McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola has the reputation
for being one of the best restaurants in Florida, and I’ve been
hearing about it for years. However, for whatever reason, I’d never
eaten there, which is why I added this restaurant to my bucket list a couple of
years ago.
My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this week, so to mark the occasion we
rode down to Pensacola Saturday night and ate at McGuire’s, which allowed me to
finally scratch this item off my bucket list.
Founded in 1977, McGuire’s Irish Pub has two locations, and
the one in Pensacola is located at 600 East Gregory Street. The other location
is in Destin, Fla. on Highway 98. They’re both open seven days a week except for
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We arrived around 7 p.m., and we had to wait about 40
minutes for a table, which wasn’t so bad. Mardi Gras was going on and the
weather was nice, so we just sat on a bench outside and waited for our pager to
go off.
McGuire’s is basically a really nice steak house, and its
menu offers the usual variety of appetizers, soups, salads, seafood and pasta
dishes, hamburgers, sandwiches and steaks. However, my eye was caught by the
“Traditional Pub Fare” portion of the menu, which offered such dishes as Corned
Beef & Cabbage, Fish & Chips, Shepherd’s Pie and Irish Steak &
Mushroom Pie. I ordered the Irish Steak & Mushroom Pie, and it was great.
I also couldn’t resist ordering McGuire’s signature drink, a
green-colored concoction called an "Irish Wake" that’s served in a largemouth souvenir Mason jar.
Containing fresh squeezed Florida orange juice and three different kinds of
rum, this drink is so strong that they won’t serve you more than three, and
they don’t serve them after midnight. I honestly couldn’t even finish one, but
the Mason jar does make for a cool souvenir.
Before we left, my wife and I also took part in McGuire’s
time-honored dollar bill tradition. If you ever visit this restaurant for
yourself, you’ll notice all of the dollar bills that have been stapled to the
walls and ceiling. There are literally millions of them adorning the ceiling
and walls of the restaurant.
The story behind the dollar bill tradition goes back to when
the restaurant opened in May 1977. One of the workers signed her first dollar
tip and tacked it to the back bar for good luck. Over the years, friends added
to the restaurant’s collection and it caught on like wildfire. Supposedly,
taking part in this long-running tradition makes you an official Irishman.
My wife and I had a great time at McGuire’s Irish Pub on
Saturday night, and we’ll definitely go back some day. The food was great, the
service was topnotch and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. If you’ve never been
to McGuire’s, I highly recommend that you check it out first chance you get.
In the end, how many of you have ever eaten at McGuire’s
Irish Pub? What did you think about it? What other bucket list-worthy
restaurants would recommend trying? Let us know in the comments section below.
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