Irish Pubs in Your Area

Location: USA

As has been tried many times...and I do wish them well in their attempts... many try to get the Irish Pub atmosphere in today's establishments...

We have a new coming this year...do you have any in your area or any that have succeeded...?? it is so hard to get the atmosphere unless you have PEOPLE not only objects that bring the social dyanmics to achieve an Irish Pub...at least from what I have heard from others and read..

A wee bit of Ireland coming to 16th and L
By Gina Kim

Published: Friday, Jan. 02, 2009 | Page 1J
Guinness and Harp Lager on tap doesn't make an Irish pub, no matter how big it goes off on St. Patrick's Day.

But add in light fixtures, décor and Irish oak furnishings shipped over from the Emerald Isle – and throw in a family history that can be traced back to the year 1129 and a classic fry-up breakfast with black and white pudding – and you're getting near'r the green.

Now start talking about the Irish craic (derived from "wisecrack" with a Gaelic-looking spelling), and the dancers performing a hard-shoe jig can't be too far behind.

All this is coming to de Vere's Irish Pub, which is opening at 16th and L streets in Sacramento later this month. Two of the three brothers behind the business were born in Ireland, and all three consider themselves Irish first – although Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento is their alma mater.

"If you're going to do it, do it right," says one of the brothers, Simon de Vere White. "Anybody can get a bar, paint the walls green and call themselves the Blarney Stone."

The space in a former Firestone tire dealership was abuzz with construction recently as walls were painted the right hue of "nicotine yellow" to emulate the walls of Irish pubs stained by years of cigarette smoke, and three guys from the Irish company that built the dark-stained Irish-oak furniture installed the tables, chairs, display cabinets, bookshelves and two bars – one with a lucky Irish penny built in.

"An Irish pub is the hub of society," says Steve McAleese, who works for the custom Irish pub builder GGD Global and who has installed pubs all over the world, including Romania and France. "An Irish priest once said that when you're born, your christening is at the pub. Then you have your holy communion and your wedding there. And when you die, your wake is at the pub.

"You start life and finish life there."

But why is it that Irish-theme pubs continue to pop up all over the world?

"They want our craic," McAleese says, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "We just take life as it comes, take it easy. It's the attitude.

"And the pub is just a place to sit down and relax. And if you get that attitude, that's what Ireland is."

The bar will have traditional sitting areas called "snugs," the type where police officers, priests or clandestine lovers historically have met for a drink without being seen. It will sport a century-old cast-iron mantle from Ireland and will display family heirloom bowls, tea sets and platters in cabinets, and a bookcase full of Irish books, including 17 written by the proprietors' grandfather.

There will also be more than 50 scotches, other whiskeys and bourbons as well as 12 beers on tap from Ireland, Belgium, England and a few microbrews. But the youngest brother, Henry de Vere White, who ran several Irish pubs in Seattle after graduating from the University of Washington, is keeping price points varied with $4 well drinks.

"It's a pub atmosphere and should be approachable to everybody," he says. "If you're doing well in life, if you're not doing well in life, you should still be able to sit at the pub and have a drink together."

And maybe catch some of that Irish craic, too.

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Irish Pubs in Your Area