ewan_m

Although I didn't say DWH or any of the Young's pubs were gastropubs (and for the record, I don't *personally* think they are), I don't think that all gastropubs are independent exactly. The Anchor & Hope, for example, on The Cut SE1, is one of the earlier and more famous gastropubs and it's owned by Wells & Young's. Though of course, it doesn't have the 'chain' branding that I guess you may be referring to.

dc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Take a bow Eric Illsley: > > "The best definition of 'gastro-pub' that I can > provide is a pub that provides food of such > quality that people will attend merely for the > quality of the cuisine, rather than because it is > a place where they can drink alcohol." I like this definition a lot, though it doesn't define what a 'pub' is ;) Still, I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what makes a pub 'gastro' and it's pretty much different for everyone. I've been relatively disappointed by a lot of the Young's refurbs over recent years; I think they're losing some of the character of many of their pubs by pushing the food side. Maybe it makes them gastropubs, maybe it just makes them up-market pubs that serve food, but in either case, I think there's something being sacrificed to calculated blandness.