As someone who is often accused of inventing the term gastropub, (The jury’s out but I certainly used it in an Evening Standard piece mid 1990s) there is a pleasing symmetry in flagging up what may be the first indications of its demise. The term “Gastropub” will rumble on for years, but the original, inspired concept as represented by the trail-blazers like the Eagle and the Peasant is increasingly devalued and diluted. Pub chain managers fire identikit lamb shanks at hapless customers and a certain style of food ticks the boxes on every landlord’s spreadsheet. The founding Fathers of the Gastropub continue to ply their trade but even their businesses are now sidling towards restaurants – for example Great Queen Street. There is always room for something new in the food business and it will be interesting to see just how things develop.

On the Chiswick High road an old Young’s pub called the Crown & Anchor has been taken over and re-invigorated but the new concept takes enormous pains to avoid being labelled a gastropub – “Bar, Café and Restaurant” proclaims the blurb. And then there’s the name “Shackology”… pardon? Inside all is comfy sofas and scattered tables, there’s a commendable emphasis on the provenance of ingredients and even a children’s menu. Reading that menu doesn’t clarify much – “potted shrimps” may be g-pub but “braised pheasant in red wine, prunes and button onions”, “pan-fried haddock fillet, cavolo nero and spicy tomato sauce” nudge towards restaurant dishes. You have to suspect that neighbours Sam’s Brasserie and the High Road Brasserie have shaken up the average Chiswickian’s view of relaxed eating and drinking by providing a very attractive alternative to Gastropubbery, and that their success is what Shackology is trying to emulate.

The Fox & Anchor is a brand spanking-new venture on Charterhouse Street in Smithfield.This one needs watching. It has been opened by the people from the nearby Malmaison and eventually it will have a handful of bedrooms – they are also responsible for the Hotel du Vin empire. What is interesting about the Fox is that the aim was always to open a pub – not a gastropub. Such an ambition makes you think about just what the differences are between the two classes of establishment. Pubs always have good beer and the kind of atmosphere that underpins the serious business of drinking. Food is wholesome, not over-priced and practical rather than fancy. Gastropubs sacrifice the drinker for the diner, prices creep upwards, and the food can be over-fussy on the plate. But then again atop the Fox & Anchor menus the strap line reads HOPS&CHOPS,CUVEES&DUVETS which is hardly pub speak. The food at the Fox is very good, honest, and seasonal: potted beef and piccalilli (£5.95); prawns by the half pint (£4.95); field mushrooms on toast(£4.95);a large ham hock with Colcannon mash and parsley sauce (£10.95) – very good indeed. Steak and oyster pie (£10.95) – fine crust, fine gravy, extra oysters. The goose fat chips are majestic. There is a long bar and the beer is well kept, the staff are friendly. This place manages to be more pub than gastropub. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could replace all those tired old gastropubs with genuine, hospitable, “public houses”? 

Charles Campion

Eagle, 159 Farringdon Road, EC1 (020 7837 1418)

Peasant, 240 St John Street, EC1 (020 7336 7726)

Great Queen Street, 32 Great Queen Street, WC2 (020 7242 0622)

Shackology, 374 Chiswick High Road, W4 (020 8995 2607)

Sam’s Brasserie,11 Barley Mow Passage, W4 (020 8987 0555)

High Road Brasserie, 162-166 Chiswick High Road, W4 (020 8742 7474)

Fox & Anchor, 115 Charterhouse Street, EC1 (020 7253 5075)