Dublin Castle pub (New Westminster, British Columbia)

Dublin Castle pub  101-319 Governors Court, New Westminster, British Columbia Canada.  www.dublincastle.ca  .  The Dublin Castle Pub is located in the main floor west side of the old British Columbia Penitentiary Guard House Building.  The Penitentiary opened up in 1878 and ran until 1980.  It was the first Federal Maximum security penitentiary west of Manitoba.  Great building with a great location over looking the Fraser River.  The pub has a deck that wraps around the side and front and a good view of the river.  We went there on a Saturday for lunch, and it is a very nice cozy pub inside.  There is a long L shaped bar that seats 12 people.  The food was very good, I had the Steak and Guinness pie with a salad, the pastry was very light and fluffy!.  My wife had the Super breakfast, 2 eggs, hash browns, 3 strips of bacon.......and it came with toast.  They have 8 types of beer on tap and the usual bottled beer.  They do have a very good wine selection and all of the other liquor that one would expect.  There are 6 flat screen TVS, and a small fire place in the corner.  There are daily drink and food specials. Our waitress just was not on the ball during our visit.  I asked for no onions on my salad, and it came with onions.  When the bill arrived, I noticed that she charged us and extra dollar for my meal and my wife's was suppose to be half price if she ordered a drink that was more than $5.00...which it was. We brought this to the attention to our waitress.  She went back and partly fixed the bill.  First she said that the price of my meal went up by a dollar but they had not changed it on the menu....so she took the dollar off.  Then when I came to my wife's meal, she said that my wife ordered something else.  Which my wife didn't and I heard her order.  The the waitress advised that since my wife had toast that would be a $1.50 extra.  Tried explaining that it was not our problem that she did not write the order correct and got it wrong!  The $1.50 ended coming out of her tip.  The waitress did spend a lot of time talking to one of the other waitresses and not waiting on us.  Wish we had one of the other waitresses as they seemed to care about their customer's much better.  Too bad because this tainted our experience here. I would be willing to give it another chance.

Fort Pub and Grill (Fort Langley, British Columbia)

The Fort Pub and Grill, 9273 Glover Road, Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada.  604-888-6166 or www.fortpub.com.  This pub is located in Historic Fort Langley, B.C.. Fort Langley was the first Capital of British Columbia,  the old fort is still here which is a National Park and open for tours.  Fort Langley is a very quaint area with lots of shops, restaurants and antique stores.  The pub is right on the Fraser River facing McMillan Island which  has a regional park and campground as well as Kwantlen First Nations.  There is a beautiful walk way along the river between the pub and the river.  The pub is presently building a new parking area to the south which will also be the site of their new out side patio. I hear that they are going to have a smoking and a non smoking out side patio.  Inside the pub there are beautiful large timber beams to go with the river rock fire place.  They have, some nice big comfortable chairs, booths and regular tables and chairs.  There is one pool table, 8 flat screen TV's and a large projection screen TV  so you can watch sports.  They have specials on food and drinks through out the week.  There is a nice oak style bar but I forgot to check how many people is sat if any.  The service is very friendly and quick even when it was busy.  Live music is every Friday and Saturday evening.  They have several types of beer on tap.  For lunch,  I had the Fort Burger and you can also add cheese, mushrooms or bacon if you want.  It came with fries, soup or salad.  The burger was thick and juicy and the fries were also very good.  I was told that they have two new owners who hired a good manager and let the manager run the business.  Washrooms were clean and tidy.  I definitely recommend going to this pub!

 

May  2016 I was back, and had a wonderful lunch on their beautiful patio wrap around patio.  For lunch my friend and I both had the "Farmers Mac and Cheese" It came with a nice large double grilled farmer sausage. Panko crusted Cheddar and Jack macaroni and cheese (very cheesy indeed) with two piece of grilled garlic baguette and a side salad.  We opted to up grade to the Caesar salad.  That was probable one of the best Mac and Cheese I ever had.  Definitely 2 thumbs up! We were joined later by another friend who had a cheese and mushroom burger but said it  was just ok.  Said the burger seemed frozen and not a fresh juicy patty!  It was very busy and a line up to get in but they had lots of people working and the service was very good.  Fort Langley has grown a bit but still very quaint and cozy, lots of neat little shops and places to eat.

