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Detail Pages
Tess Rileys, Liverpool
Liverpool
L1 1HU
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about Tess Rileys
Quite liked this place despite the lack of hand pumps. Music not loud but audible. I reckon with some decent ale (and no karaoke) this could be really good.
On 14th October 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Al Bundy left this review about Tess Rileys
A nice enough place in the middle of karaoke central. Karaoke/singer is usually on but when its not its a decent place. Open plan and it has various raised areas. A long bar but no real ale. There is an upstairs part that's used for functions. Not usually as raucous as the nearby nightmares.
On 19th May 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3487 recommendations about 3390 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about Tess Rileys
Vaguely similar in style to the Wetherspoons almost next door, although you get a carpet in here and the crud is cleared away much quicker. This establishment appears to cater for middle aged diners with a few groups of younger men just standing and drinking. Faux victorian panelling, mirrors and lots of nice prints form the decoration, with a great number of tables as it is mainly a dining pub. Five short T bars interspersed with smaller fonts for wine, San Migel and Guinness but no handpumps.
On 4th January 2012
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3230 recommendations about 2939 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Helen Cooper left this review about Tess Rileys
I wouldn't go anywhere else in town for quality homemade food either of a daytime or night time when the entertainment starts! Can never believe the portion sizes for the prices - love the burgers and the homemade coleslaw us a must! Such a friendly atmosphere and staff can never do enough for you, puts other pubs to shame!!
On 18th September 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Lindsey Demellweek left this review about Tess Rileys
Great pub both day and night. I go there every time I go to town shopping on a saturday with my mum, they do the best homemade coleslaw!! Good portions and friendly service : )
On 15th September 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Karen Horrocks left this review about Tess Rileys
This is the real cream of Liverpool. Excellent food, welcoming staff and entertainment that will keep you coming back for more. I cannot recommend this place enough.
On 15th September 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2 recommendations about 2 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Arrowsmith left this review about Tess Rileys
Food and service is fab, excellent location in town, landlady was hands on and couldn't do enough for you!
On 15th September 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Michael Skelly left this review about Tess Rileys
Wonderful Place 2 eat and drink at... Members of staff our lovely, this makes the atmosphere of the place great. I would defently recomend 2 eat or drink hear. 10 out of 10 xx
On 15th September 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
deniece fay left this review about Tess Rileys
Three generations of landlords began when Tess Riley (nee Makin) discovered her business brain while working on her mother Elizabeth’s second hand clothes stall at St John’s and Paddy’s markets.
On non-market days Tess would travel over to the Wirral to collect her stock. She bartered with the affluent homeowners for the best price for their unwanted goods before selling them on at a handsome profit.
Tess, born and raised in Scotland Road, took over the reigns and it was this experience that gave her the skills which made history in the Liverpool licensee industry.
In 1947 Tess married Joe Riley. They had four children together – Joan, Billy, Frank and David. After raising her family, Tess retrained and in 1970 her new life in the pub and bar industry began. That same year she started working at The Pig and Whistle, followed by the Old Mona.
She was manager at The Jester for five years before moving to The Beehive in Mount Pleasant, where she bought the free hold in 1978. This was the first of many of the family's pubs to be transformed from a quiet drinking hole to one of the best pubs in Liverpool.
They installed a free juke box and played only 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s music. They introduced live bands at quiet times and on Sundays, which consequently became one of their busiest days. An organist called Mick Masters was a regular act. He always brought in crowds and when other pubs were quiet, The Beehive was bursting at the seams. People lined up outside to get in the door, in the days before people queued to get into pubs.
Tess would often be seen getting up for a song or two of an evening, accompanied by the resident organist. Her voice was as well known as her pub. Always dressed in the most glamorous of outfits, which would later set her up for her retirement on board cruise ships sailing the world, Tess always looked the part.
Tess passed on her publican skills to her children, who helped with the running of this pub and Riley’s, which they opened, on the same street, after Joe died. Eventually she would also help her eldest daughter Joan manage her very own pub.
Joan Fay (nee Riley) met Denis Fay at the Locarno Ballroom and they married in 1968, having three children, Joseph, Vincent and Deniece.
And so when the other Beehive across town became available in 1983, Tess helped her Joan to secure it. With her husband she became the landlord of the pub, in Paradise Street. They refurbished the tired building and it too became a favourite choice.
They used Tess’s business template of a free juke box and live music to make it a success, a method still practised in the family pubs today. And like his father-in-law, Denis carried out the behind the scenes work, leaving his wife to do what she, like her mother before her, did best and entertain the punters.
When the lease ran out, the family moved to The Stanley Arms, in Aughton.
Joan’s touch made it another hot spot with the locals, but they missed city life. So in 1996 Joan and Denis bought a unit in the former Blacklers building in Great Charlotte Street, and opened, Tess Riley’s in memory of Tess, who had died a short time after her beloved husband.
Today the pub is owned by Joan’s children following her death in 1998. Daughter Deniece said: “These two women were such an inspiration and their memory will live on in our pubs for years to come.”
On 15th September 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]