English vs English

[deanb]

I asked on Twitter yesterday to no response:

Without a monarchy/nobility what are common pub names/naming conventions in the US? I can't see "The Presidents Head" and "Senators Arms" being common pub names.

[Thursday Next]

I quite like The Senators Arms as a pub name. We have loads of pubs called The Red Lion. So America maybe has loads of Red Necks?

[fuchikoma]

In Canada, I'd say... there's no more convention for naming pubs than any other business... When I was a kid, there was a local pub named after an explorer, but most of them have much more generic names after some catchy iconography or the owner's nickname.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I don't think there really are any common pub/bar names in the US, other than "The Library" which is popular in university towns ("No mom, I promise I'll be at the library all night...")

[Thursday Next]

I like the pubs that are just random "The [noun] and [noun]" or "The [adjective] [noun]" like "The boot and slipper" or "The drunken fox" or whatever.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

In the US, a pub will be a place that has beer but no spirits, and a bar has both. Have we been over this before?

 

Also, I haven't drank in enough different areas, but at least where I live I never see repeated names. The most generic one I can think of is "The Blarney Stone" and Google tells me there's other places that share the name in the states.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I'd say a bar is somewhere you stand up, probably has music and would go in the evening and into the night. They're almost exclusively in towns/cities or in hotels.

 

You'll find pubs in the countryside as well as the city and you'd' be sitting down, are open in the daytime as well as evening and are more likely to serve food.

 

I wouldn't say that's an official definition, but that's how I think of them. Also, I'd say a bar is a bit smarter, and a pub more relaxed, but that's more of a blurry line to me.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

All of the bars in Seattle have places to sit, usually open at some point during the day, and they all sell food. I see plenty of bars in the country outside of Seattle, too.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I think bars are a different thing in the US. Hopefully some Brits will come along and either confirm it's a UK/US thing, or that I'm completely barmy.

[Hot Heart]

Sounds like you have it right, TFG. The main difference I would really point to with pubs and bars over here is that bars tend to have a dancefloor whereas pubs have more seating (which ties in with the more 'relaxed' thing). Bars usually have a DJ whereas pubs have a jukebox (where people can pay to select songs), live music/open mic or no music at all (Wetherspoons chain).

 

Obviously, none of that's concrete, but that's the gist of it.

[TheMightyEthan]

We've got both kind of establishments like you guys are describing, but we'd just call them all bars.

[Luftwaffles]

To me, it sounds like your idea of a pub over there is what we call a brewery, but I'm assuming you guys have those over there as well.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

the only thing we'd call a brewery here is the place where they make beer, not sell it.

[deanb]

I agree with TFG n hot heart; generally a pub does food, a bar would do a bowl of chips at most. Bars tend to be open until later, pubs open throughout the day. Bars are found at town/city centres, pubs...everywhere. Drink selection is pretty much the same, though pubs wouldn't run some of the more exotic cocktails (though you'd be wanting nightclubs for stuff like that).

 

As for brewery that's where the beer is made(brewed), you'd only go drinking there at the end of a tour, if that brewery had them. There are brewery owned pubs though, there's a Black Sheep pub in my grans village. But a fair chunk of pubs are franchise ran (like the aforementioned Weatherspoons/"Spoons", which my cousin runs one.)

[fuchikoma]

Same up north here. A brewery is like a liquor factory (unless maybe it's a microbrewery... well, even often then these days.) Bars and pubs both serve beer and spirits, but pubs are more laid back and might serve decent food. A bar will probably be noisy and have TV screens and will be less to hang out and more to drink.

 

Also FDS, you nailed the naming thing - we had a Blarney Stone in my hometown too...

 

But, take these as generalizations too, as I tend to keep out of either one when I can...

[deanb]

Can someone fill me in why there's pubs in NA named after an Irish kissing stone? What's the history on that one? Or just a case of the Irish immigrants?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

As for brewery that's where the beer is made(brewed), you'd only go drinking there at the end of a tour, if that brewery had them. There are brewery owned pubs though, there's a Black Sheep pub in my grans village. But a fair chunk of pubs are franchise ran (like the aforementioned Weatherspoons/"Spoons", which my cousin runs one.)

 

The term I see for what you're describing is a brewpub.

 

Also, it's faux-Irish just like so much other stuff in America.

[deanb]

In describing the brewery or the franchise pubs?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The brewery that runs its own pubs.

[TheMightyEthan]

What you guys are describing as pubs does sound similar to a lot of what we would call breweries. Yes, a brewery is where they make beer, but like FDS said in the alcohol thread American is the land of the microbrewery. There are a lot of bar/restaurant things that we call breweries because they brew their own beer on-site, in the back.

 

Looking it up I guess technically these entities are called "brewpubs", but I've only ever heard them called breweries.

[deanb]

Americans don't have brown sauce? You eat your bacon naked?

[fuchikoma]

There's gravy... that sounds like the same thing? But I don't know why you'd want to put it on bacon - bacon's already plenty seasoned as-is.

On the other hand, bacon itself can, and has been added to almost everything.

 

I think I found another unexplored one... cinder blocks/breeze blocks.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Americans don't have brown sauce? You eat your bacon naked?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sauce

[Luftwaffles]

We don't season our bacon because more often than not bacon is used as a seasoning, on top of burgers, salads, eggs, potatoes, whatever.

[MasterDex]

Americans don't have brown sauce? You eat your bacon naked?

 

https://en.wikipedia...iki/Brown_sauce

 

The brown sauce in question there is HP sauce. I don't like the stuff myself but I hear it's delish!