 

Scoreboard Bar and Grill (Nashville, Tennessee)

Scoreboard Bar and Grill, 2408 Music Valley Drive, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. www.scoreboardbar.net. This bar is very rustic on the in side finished in rough unfinished wood. Lots of sports memorabilia on the walls. Tons and tons of free parking! The sit up bar sits15. They have 20 different types of beer on tap. One side they have 2 pool tables. On the other side they have more seating and a good area to sit and watch sports on on of their 14 TV's. Their specialty is their BBQ smoked meat and a and as you can see from the photo, they do it all in house. Some of the great things they serve are: Hickory smoked hand pulled pork or chicken sandwiches, Texas style hickory smoked brisket beef, St. Louis Ribs (which are seasoned in rub for 48 hours). They will also do smoked whole hogs, Whole Boston Butt, Smoke Whole Turkey for you as well, but you have to call in advance. The BBQ here is fantastic to say the least!! A large group of us went there to watch the Vancouver Canucks vs the Nashville Predators play on TV as the game was in Vancouver. The Vancouver and Nashville fans got along well. The game was in the 3 rd period and the girl that does Karaoke came out and changed the TV for Karaoke. The place went wild, so she changed it back and sat behind the TV sulking. To make it even funnier the game went in to double overtime!! They also serve Crown Royal XR at $14.95 for 2 ounces, same thing in Seattle and other places is $30.00, now that is a deal, which I had to partake in!! The Scoreboard is right across the lane from the Dukes of Hazzard Museum and the Willie Nelson Museum which are both free......and cheesy! But worth going in for a laugh. Smoking is still alowed in the bar, which is a dying thing around the world! Outside they have a very large covered deck with another bar and live music. That works out great so if you want musci you go out sicde if you want sports you stay in side. The prices here are very reasonable and a darn sight cheaper than the Gaylord Opryland Resort across the street. Well worth a stop in if you are in the area.

Big Ridge Brewing Company (Surrey, British Columbia)

Big Ridge Brewing Company 5580-152 Street, Surrey, British Columbia Canada. (On the south east corner of Hwy #10 and 152 Street).  It was originally opened up in 1999 kitty corner but due to a parking dispute with the property owner they moved and opened up this new place in 2010.  Big Ridge is part of the Mark James Group which also operates , Taylor's Crossing in North Vancouver B.C., Yaletown (downtown Vancouver's Yaltown district), Brewhouse in Whistler, B.C. and the Flying Beaver .  I have written about them all but Taylor's Crossing.  in Richmond, B.C. by the south terminal of Vancouver Internatinal Airport). Big Ridge only sell the beer that they brew on premise.  The beer that they have is all named after local areas in the surrounding area of Surrey.  Some of the beer that they serve are; Harvest Lager, Chimney Hill Wheat, Clover Ale, Rodeo Red, Old Sullivan Porter, Bootheryd Black and Tan and seasonal beer.  This place has the restaurant on the west side as you enter and the pub on the east side.  The pub has a nice sit up bar that seats about 15 people and numerous flat screen TV'S through out.  The pub is laid out in a L shape and they have a pool table to boot.  The pub probably sits around 80 to 90 people,

When they moved over to the new location, they took some of the tables from the old place which is great.  Three of the tables are about 12 feet long (4 meters) and are about 2 feet wide and 6 inch thick wood, with round backless bar stools.  Through out most of the bar there are padded benches along the walls with stools on the other side of the tables. The service is very good and always friendly.  The food here is very good, they have Asian dishes, sliders, great pizza's (and I suggest the Johnny Mac pizza), fish tacos and great hamburgers, just to name a few of the items on the menu. The washrooms are clean and well maintained. In the pub they have large windows looking in to the brewing area so you can watch the beer being brewed.  That is pretty cool!!  I have always enjoyed this place but just forget to add it to the blog!  If you are ever in the area, it is worth the stop and there is lots of parking!

2015 Now with liquor license changes little children are allowed in the pub area as well as the restaurant area.  Not a good move.  My son and I were there and there were baby's n highchairs in the pub area.  Nothing against children as I had one (LOL!) but that is what the other part is for.  Let the adults enjoy and speak freely with out all the kids running around.  I suggest trying some where else if you are looking for a pub experience.

