The Grapes

Until recently, The Grapes was only ever considering a viable night out for my friends and I at New Year’s due to its location and relative ease to get home, plus there’s nothing like seeing in the New Year singing Auld Lang Syne in the middle of a rather busy roundabout.
However, after undergoing a recent refurbishment (is it actually any different? Who knows), it has become a popular venue once more for Formby’s residents, including me. Whilst it is still filled with the same kind of posing wannabe WAGs that it used to, it does seem a helluva lot more bearable these days. One of the biggest reasons for this is its prices, offering one of the cheapest pints in Formby as well as excellent drinks deals and pleasant food at excellent prices.
The pub itself is large in size, accommodating practically all of Formby inhabitants in it of a Saturday night, whilst also being big enough for you to avoid any horrors you might have pulled the week before that you’d rather not see without your beer goggles on.
The atmosphere is relaxed and the clientele are mainly youthful, but this does not make it alienating to the many older generations I have seen whilst I was there, which shows how The Grapes is a place where anyone could go for a few pints or dinner.

For a while this mammoth pub had a huge bunch of metal grapes hanging outside it, I often wondered how that would work with other pub names — could you have a massive pair of royal appendages if it were the ‘Kings Arms’ for example. I, of course, digress.
This pub has recently been refurbished, although honestly I can’t really see where — the tables are a bit nicer and the carpet has a few less ground in chewing gum splotches (although it’s still a hideous pattern) but the bar is where it always is and even the weird, unfathomable golf game near the stairs to the toilet is still there. I’m not complaining you understand, I actually really like The Grapes and were it not the other side of Formby, and not for the fact that I’m at least trying to pretend to be a real functioning member of society, I would happily spend all my days out here — in winter tucked into one of the booths and in summer lounging on the outside terrace.
The service is friendly (this may be because I know quite a few of the bar staff) and the beer well poured and competitively priced. The food is the usual reheated something-​with-​chips-​and-​peas but it’s cheap (£1.99 for scampi, chips and peas) and not especially bad.
Definitely the best place in Formby to spend New Year’s Eve when, come midnight, revellers roll out onto the street outside to hug and sing and watch the fireworks explode over local gardens.