Sunday, March 16, 2008
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
NILES — A draft of Guinness, a waiter in a kilt and a rousing song aren’t all that await diners at a new Irish pub.
The owners of O’Donold’s Irish Pub and Grille, Mike and Joan Quinlan, hope it has good “craic” — an Irish word which sounds like “crack” but has a whole other meaning.
Mike is quick with a joke, Joan can be coaxed into a song and overall they hope to create a sense of welcome that can lead to “craic” — having fun with a sense of abandonment and light-hearted mischief.
The couple bought O’Donold’s early last year when it was located on Youngstown Road in Warren. They quickly realized that it was too much of a bar and not enough of a pub. And it certainly wasn’t Irish enough.
“An Irish pub is a public house,” said Mike, whose ancestors came from Ireland. “Everyone is there — family, children and sometimes pets.”
The couple, who also own Trumbull Special Courier in Warren, began to recall their trip to Ireland in 2005 and decided that they could recreate an Irish pub. They bought a former Pizza Hut restaurant at 5154 Youngstown Road, across from the West Corp. call center, and got busy.
Joan brought out some stones she had collected from the Blarney Castle area, Dingle Bay and the Cliffs of Moher, and she found the sand she brought home from Galway Bay.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.