A guard sticks his head into the Stag to inform the patrons, "There is some trouble with a crew of pirates towards the town center. Town guard are protecting high town, so you all should be alright so long as you stay indoors for the time being." With that, he departs to join the other town guards.
The other patrons are already all a-murmer discussing what might have happened or what may happen, though in general, they don't seem terribly concerned for their own safety at the moment, content in the competence of the town guard.
Go ahead and remove some gold for your food, between 1.3gp to 3gp based on what you had. Anywhere in there is fine. Tip if you like. Heart obviously doesn't eat so doesn't need to remove any gold. Otherwise, you are free to act, react, etc. Investigate with the patrons, head out to see what's going on, whatever.