There’s word that a new pub is coming to Downtown, near Brasserie Les Halles on Pennsylvania Avenue near 12th Street NW. The pub, part of the Elephant & Castle chain, still doesn’t appear on the franchise website, so no specific opening date is known. But if the description on the company website holds true, Elephant & Castle will feature “[h]eart-warming comfort foods from Britain” in “a blending of design elements reminiscent of Jolly Old England.” Though we haven’t been over the pond in some time, this claim seems a little off the mark. The menu features nachos, wings, and low-carb options. The last time we were over the pond, we had trouble finding any evidence of Mexican food, and we don’t think any English pub-goer would concern themselves with lowering their carb intake. The claim of genuine-ness seems a bit off the mark. But it has been a while, so we might be wrong.

Wondering about the name of the pub franchise? It might suggest to locals a conflation of the Republican Party and the Smithsonian Castle, but it actually comes from a London tube stop on the Bakerloo and Northern lines. Club goers might know it as the stop for the famous Ministry of Sound. The stop gets its name from a long-dead pub either named after a Spanish princess or a smithy with connections to the ivory trade.