While we’re on the nightlife-and-guidebooks kick today: The folks at Zagat, it seems, will repackage their content for any corporate hussy who sashays into their offices. The latest is——-and take a deep breath before reading——-the 2007 Irish Spring Body Wash Zagat Guide to America’s Top Irish Pubs. The Irish Spring Green Team will hand out the guides on March 9 in Union Station; they’ll also be passing out samples of the body wash just in case, I guess, you need to perform a quick in-pub sponge bath after belching up your fifth Guinness.

The guide lists the best pubs for 12 cities, including the D.C. region. The pubs are further subdivided into two categories: best restaurant pubs and best nightlife pubs. Under the former category, according to Zagat, the best in D.C. are Fadó Irish Pub in Chinatown, the Irish Inn at Glen Echo, the two locations of Rí Rá Irish Pub, and Siné Irish Pub in Arlington. The nightlight category highlights Duffy’s Irish Restaurant & Pub in Shaw, McGinty’s Public House in Silver Spring, Daniel O’Connell’s Restaurant in Old Town, and T.S. Muttly’s in Adams Morgan.

Now, I’m no expert on Irish pubs, but Zagat’s surveyors don’t seem all that picky or even discriminating. I mean, Fadó? It’s part of a national chain, not anything exclusive to D.C. McGinty’s? It has all the charm of a business center. Rí Rá, T.S. Muttly’s, and O’Connell’s are decent choices, but what about Murphy’s Grand Irish Pub in Old Town, where the local Irish community turns the place into a rowdy drunkfest (in the best way) whenever a band assembles on stage? Or even Eamonn’s A Dublin Chipper, which has more true Irish soul than Fadó?

I’m also wondering whether it’s completely fair to snub the more Scottish-leaning pubs in the area, like the great Royal Mile in Wheaton. What pubs would you include?