherryorchardpubbarry.co.uk/

On the set of Alys - Don't eat the food!

I was served a lovely breakfast in the café in Alys, but was under strict instructions not to eat the food.

Alys is a gritty drama written by Siwan Jones, about a single mother and her son who flee from Cardiff after a violent incident and settle in a small Welsh town. The series has plenty of black humour and is directed in an interesting style (think David Lynch meets Mike Leigh to film a Welsh western in Llandudoch).

Although set in West Wales, the series is mainly filmed in Barry and Penarth. Last summer I was one of the extras in the café, which was established in an empty unit on Barry Island. A drab backcloth on a van in front of the door obscures the promenade and the Bristol Channel. Clever use of roadwork and traffic noise makes it seem part of a different town in the series.

I was “man in café” being served a massive breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs, mushroom, beans, fried tomato and fried bread. I said “diolch.” You look at the food, but you can’t eat it. This would create continuity problems between different takes, and the food has probably been made inedible so that it looks good on film.

Here are some of the tricks of the trade, culled from a media awareness course. Roast chicken or turkey has probably been cooked only briefly, painted with ten coats of food colouring, and blowtorched. The syrup being poured over pancakes is probably motor oil. Puddings are rock hard, and ice is artificial, so that nothing melts. Anything BBQ has probably been painted with wood stain. Vegetables may have been sprayed with glycerine, while the milk on cereal is probably glue.

And my close-up being served breakfast? Well, it’s probably on the cutting-room floor. I would not have smiled if I’d known that this wasn’t Gavin & Stacey, but a dark drama set in rat-infested buildings! But I am there in the background when the arguments are going on in the kitchen, looking hungry.

Alys can be seen on S4/Clic (if you’re over 16 and live in the UK) for a limited period: http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=377088089

Here’s the shows website:
http://www.s4c.co.uk/alys/e_ygyfres.shtml