Fri 10 Aug 2007
Is there an uglier word that “gastropub”? Yum, I certainly want to eat there. Leave it to the British, heirs to Shakespeare, Milton and P.G. Wodehouse, to invent for categorizing a restaurant a word that sounds like an alien creature that transports itself on its own slime.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I was just thinking about that the other day. I for one can’t help but think of unpleasant things when I hear the word. Gastroenterology. Gastric distress. And it goes downhill from there.
Which part of the word promises a more dismal experience, the “gastro” or the “pub”?
It’s got to be one of the worst food/wine coinages of all time, along with “agriturismo” which calls to mind a Marxist re-education centre by the Caspian Sea.
August 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Exactly!
I also don’t like the term “foodie,” which sounds like what a three-year-old says when he wants his dinner.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Corollary to foodie: winey, which seems to describe a lot of the hypercritical tasters and cultists of the wine kingdom. Pick pick pick.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I agree. It always makes me think of gastropods, the family that brings you slugs, snails, and limpets. Why not bistro, I wonder? Too French??
August 13th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
We know how the English feel about the French.
August 13th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Not to mention the Americans.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I so totally agree with you! We don’t even use it correctly in this country. In Britain it refers to a traditional pub that most likely has farmed out the kitchen operation to somebody who can actually cook. You can get some good food there, but it’s still first and foremost a pub. Here, it is a pretentious term used by anybody who wants a little kiss of anglophilia. These places are n’t bars. Even Spotted Pig, the original NYC gastropub and a place that I love, is a restaurant, not a bar. Trust me, most gastropubs in NYC were so-labeled by marketing people, and journalists just went along for the ride.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Ah, yes, those unskeptical journalists!