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.