Legends Sports Bar in the Mariah Moore House (Bowling Green, Kentucky)

Legends Sports Bar in the Mariah Moore House, 801 State Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky, U.S.A. This building was built in 1818 by a co-founder of Bowling Green, George Moore and his wife Elizabeth. One of their 5 children Mariah lived there until 1888 when she passed on and thus the name of the house. In 1995 a fire destroyed much of the place but some valuable parts were save such as the bar. The bar was built in the 1800's by Brunswick (pool table fame) and taken out of a bar in Chicago and refurbished. The original brick building was salvaged and now is on the National Registry of Historic Places as the oldest building in Bowling Green.
They have a beautiful restaurant attached. Since it was a Sunday at noon, I was there for lunch. I found out that in Kentucky, they do not serve alcohol state wide until 1 pm. For Lunch I had the Crab cake sandwich on a pretzel bun, wow was it ever good! From what I could see the food that others were having was very good. If you did not know it, Bowling Green is the home of the Corvette factory and the National Corvette Museum. It was a great experience and great food!

Town Hall Public House (Langley Canada)

Town Hall Public House, 19640-64 Avenue, Langley, British Columbia, Canada.  This place was originally the Duke of Wellington which opened up in 1981.  A year or two ago it sold and was turned in to Jazzy Jones.  That was a flop!  In October of 2011, it opened as Town Hall Public House.  They have done a lot of renovations and the result is fabulous!!  It has a great feel to it with lots of seating. They have a beautiful fireplace that was imported from England.  The swinging front doors when you enter are English antiques and are dated back to the mid 1800's.  The bar is made from an old church pulpit and is beautiful.  It can sit about 10 people or so..  There are about 15  42 inch flat screen TVS through out the bar.  They have 14 different types of beer on tap and may be adding up to 6-8 more beer on tap.  Also there is 11 different types of Craft beer, to go along with all of the regular beer that you would expect to find.  You can get a glass of their house wine which is Okanagan  Wines, for $4.50 a glass.   They are coming out with a new wine list and want to carry hard to find wines and wines that are not usually found in the liquor stores.  The food here is awesome.  I had the lunch special which was a Chicken cordon blue burger and fries.  That was one of the best sandwiches I have had in a very long time.  The fries were great!  My wife has basically the same thing but had a salad and she echoed my praise for the food here.  They have weekend brunch specials,  such as two eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns for $4.00!!  The service was very friendly.   I really liked this place and it has climbed up quite high on my list of preferred bars, pubs and taverns!!  I know that I will be back real soon and I hope that you try it out, I think you will really enjoy it!!

 

2013 May 04 was back and the food is still awesome!  I had the chicken cordon blue sandwich and it was to die for! It came with french fries which were piping hot and very good.  My wife had the tortilla soup, which was also very good, very thick and hardy!  It was very busy for the Saturday lunch rush!!  Still a great place to go!! 

Ceili's Irish Pub (Vancovuer, British Columbia)

Ceili'sIrish Pub in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada.  located at 670 Smithe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  At the Corner of Granville and Smithe.  We were there for the Grey Cup festivities (The Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League Championship).  It is a very cool bar with several floors and several bars.  The bar that we were at sat about 15 people and was circular in shape.  The liquor rack was in the middle and also circular with there being a large stainless steel bin at the bottom to hold the beer, wine and coolers.  The atmosphere was very good.  The food.....not up there.  I had the meat loaf sandwich with onion rings.  Turned out to be an open faced sandwich with a lot of fried onions and a rather bland smaller slab of meat loaf.  The Onion rings were about a 5 out of 10.  My wife had the Turkey soup and she even had to add some salt to get some flavour into it.  Apparently their new location in Kitsalano (another area in Vancouver) has much better food.  She service was top shelf.  The bartender was very friendly, not afraid to join in conversation but always looked after you.   The waitresses are dressed in black t shirts and short kilts.....enough said!  Yes they were very good and attentive!  I really enjoyed My self here.....except for the food.  Everyone else's food and portions seemed to be good and bigger...who knows!  I would like to try this place out again and I would love to try out their Kitsalano location and see how it is.  Over all I had a very good experience here.  Go Lions Go!!