A day or two ago I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Nolan, one of the owners of Raglan Road, the soon-to-be-opening Irish Pub downtown. The pub/restaurant will be opening in early March, the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise. It will be 10,000 square feet of Gaelic goodness and will be a welcome addition to a city blessed with some great Irish joints. I've met many of you in many of them.
The phases of my life can be easily broken down by the pub most frequented at the time. There were the Harling's years, the brief Deke O'Malley's period, the glorious Molloy Bros. era. My brother Pat and I used to frequent Fitz's Blarney Stone often enough to be on a first name basis with Pops, the late, great bartender who used to hold court there. In between, there's Kelly's, The Westsider, McBride's, O'Dowd's, the long gone Bender's, Hanlon's and Cassidy's, and most recently The great Gaf, and the very exclusive Armstrong's. All of which has me wondering on a snowy Friday..."a day for the high stool" as my Kerryman friend Padraig used to say: Where's your local? What do you think is Kansas City's best Irish pub, or your town's, wherever you happen to call home? What makes it so great? The people? The pour? The staff? Let us know.
Best of luck to Paul Nolan and his crew as they scramble to meet the March deadline down at Raglan Road. I'm sure we all have a lot of memories waiting to made down there.
Your Guide to the 17th Annual Kansas City Irish Fest at Crown Center. www.KCIrishFest.com
About Me
- Danny Regan
- Danny is a founder, past president, and creative director of the Kansas City Irish Fest. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, the greatest city in America. He's authored Tir na Blog since 2006.
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14 comments:
Hands down, the Dubliner Pub, Omaha NE!! McCarthy likes it, too!
--Sarah Walsh
McCarthy doesn't like anything!
In town: O'Dowd's and the Irishish pub Westsider.
Out of town: Silky O'Sullivans in Memphis. I'm a huge fan of any pub with an owner who is a regular at his own bar.
Even McCarthy would be a fan of Silky's.
Rest in Peace, Molloy Brothers. In their absence, The Gaf is a pretty good alternative. But they need more Irish music.
High Stool, what time?
locally I used to be a fan of Harling's but haven't been in much lately.
In Lawrence, The Red Lyon
In Chicago, The Irish Oak
In Newbridge, Ireland; Coffeez (I think that's the name--I was a bit blurry at the time
In Dublin, Madigan's
and I did just discover The Gaf, so that's good.
Peg's Pub, Moycullen, Ireland. About 18km north of Galway on N59. It might look more like a house, but the Guinness is great and she's burning actual peat in the fireplace, cut from the bog out back. Don't mention if your related, she won't care.
Dougie likes "The Old Plaid Shawl" in Kinvara, Guinness chub and all.
As my good friend Kirsten always says, "The mark of a good pub is quality people, serving quality beverages, to quality people".
Some favorites:
KC: Charlie Hoopers, the Westsider
St. Louis: John P. Fields, McGurk's
Tulsa: McNellie's, Arnie's
Memphis: Another vote for Silky's - any place where real live goats drink beer can't be all bad
But the greatest pub in the entire world resides near Merrion Square in Dublin - The Ginger Man.
Great Pubs(US)
Armstrong's/KC/Shawnee
Dubliner/ Omaha
Blarney Stone/ Cleveland
Keegan's/Chicago-South
Vaughn's/Chicago-North
McGurk's/ St.Louis
Black Swan/ Houston
Nallen's/ Denver
McCarthy
The Gaf had great music last night!
I say Armstrong's, the pints as the price, are perfect.
Where is this Armstrong's? I have looked in the yellow pages and google. I'd like to check it out this weekend.
It's a very exclusive private club. I can't even get in.
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