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While Americans are going gaga for gastropubs, back in the UK (where the eateries originated) some Britons are tiring of the concept.
The gastropub phenomenon first emerged in early-1990s London with restaurateurs pairing contemporary cuisine—rather than traditional pub grub —with rustic tavern decor. The movement finally crossed the Atlantic in 2004 with the opening of New York’s first installment of the new idiom, The Spotted Pig, which has been squeezing in huge crowds of eager diners since it first opened. A new crop of similar restaurants quickly followed, and joining the fray soon is the unfortunately named Spotted Dick. The gastropub juggernaut made its way further west this past spring with Ford’s Filling Station, L.A.’s first official gastropub.
While the trend can’t be stopped in the States, Laura Barton writes in The Guardian of her fatigue with London’s gastropubs, which she finds have become a culinary cliché:
Gastropub. Three syllables that instill an oily dread into my heart. It is not the word itself, of course, more the fact that, were there such a thing as a linguistic gastropub menu, it would probably find itself described as a duo of pub and gastronomy served on a bed of wild roquette with a plum confit and red wine reduction.
And what does Barton think of the news that superchef Gordon Ramsay plans to open a chain of gastropubs in the UK?
More gastropubs? This seems to me a bleak, bleak future, for as the years have rolled by I have rather had my fill of herbed polenta and parmesan shavings, and after considerable rumination I have reached this conclusion: I loathe gastropubs and all who sail in them.
There is a type of disenchanting quality to many of London's gastropubs, unfortunately they seem to be the only places in which to actually find an interesting selection of beer. Belgo and Bierdrome spread across the entire city and are usually placed in up and coming places like Islington and North Clapham, they offer something different than the typical pub trilogy of Guinness, Stella, and...+READ
There is a type of disenchanting quality to many of London's gastropubs, unfortunately they seem to be the only places in which to actually find an interesting selection of beer. Belgo and Bierdrome spread across the entire city and are usually placed in up and coming places like Islington and North Clapham, they offer something different than the typical pub trilogy of Guinness, Stella, and Strongbow--and though I've eaten quite often in many of London's gastropubs I've never had a meal which matched the complex compliment of the beer selection.-COLLAPSE
As long as there are "pubs" like Belgo's and its Bierodrome sister serving up good value, high quality food, I'm all for gastropubs. Maybe Britain needs a new high-concept restaurant trend, but it does not the return of cheap meat pies and overboiled tinned vegetables. London may have had its glut, but gastropubs can still cure the abundant cases of indigestion and bad taste in Birmingham,...+READ
As long as there are "pubs" like Belgo's and its Bierodrome sister serving up good value, high quality food, I'm all for gastropubs. Maybe Britain needs a new high-concept restaurant trend, but it does not the return of cheap meat pies and overboiled tinned vegetables. London may have had its glut, but gastropubs can still cure the abundant cases of indigestion and bad taste in Birmingham, Glasgow, Swansea, and Inverness.-COLLAPSE