Today was the grand opening of Shirlington's newest restaurant: Samuel Beckett's Irish Gastropub. I meant to take photos of the brilliant fire-engine-red (my favorite shade of red) facade, but it was so freakin' cold out tonight, I just couldn't bare to be outside one second longer than necessary.
The opening was jam-packed, but the place is so big we were seated fairly quickly. But not before grabbing the house ale, which was really really good. I think I've passed my beer-drinking peak. Now I just want a solid, tasty brew with not too much bitterness. Their house ale hit the spot.
And I have to say, the decor in the place is rockin'. They have some kind of gold distressed paint on a lot of things, and it looks really cool. I also really dug the wraparound bar. That's Samuel Beckett in the middle there. I swear the entire time this place has been under construction, I thought Samuel Beckett was just some generic Irish name. No, it's
that Samuel Beckett, you know, the one who wrote
Waiting for Godot. Shoot.
Then there's the food. And .... I'm going to give them a pass because it was the first night. No complaints from our group, but no raves either. Bangers and mash:
Caesar salad:
Shepherd's pie:
Lamb stew (my dish and my favorite of everything I tried):
Welcome to Shirlington, Samuel Beckett's!
Naturally, there were doggies.
The one on the right was totally insane. He's gear up and run full-speed (not much for this guy) and then get jerked back on the leash. He'd recover and by then his walker had met up with him and he's run top-speed again.
The cops ended the show, as always, but these guys had a whole motorcycle routine choreographed. As you can see, the adults were quite impressed while the children seemed to be scared out of their wits.
