Commonwealth Gastropub claims to fill a pretty big gap in the scene--a British bar with creative food and good UK beers. After several visits in the year or so since they've opened, I don't see it. Commonwealth has the food part mostly right--nice limey snacks like Welsh rarebit and Scotch eggs (not a lot of Scotch eggs on DC menus), tasty trout, and different takes on meat pies. But the beer has not caught up. They have a few nice draughts--Wells Bombardier, for one--and an OK selection of bottles, but for the most part it looks like the import shelf in any American liquor store--Newcastle, Boddington's, Old Speckled Hen, St. Peter's. I was able to buy any of that in my college hicktown, where the #1 sellers were Nattys Boh and Light.
Commonwealth has no Fuller's, one Black Sheep, one Young's (Chocolate Stout, also a liquor store standby), and although they claim to have cask-conditioned ale, on every trip there they've been conveniently out. Where in the name of Ollie Cromwell can a man get a pint of real ale in DC?!

Photo of Commonwealth's patio by flickr user Needlessspaces.
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