I have a new office gig downtown. On one of my first ventures out of the office a friend and I visited Patrick O'Shea's. The O'Shea's family of Irish pubs (including O'Shea's, Flanigan's, Brendan's) is well known to the area and well loved. Patrick O'Shea's is joint owned by a twenty long term staff members of the other pubs, and the main street location was convenient for our hour long lunch break.
We ordered cheeseballs as an appetizer, if only because I'm a sucker for practically anything deep fried, and if it includes cheese I'm positively slain. The cheeseballs were the exact right size, little crunchy bites of slick melting pepperjack cheese. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but anything eaten off one of those little sandwich swords automatically tastes better, and the cheeseballs speared on the afore mentioned blades and dunked in marinara were yummy and satisfying.
Rather stereotypically, we chose to order the hand breaded chicken fingers, the paragon of bar foods if there ever was one. The strips were big, meaty and properly greasy with the right crunch-to-dip ratio. Doing our best to maintain our girlish figures (because clearly we're on a diet, snarfing down fried cheese and chicken fingers is all part of our masterful plan to be ready for bikini season) we ordered side salads instead of the fries. Everything was delectable, and we stuffed ourselves for under twelve dollars each.
Patrick O'Shea's really knows how to market itself. Every Wednesday evening is "pint night", when you can sample a different unique kind of beer and keep the collectible glass. On Thursday nights, Patrick O'Shea's offers pizza and beer at "Student Pricing" at twelve dollars for "all you care to consume". The location is terrific and the service was marvelous. The atmosphere was just swanky enough for a business lunch, but not too formal for a casual dinner.
Patrick O'Shea's was beautifully decorated, with snappy service and high quality bar food. It is only that, bar food, but bar food done well can make a totally pleasant lunch or dinner. Plus the cheeseballs are good--and really, what more in life can you want than deep fried balls of pepperjack dunked in marinara?
Photos: Elizabeth Orrick
