Riverhouse Bar, Wick

The Alexander Bain opened as a JD Wetherspoon pub on May 2003 and closed 12 September 2022. It reopened, under a new name, as Riverhouse Bar & Grill on 28 September 2022. When I checked it out on 18.04.25, the building was still showing as the Alexander Bain. There must be a reason why it’s not showing as the Riverhouse Bar & Grill. Does anyone know?

I can find no reference as to what the original use of this building was. If I had to have a stab at guessing it I would say a former GPO building. The most Northerly JDW is set back off the main shopping street and is a three storey building. Just the ground floor is used for the pub which is split into areas and has all the usual furnishings. A lot of the trade on my Thursday afternoon visit was from families with some of the brats rampaging around. Although the bar has two sets of three hand pumps the left ones were all available soon. The right ones had a poor choice of Deuchars IPA, Doom Bore or Hook Norton Old Hookey. I went for the Old Hookey (£2.19) which turned out to be a pint of sludge which the wet behind the ears barman didn't notice and when I complained didn't seem aware why the murk should even be a problem. After a time and consultation with someone else he offered to change it so I went for the Doom Bore. Even this had a haze on it which would seem to indicate that whoever runs the cellar here is a complete muppet. After this I went onto bottles and cans. I did eat here and there was no problem with that. I really wanted this one to be a decent Spoons. It's a pleasant building but seems to be badly run especially in the beer area.