Whether around St. Patrick’s Day, after the Dublin Irish Festival – Aug. 1-3 this year – or any other time the desire for a pint and some fish and chips strikes, Irish pubs hold appeal.
It’s easy enough to slap an “O’” on a name and Guinness on a beer menu, though. What’s tougher is imbuing a degree of authenticity. So how do central Ohio’s Irish pubs do it?
Some use their food and beverage menus to amp up the authenticity.
One such establishment is the Three-Legged Mare, located in the Arena District. Its menu is stocked with Irish-appropriate drinks and traditional Irish entrees and appetizers, says co-owner Mike Darr.
“A lot of it has to do with our menu items,” Darr says. “We try to stay on top of the newest things out there.”
Menu items range from bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie to corned beef and cabbage (it can even be wrapped in a boxty, an Irish potato pancake) and Dublin coddle – a soup, traditionally made to use up leftovers, containing ham, Irish pork sausage and potatoes. The drink menu offers a variety of craft beers, bourbons and Scotches, and some drink menu items have migrated to the food menu; see Guinness barbecue wings and Bailey’s Irish Cream marble cheesecake.
Other spots will choose to fixate on the look of the place. These include Fado Irish Pub at Easton Town Center.
“Where we start is in the design and decor,” says Scott Ness, owner.
To ensure Fado looked as much as possible like a pub on the other side of the Atlantic, Ness hired McNally Design International and the Irish Pub Company – founded by Mel McNally and based in Dublin, Ireland – to do the design and layout. The company has designed Irish pubs in more than 30 different countries, Ness says, and some of the décor and furniture used by frequent patrons was shipped from Ireland.
Sports is another huge aspect of providing that Irish pub feel, Ness says, and Fado aims to please. It sometimes draws more than 100 patrons, even early in the morning, for international games; Fado features every English Premier League came, says Ness. Last month, the U.S.’s games in the World Cup drew even bigger crowds.
Another approach to Irish décor is to simply see what works in person. That’s precisely what Mike Tibbetts, owner of Brazenhead Irish Pub – with locations in Grandview Heights and Historic Dublin – did: He went to Ireland and did some first-hand research of the country’s pubs. Most of the Brazenhead’s design and architecture was done in Ireland, Tibbetts says.
“We brought back the authentic feel of an Irish pub,” he says.
Though the food on the Brazenhead menu is decidedly Americanized – that, Tibbetts says, has proven the more marketable strategy – Tibbetts wanted to ensure the atmosphere inside drew a distinction between those Irish pubs that try to look authentic and those that don’t.
“I do separate those places that just hang up an Irish shamrock, give themselves an Irish last name, put a little bit of paraphernalia on the walls and sell Guinness (from) the ones that really went out and spent the mon
ey to build a beautiful Irish pub,” he says.
For Grandview Heights-based Byrne’s Pub, a weekend patron’s sense of hearing can pick up on the Irish feel just as well as his or her sense of taste or sight. Byrne’s brings in live Irish music every Saturday, and that’s on top of its selection of Irish beers.
(Byrne's photo by Andi Wolfe)
It also tries to stay true to the purpose of its across-the-pond counterparts by serving as a congregation spot for nearby residents, says owner Pat Byrne.
“We just maintain a neighborhood Irish pub feel, which is what an Irish pub is all about,” Byrne says.
Dublin Village Tavern, situated in Historic Dublin, takes a piecemeal approach, not focusing on any one path to authenticity.
“There are several ways to be authentic. One is to attempt to copy things from the country of origin and the other is to authenticate yourself through your operation,” says owner Tim Picciano. “I think we’ve done the latter more than the former.”
The tavern’s chefs have created their own twists on traditional Irish fare, such as Irish egg rolls – stuffed with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, and served with a side of Thousand Island dressing – and Irish Car Bomb Brownies, triple chocolate treats made with Guinness-whiskey caramel and Bailey’s whipped cream. Picciano also credits his customer base – many of them have Irish heritage – with strengthening the restaurant’s connections to the Emerald Isle.
“We’ve developed our own identity and our own authenticity, and it’s customer-driven more than with purposeful design on our part,” Picciano says. “We’ve become the Dublin, Ohio authentic Irish pub, so to speak.”
Brandon Klein is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Emerald Encyclopedia
Sound like an expert on Irish cuisine with this quick and easy lexicon
Bangers and mash: Sausage and mashed potatoes
Black pudding: Blood sausage, usually made with pigs' blood and oatmeal
Boxty: An Irish potato pancake, sometimes used as a wrap
Coddle: A soup, traditionally made to use up leftovers, typically containing ham, sausage, onions and potatoes
Colcannon: Mashed potatoes mixed with shredded cabbage and onions
Full Irish breakfast: Bacon, eggs, tea, toast with marmalade, white pudding and soda bread
Shepherd's pie: Meat pie made with lamb or mutton, then topped with mashed potatoes and baked
Soda bread: Bread made with baking soda instead of yeast
White pudding: Sausage made with pork meat and fat as well as oatmeal, bread and suet