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The Italians have their enotecas; the Japanese enjoy izakayas. Paris is full of wine bars, and the British prize their pubs. In this economy, everyone needs a “local,” and it’s high time Americans resurrected the tavern, an establishment that played a vital role in our culinary culture.

That was certainly chef Jose Garces’ motivation in opening Village Whiskey, his newest restaurant in Philadelphia and what could be the prototype for the emerging species of new American taverns cropping up across the country. Switching from the Latin roots he cultivated with his restaurants Amada, Tinto, Distrito and Chifa, Garces envisioned Village Whiskey as a neighborhood bar specializing in “neats and eats.”

The 30-seat spot features more than 80 different varieties of whiskey, bourbon, rye and Scotch. Handcrafted Prohibition- and Repeal-style cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Aviation and Philadelphia Fish House Punch are offered alongside a well-edited beer and wine list.

The small, all-day menu features raw-bar items and iconic American bar snacks, such as deviled eggs; house-made cheese puffs; seasonal, house-cured pickles; burgers; duck-fat fries; and specialties like Kentucky Fried Quail and a top-dollar lobster roll.

“Village Whiskey is a modern reinvention of a saloon,” says Garces, voted James Beard Best Chef of the Mid-Atlantic for 2009. “It’s a cozy, familiar place that just happens to serve excellent cocktails, a tremendous selection of whiskeys and craveable snacks.”

Inspiration for his snacks goes back to the days when using the freshest local ingredients and preserving were the only ways to go.

“Our house-cured pickles are crafted from the finest produce and served with simple, flavorful accompaniments of whipped ricotta cheese and house-made black-olive tapenade,” says Garces.

“Even our cocktails are built from ingredients such as house-made bitters and high-end spirits. We’ve taken the traditional ‘corner pub’ flavors and given them an attentive, painstaking makeover to turn them into something even more delicious.”

Such bars, offering “bar food” for the cognoscenti, with an artisanal bent and a worldly yet essentially all-American sensibility, have taken a step beyond the gastropub’s British vibe and heavy focus on beer.