Review: McGuire's Irish Pub (Pensacola, FL)
Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 12:00AM While on our Florida vacation last week I became aware of McGuire's Irish Pub via the Beer Hero app on my iPhone (see review in a previous post). The weather was a little rough for hanging out on the beach on our last day, so the boys and I headed to Pensacola to the Naval Air museum and stopped in the brewpub for lunch.
Wow! This place was hoppin, had great food and really nice beer. I look forward to a return visit for dinner for a juicy steak and several pints of brew. They had what appeared to be about a 30-50 barrel setup with a gorgeous 250-ish gallon brew kettle, matching lauter tun and a half dozen wood trimmed fermenters. I tried their irish stout and it was fantastic. Nice roasty character with just the right amount of bitterness to balance the malt. The head could have been a bit creamier but it still laced the glass all the way to the bottom.
The service was excellent especially considering the volume of folks they were serving. The food was excellent and a great value. I highly recommend the Irish Boxties (breaded and deep fried balls of twice baked potatoes) and 18¢ cup of Senate Bean Soup ($18 if ordered alone). The atmosphere may have been the best part. It had a very comfortable old pub feel with lots of unique signage from Irish business. The most prominent decor were thousands of dollar bills stapled from every beam and bare spot on the ceiling and walls for luck. They claimed to have over half a million dollars hung by their patrons. Of course we obliged...
If you're visiting the Florida panhandle and love beer and food you must add McGuire's to your itinerary. They have a second location in Destin as well.
Atmosphere - A
Food - A
Value - A
Beer - A
Overall - A
Cheers,
-D
Reader Comments (3)
If you're not driving, then I also recommend trying an Irish Wake!!! :)
Cool, thanks for the review. Our inlaws own a condo in Perdido Key and we are going there in June, so I'll be glad to try a joint other than all the seafood joints on the strip.
Glad you got to check out the museum. It is AWESOME! I took 400 pictures when I took my son there.
Oh man, I wanted to try one of those badly, but I was driving and with the kiddies...next time I will plan accordingly!