iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Lovely to see. We used to get lots of frogs in our pond, but haven’t seen any for years. Think the fish eat the spawn.

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

So sad for your loss, Ellie. Take care - may the many happy and lovely memories help you through this difficult time.

030

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Trying this fruit beer from Three Bears, Canada. Enjoyed the IPA - but everything’s served so cold.

040

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Debate on gravy on Radio 2 right now. Perfect time for pubs to promote their roasts and delicious gravy. Should all pubs have to give free extra gravy? What’s your view?

040

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Never had to queue so much than today, shopping in Birmingham’s city centre. Everywhere is rammed. Good news for retailers.

000

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

I know huge labour and ever higher operating costs are forcing businesses to use tech/automation more, but I struggle with self service in a restaurant environment. It just makes it less about hospitality, more DIY. And should a service charge (12.5%) be automatically added to the bill?

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

The Hospitality Apprenticeship Showcase inspires me, thanks to people like Ben, who joined Fuller’s at 16 after being failed by his school. A passion for work & learning has seen him grow into a confident, incredible young man, sharing his story with MPs/leaders. Hospitality is a true meritocracy.

#hospitalityapprenticeshipshowcase #hospitality #meritocracy #fullers

Hospitality provides careers and opportunities: from bar work to marketing; beer making to CEO. And it’s fun!

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

A lovely Sheps tenancy in the heart of London. Beautifully refurbished, good food and beer. Described as a hidden treasure and it really is - a stone’s throw from the Old Bailey, if you’re visiting 😉. Cheshire Cheese, Little Essex Street @shepherdneame.bsky.social

Cheshire Cheese, a Sheps tenancy in central London

052

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Visiting BrewDog at Waterloo Sidings - massive but super cool space, with bowling, slide, private meeting rooms, Grind coffee and more.

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Train’s delayed, so time for a quick pint 🍻

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Fellow passenger on tonight’s tube engrossed in a good book @petebrownbeer.bsky.social

150

Reposted by Kate Oppenheim

Laura Hadland @morrighani.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

PSA: The train ticket sale has started today. I've just mass booked everything I need to March and I think I've saved a bit of cash 🤷

271

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

BII News is out! Full of great stories featuring fantastic operators, with exclusive research & industry advice. Thanks KAM, Philip Thorley, Rob Pitcher, Annabel Smith, Paul Rankin, Mark Robson & others, plus NITAs winners, inc Apprentices of the Year cover stars, Alex Marshall & Handerline Morency.

030

Reposted by Kate Oppenheim

Club Soda @joinclubsoda.com · 07/01/2025

Lots of events coming up this January: tastings at Majestic stores across the UK, plus Wine & Cheese Club, poetry, Queers Without Beers monthly LGBTQI+ social and more at the Tasting Room in London: joinclubsoda.com/events/

joinclubsoda.com

Events at Club Soda

Join Club Soda's events at the Tasting Room and online to discover alcohol-free drinks, learn to change your drinking and create connections.

021

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Know that feeling 😬 - my family all hate me, cough, cough, coughing. I’ll get some Vocalzone. Get well soon. X

100

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

So many nasty bugs around this winter. Unpleasant as it sounds, I’ve been coughing my guts up daily since Nov 22. Hope you get well soon, hun. X

100

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Merry Christmas to you, Nigel.

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Love having the family back together for Christmas, but makes me realise/remember what running around after, and feeding, three children feels like. It’s non- stop. Not sure whose fault it is that they revert to little kids again, but I’m loving it… for a limited time. Bloody knackered though. 🤣

030

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Merry Christmas to you and Diana, with all good things for you both in 2025. X

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Great article about six great pub landladies in The Standard. A pub is not just a pub. It’s a calling. Thanks to @thedodomicropub.bsky.social for sharing.

0103

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Great article. Thanks for sharing Do. Loved the quote about Violet Thompson, first woman to be recognised as licensee: Pubs… were not just a job.They were more like a calling… her greatness as a landlady came from the fact that she believed, with true faith, that a proper pub was a beautiful thing.”

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

All the best, Ellie. Major change happening in my life too in 2025. Hoping that as a ‘Wood Snake’, it’s going to be a good year for me.

210

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Nice idea. But don’t do what my mum did, put them in albums but with no dates or captions! Old albums were card and she wrote on those, but the newer plastic ones had no space for info.

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

When print was print. ‘Printing Types’ book from the London College of Printing, now London College of Communication. 1985-1987

040

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Just rummaging through a big box of old photos I saved from my mum’s and old family home. Such happy memories, but wonder whether my kids will ever get to do the same. All my photos are uploaded onto the cloud with only a few printed and framed.

120

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Never easy when family overseas. But thank goodness for tech, doesn’t it make such a difference being able to see and hear from them easily? FaceTime calls with my eldest, when she was in Sydney over the summer, shrunk the distance massively, versus the odd postcard or call, as it was in my youth.

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Many a good night out here in the 1990s with various hospitality friends, who used it as a regular meeting place.

000

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Crazy busy on the tubes tonight.

030

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Having listened to Alison Battisby, Avocado Social’s top tips for 2025, I had a go at a vertical video last night. Not sure it’ll win me any awards. 🤣@avocadosocial.bsky.social

040

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Got to say, pay is much better these days and is on par with what you’d get doing similar part-time, entry level work. And she’d rather be in a fun, hospitality environment than stacking shelves in a supermarket. People just need to show more patience, when bars are busy.

010

Reposted by Kate Oppenheim

editorcamra @editorcamra.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Often, when I have a dark beer. someone will ask; "Is that Guinness?" It never is. I say it is a fresh cask-conditioned locally made stout (or porter). Here is a highly selective list of the many gems you can find in lieu of the "shortage" of the heavily-marketed stuff; camra.org.uk/media-centre...

camra.org.uk

CAMRA’s award winning 12 Stouts of Christmas

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) recommends 12 award-winning stouts for pubs to stock instead of Guinness this ChristmasAs the clock ticks closer to the merry day and the Christmas spirit is everywhe...

0162

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Well said, my daughter was running around at the pub last night, during a very busy session. Table service makes it hard too, especially when customers order one or two drinks at time for a large group. People were grumbling about the wait but she was doing her best.

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Absolutely, other stouts available.

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The original 6, then. Glad it’s on the mend - sorry you missed the event of the season, though. Think we’ll do a summer one. X

110

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Just meant, that with Guinness such a hot brand for younger drinkers, it seems like the ideal time to introduce them to cask. Lots of pubs (although a lot fewer these days) stock both and stout to ale seems a shorter leap than lager to cask.

010

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

So when a pub is short of Guinness, can the brilliant bar team introduce the lucky customer to their range of lovely real ales instead? There’s got to be a big opportunity for cask as a solution to the shortage.

2102

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Just watching Black Doves on Netflix and thinking we need to see a resurrection of pianos in pubs. Many happy memories of sing-alongs the piano.

070

Reposted by Kate Oppenheim

The Dodo Micropub @thedodomicropub.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

I’m going to be completely honest. December so far is a strange one. It’s either absolutely dead (worse than post covid era) or absolutely glorious vibes. There’s no in between. Anyone else having a rollercoaster of a season?

141

Kate Oppenheim @lovepubs.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Great to hear pubs getting lots of positive PR on Radio 2 this afternoon. The story was about GenZ loving trad boozers - mentions of cosy spaces and cheap beer (compared to upmarket bars). Shout out to @melissacolebeer.bsky.social for her brilliant contribution. @bbcradio2.bsky.social

1111