What is the difference between a bar and a pub? I’ve just finished reading Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, which is set in London rather than Chicago as in the movie. The main characters regularly go to a pub after work in the record shop. At one point, the main character meets another in, as he says, a bar, not a pub. What, in England, would be the difference between the two?
Hi Ballybay. Probably more than you want to know, but here goes…
“Pub”, short for public house, refers to any premises licensed for the retail purchase of alcohol and its consumption on the premises.
“Bar” refers to either (a) the actual serving counter where the drinks are handed over or (b) the booze-serving section of a larger concern, such as a restaurant, club or hotel.
Those are working definitions that will suffice most of the time. However, there are some fine distinctions. Some pubs like to refer to themselves as a bar purely to sound up-market or classy (= even more expensive than usual). So pubs in places like Kensington and Chelsea might take to calling themselves a ‘bar’ instead of a ‘pub’. This could also apply to Islington, where Nick Hornby’s book is set, which is not up-market but likes to think it is.
Also, we have pubs that only serve wines and spirits - no beers or ales. These are always called a “wine bar”, never a “wine pub”, and again are intended to attract slightly classier clientele.
Just for completeness, there is also the term “off-licence”. This refers to any premises licensed for the retail purchase of alcohol to be consumed off the premises - i.e. any place where you can buy booze but not drink it. English people tend to find the term “off-licence” a bit long-winded, so tend to use “offy” or similar-sounding abbreviation.
In passing, and of relevance to Nick Hornby’s book, it is hard to over-estimate the extent to which most English people organise their social lives around pubs - even those of us who don’t drink much (and many of us don’t, contrary to our reputation!). Pubs are the landmarks by which we navigate around London. Pubs are where we arrange to meet up with friends, even if we have some other eventual destination or activity in mind. Pubs are where people ‘celebrate’ every significant rite of passage.
BTW, Nick Hornby: excellent author. I recommend all his books to all Dopers.
Two of the practical differences I’ve found are
- that pubs can be really hard on newcomers- that is they have a very fixed set of patrons and will stare at new people, delay service, and generally make them uncomfortable.
and 2) that they have a lot of rules about hours and days of operation. That includes food service switching on and off during the afternoon.
The acid test is this: if the establishment’s name begins with the definite article, it’s almost certainly a pub. If not, it’s almost certainly a bar. This is not foolproof, but it’s a fairly good rule of thumb.
This is true of some pubs, but not all. Generally it is more true in residential and rural areas than in city centres, and to some extent it depends on the manner of the newcomers. It’s also true of some restaurants, cafes, newsagents and Post Offices.
The rules about when they can and can’t open (usually 11.00 am to 11.30 pm Mon-Sat and 11.00 pm Sun) are laid down in law and apply to “bars” as well. Food service varies from one pub to another, but many of them now serve food all day.
Hijack: whether it be a pub or a bar, in the US, upon arriving at a bar, everyone immediately looks for a table, or one of those horrible little cubicle things. Why? Why the hell can’t we just stand up? I like to chat, watch other people, hell, even talk to groups of strangers I don’t know. Why is this so bad?
One of the few aspects of life in the US that I hated with a passion.
What you’ve got here, barstow, is no so much a pub as a local. A good example of this is the one charicatured in ‘American Werewolf in London’ (can’t remember the name but it was something like The Disembowelled Lamb), in which the sinister customers turned to stare at the unfortunate yank tourists who had wandered in after their encounter with something hairy.
These places are dying out, but you might still find a version somewhere visitors would not normally be seen. Generally the longest-serving customer will have a personalised tankard kept for him behind the bar and his own barstool, and woe betide you if dare to sit on that stool.
“The Slaughtered Lamb”. It was just before they met the hairy one.
Stay on the road. Beware the moon.