McGuire's Irish Pub & Brewery

What makes locals and tourists alike flock to McGuire's? Is it the outstanding food, which keeps winning them awards as one of the Sunshine State's best restaurants? Is it the brewpub beer, traditional Irish selections including an excellent stout? Or is it the entertainment factor, the fact that you can spend hours just wandering around looking at all the marvelous decorations on the wall (and more than 100,000 dollar bills on the ceiling).

Whatever it's doing, McGuire's is doing it right. The place is huge, with a mazelike selection of rooms, but you'll still see a line that stretches into the parking lot on many evenings.

McGuire's was designed to resemble a 19th century New York Irish saloon, and it has a firefighter's room, a Notre Dame room and an Irish aviator's room. A dominant theme is the life of McGuire's legendary Cousin Nathan, whose exploits are celebrated throughout the restaurant. An expert marksman, whose quarry's heads fill the walls; a friend to the rich and famous, who signed photos of themselves for display; a playboy who has courted the world's great beauties; Cousin Nathan did it all.

Food portions are huge, too. Specialties include prime steaks, seafood, the Terrible Garbage Burger (menu note: "some of everything -- it's absolutely disgusting") and traditional Irish staples such as corned beef and cabbage and Irish stew. Prices for dinners, which include potato and soup or salad, are $14.95-$17.95. Gourmet pizzas, such as pizza Cordon Bleu, are $7.95. Burgers, weighing in at nearly 3/4 pound, are $6.50-$6.95. One tasty bargain is the Senate Bean Soup, made from the same recipe as the bean soup served in the U.S. Senate dining room. It costs 18 cents, provided you order another food item to go with it.

McGuire's was a restaurant for years before it became a brewpub, but the beer is quality stuff. The brewery's regular offerings are a golden ale and a red ale, which are both on the light side, a porter and an Irish stout. The bottled version of McGuire's Irish Red Ale is contract-brewed and isn't the one served here. McGuire's full bar also offers a few high-octane specialties laced with a variety of liquors.

It's traditional for newcomers to kiss the giant moosehead in the main room. If you're willing to do that, however, you had better not be driving home.

April 1995