Pubs, Bars and Nightlife The year was 1991: a flash of lightening, a clap of thunder. Ye God! The Eagle was born, and British dining changed forever It doesn’t take much rewinding to find the time when gastropubs — dreadful word — didn’t exist. Once, of course, pubs served beer and hard liquor but food was hard to find; there might have been roast potatoes on the bar, rounds of sandwiches (ham or cheese, never the twain to meet), packets of nuts.
There were a few places with plastic menus that had pictures of burgers on them. Things change and today, wet-led pubs are the minority. Even those that trade mostly in drinking probably have a half-decent pie in their midst.
And then there are gastropubs abound, each focusing as much on their kitchens as their bars, with menus as considered as any restaurant and befitting of a proper evening out. Most credit the Eagle in Clerkenwell with being the first gastropub in Britain. It was founded by David Eyre and Mike Belben, who took over the premises in 1991.
Today the pub remains exemplary: a gastropub in its truest form. On the menu are dishes such as flame-grilled mackerel on cous cous, rich tortilla with smoked almonds and parsley salad, and ham with carrots and cannellini beans; the cooking is proficient as it is of fine value — gastropubs marry high quality with casualness. Or the best ones do.
And here are those that have helped to further galvanise the term gastropub in London. Customers will find well poured beers, ex.