paul youlten wrote: > The difference between pubs and restaurants is a getting a bit > blurred. But not so much between pubs and cafes. > > In the UK pubs have to be licenced with the local council and usually > have restricted opening hours (i.e: they are not normally allowed to > sell alcohol before 11am). They also have to comply with national and > local legislation which can include things like not being within a > certain distance of a school, not allowing people under 16 years to > enter the premises unaccompanied and not being operated by someone who > is a convicted criminal. > > Cafes are not usually licenced to sell alcohol and are simply > regulated by the local authority's food hygiene office. If a cafe or > restaurant wants to sell alcohol they have to apply for a licence just > like a pub or a restaurant. There used to be lots of rules about > restaurants not being allowed to have a "bar" where customers could > sit and consume drinks and there was a rule about them only being > allowed to serve alcohol with meals; but most of these laws were > repealed under the Licencing act 2003.
Of cause the opening hours rules were relaxed a lot - I think in the 2003 revision? Certainly now pubs COULD open 24 hours, but the local authority can ( I think ) apply restrictions. The 11PM closing time in law was removed so local authorities have to make a good case to oppose an application? But people seem to be missing another fundamental difference that someone in the UK probably takes foregranted? If I want breakfast then I'm most likely to look for a 'Caf' - Restaurants tended to be open only midday and evening. Someone coming in from outside and using a hotel would be served breakfast in the hotels restaurant but non-residents would only normally use that for breakfast if joining another resident of the hotel ( or they have money burning holes in their pockets ;) ). This is another 'rule' that has been eroded over time, but is probably one that would be subconsciously used if looking on a map for somewhere to eat? -- Lester Caine - G8HFL ----------------------------- Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/lsces/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk// Firebird - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
