In A Restaurant By Any Other Name Is Not a Gastropub, Drew Long from the food blog D.C. Foodies, based in Washington D.C., muses on the difference between a gastropub and a restaurant (with some input from our reviewers).

A Restaurant By Any Other Name Is Not a Gastropub

Gastropub: (British) A public house that serves high-quality food.

This Wiktionary definition is the best I could find for gastropub, but it’s illustrative enough. A gastropub is generally understood to be a public house (read: bar) that serves equally high-quality food and beer. In other words, a place you’re just as likely to go for a few great beers as a nice meal. The concept hasn’t been around all that long, but it has certainly found traction here in D.C.

Well the term has found traction, the establishment of actual gastropubs, not so much. Jamie Leeds (above) is the co-owner and executive chef of one of D.C.’s two gastropubs, Commonwealth. Granville Moore’s on H Street, is the other. I would be just as inclined to visit either for a few quality ales as I would their upscale dishes.

Yet, a Google search of the terms “gastropubs” and “D.C.” pulls up a number of restaurants that either refer to themselves as gastropubs, or are referred to as gastropubs. Againn is clearly a restaurant. So is Brasserie Beck. Both have good beer selections (Beck’s selection of Belgian beers is excellent, in fact), but the small bar areas, large dining rooms, showcase kitchens and raw bars (is that a new trend, too?) indicate that these places were designed to be restaurants, not drinking establishments. Rustico, which was named D.C.’s best gastropub in 2008 by the City Paper, could be a gastropub, but Beer Director Greg Engert and the management of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which owns Rustico, are very clear about the fact that it is very much a restaurant.

You can read the full article on D.C. Foodies