Good morning. O hell, I’m lying. I”m a night person, mostly, mornings suck. However, a post by Foodgal about “:Urban Tavern,” a new restaurant in the Hilton Hotel in downtown San Francisco that’s billed as a “gastropub” got my juices flowing.

I looked through all the publicity, checked the Web, found lots of verbage about the wine this new place stocks, but not a single work about beer. My gawd, I thought, how could this be: a “gastropub” without beer?

So I just called the manager, who told me that indeed they do have beer and he’ll e-mail me a list. So, I asked innocently, what beers do you have on tap?

We don’t have any on tap, he said. “We’re new. We’ve just opened.”

Hmmm. Well, so much for that gastropub. It’s obviously gonna’ be an excellent restaurant. But a gastropub? Not. Mike, who posted a comment about the restaurant on Yelp summed it up for me. Thanks Mike.

Had dinner here the day after they opened. Service was somewhat disorganized, but I expect they will sort this out, so I didn’t ding them anything for that.

Minus one star for claiming to be a “Gastropub” (I hate this term, but it’s everywhere now) and not carrying a single ale on draft, or even anything interesting in bottles! Monk’s Kettle is a gastropub. The new Magnolia is a gastropub. Thirsty Bear is a gastropub. Granmercy Tavern in NYC (the claimed inspiration for Urban Tavern) is a gastropub.

Urban Tavern is _not_ a gastropub. (A bit of a rant … but I like ale.)

Oh yes, when he sends me the beer list, I’ll post it.