UK pubs are in a well-documented crisis, threatened by the high cost of everything from staffing and rent to utilities and beer to proposed legislation banning smoking in pub gardens. In 2023, 769 pubs went bankrupt, according to accounting firm Price Bailey LLP; now, the company’s most recent data says 11% of UK pubs are at risk of closing. But a clutch of London operators are not only bucking the trend—they’ve also created buzzy, thriving destinations.
By setting up shop in wealthy neighborhoods and offering high-end dining options, while preserving the uniquely homey appeal of a traditional pub, they’re drawing in crowds, especially young, affluent diners and drinkers. They are, in some sense, gastropubs. But they’ve evolved since the 1990s, when they took London by storm.
“By the 2010s, what was exciting and pioneering had become dull and mainstream,” says Ben Tish, executive chef at Cubitt House, which owns eight pubs in and around central London. (A few gastropubs, like the pioneering Eagle, remain, see below. So do traces of the defining rickety, mismatched furniture and slam-it-on-the-table service.
) Now the destination food pub has a well-designed dining room without a wobbly, reclaimed chair in sight. It has proper, printed menus, staff with restaurant training and buzz, rather than a frenetic cacophony. Prices have been upgraded, too: Starters at Cubitt House pubs average £13 ($17), while mains hover around £30; the bar’s Scotch eggs and sausage r.