A pub, or public house, is a drinking establishment serving food and drink, including alcoholic beverages such as beer and cider. Most pubs also sell wine, spirits, tea, coffee and soft drinks. A number of pubs provide live music or other entertainment, such as a quiz night, or are known for their sports and other leisure activities, such as bowling.
Some pubs, particularly in the United Kingdom and its former colonies, have a traditional association with Sunday league football, where customers and local teams compete against invited visiting teams. Some pubs have bowling greens, and are associated with a form of folk rock music that began in the 1970s, with bands such as Kilburn and the High Roads and Dr. Feelgood, and is now commonly known as pub rock.
Pubs are often notable as a setting for fictional works of literature, stories, films and video games. These include the Admiral Benbow Inn in the Treasure Island pirate story, The Garrison in the 1920s crime TV drama Peaky Blinders, The Leaky Cauldron and the Green Dragon in the Harry Potter fantasy novels, Moe’s Tavern in the television series The Simpsons, and The Oak and Crosier in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion video game.
A key feature of a modern pub is the bar, where patrons can purchase a variety of alcoholic beverages. Most of these are draught beers, but some serve wines, champagne and spirits as well. In some cases, the beer sold in a pub is brewed on the premises by the landlord. In other cases, the landlord may have a contract with a brewery that obligates (trade tie) them to only serve beers brewed by the company; this type of pub is known as a tied house.
