1642a No Wake for the Irish Bar

WOODSIDE, QUEENS -- No one lacks for an Irish saloon here.  Not that there are all that many Irish left, at least not like there used to be.  But the bars don’t move much.  

Donovan’s. Saints and Sinners. Sean Og’s.  Luke Kelly’s. Cuckoo’s Nest.

You know the kind of place.  You can sit with a beer for hours and read the paper, play the ponies shoot the… um… breeze.  Argue. And they kick you out if you order a Jameson’s with ice.

NEW ROSES, PA -- You move to a place like this and since it’s a college town, there would be at least a token representative called Derry Pub or McGonigall’s. Nope. Bars line the main drag. Someone with a couple of pumps could connect them all and wholesale the booze.

No Irish bars, at least nothing real. But they did have a Hooters.  And it failed. Smack across the street from a huge and boozy college, and it went under.  Go figure. Unless it’s violating the liquor laws or the noise laws, it’s almost impossible for a bar here to fail.

Along comes Kildare’s to fill the space.  And they know how to pour a Guinness. And they don’t care if you want a Bushmill’s on the rocks.  And they have Shepherd’s pie.  And it’s big enough to satisfy.

Waitresses in kilts.  Many with better legs than the Hooter’s girls.

It’s not Hurley’s.  It’s not even The Blarney Stone.  But it’s good enough to satisfy old man McCarthy formerly of Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside who moved to Twisty Creek Run here in New Roses.  And also Rich up the street even though he’s an Orangeman.

Only one problem with Kildare’s.  Well, two, the second being parking at the dinner hour.

Problem one:  the place sits on prime real estate.  So prime, in fact, that developers would have lunch there so they could drool not over the cabbage Colcannon, but over the property.

The restaurant’s lease runs until 2017.  But they closed down the other day without even a whisper in advance.

Sudden death.

Apartments soon rise from Kildare’s grave

A whole new building.

The love child of a flipper and flippee.

Company A bought the land and planned the building.  But then along came company B which made company A an offer it couldn’t refuse.  

“We didn’t buy the building to flip it,” says Company A. “We just wanted to create a beautiful living space a little higher than the zoning allowed at the time.”  Oh, sure.

But flip it they did.  Why go through all the bother of building an apartment house and displacing a youngish but still beloved saloon?  Easy money.

Company B’s plans are a little more grandiose and on a faster track.  So fast, they kicked out the tenant.  No notice.  Just “closed.”

Not even time for a decent Irish wake.

Shameful.

And you can’t get Dublin Coddle in a place that doesn’t have the right leftovers.

Today’s Quote:

--“We’re getting there.” --  Reality TV Star D. Trump on getting House Speaker Paul Ryan to endorse his doomed presidential strategy.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

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