The Captain Alexander (JD Wetherspoon), Liverpool

Large open-plan branch of the Wetherspoons chain just across the road from St James station. The main part of the pub is a roughly square-shaped space with exposed floorboards and an unbelievable amou8nt of almost exclusively high table and stool seating options. Normal tables and chairs can be found in the space under the large front windows, with some comfy looking banquettes in support, and cosy banquette booths can be found down the left-hand wall, so it’s worth exploring a bit in order to find a comfier seating option. To the rear, a semi-partitioned space with an open kitchen on the back wall offers a few more basic seating options. The servery lines the right-hand wall and has a nice dark wood counter and a typical ‘Spoons-style mirrored bar back. The whole room probably feels a bit like an old-school drinking barn at times, such is the open-plan nature of the layout, but there are a few pillars and posts that break the space up a bit and on a busy evening, the furniture obstacle course was enough to distract from the rather impersonal surroundings. On the bar, the standard ratio of three regular ‘Spoons ales plus three guests was present and correct and I took a pint of Purple Moose Dark Side Of The Moose, which I haven’t tried in many years and was as great as I remember it being. The staff were all pretty young, friendly and suspiciously enthusiastic on a busy Saturday evening. There are loads of Wetherspoons pubs in Liverpool and absolutely none of them stick out in my memory as being anything other than functional, so it’s only fitting that this is another such venue that fits perfectly into that category. This was fine for a quick pint, held absolutely no surprises and will be forgotten about in no time at all - a typical average ‘Spoons experience all round. Date of visit - 15th July 2023

Added this new JDW outlet to our crawl this week, and found it had Big Bog Bourbier and 3 Peerless brewery beers as guests, and we chose Langton Spin which was fine.

a shiny new Spoons with a roof terrace giving panoramic views of hideous brown office blocks. I tend to avoid Wetherspoons when in Liverpool due to the number of better options, but this one is a welcome enough addition to this part of town if you like the combination of greasy spoon cafe and professional drinkers pub. the beer choice was good today but the number of annoying arseholes in ensured it was a brief visit. It’s probably okay in midweek especially if you need to be in the James Street area.

Liverpool's newest Spoons is set on the ground floor of an ugly 20th Century office block. They've made an effort to make it attractive but it's still a square open plan room. I didn't look into the roof terrace. There were loads of staff but I wonder how long that will last. I normally avoid new JDWs on the opening week and this one showed why. On its 3rd day of opening the 12 hand pumps just had the JDW trio of doom, GK old Speckled Hen and Adnam's Broadside. I went for a couple of cans of Bengali IPA. There are better Spoons in Liverpool but as it was the opening week I'll ignore the abysmal beer choice.