From Taverns to Gastropubs: Food, Drink, and Sociality in England

Christel Lane

May 2018 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

The pub is a prominent social institution integral to British identity. From Taverns of Gastropubs: Food, Drink, and Sociality in England charts the historical development of the English public house from the Restoration period to the twenty-first century, culminating in the contemporary gastropub. It explores issues of class, gender, and national identification to understand the social identity of patrons and how publicans conceive of their establishments' organizational identity. In the context of large-scale pub closures since the 1990s the gastropub is viewed as both a reaction to the traditional drinking pub and as a promising alternative. From Taverns to Gastropubs uses historical diaries, industry reports, and a wealth of in-depth interviews in order to understand the rise of the gastropub and how food, drink, and sociality has changed through time.

About the author

Christel Lane is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and a Fellow of St. John's College at the University of Cambridge, UK. Professor Lane's work on fine-dining restaurants in Britain and Germany and on gastropubs combines her long-standing interest in economic and organizational sociology with the sociology of culture. Her previous books include The Cultivation of Taste: Chefs and the Organization of Fine Dining (Oxford University Press, 2014), and she has published articles on food and dining in Food, Culture and Society, British Journal of Sociology, Poetics, and Industry and Innovation.