Around Town

New Irish Pub in Shirlington Importing Irishmen

Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub is looking for a few good Irishmen (and women).

To make sure there’s some brogue to be heard in Shirlington Village, the Tipperany-born owner of the under-construction pub has placed an ad for bartenders and servers on an Irish jobs web site.

“We will assist qualified candidates in obtaining a visa,” the job listing says. “If you are hard working, honest and have a sense of adventure, then we feel you would enjoy working on our team.”

And as if actual Irish employees weren’t authentic enough, the entire interior — light fixtures, mill work, artifacts, tile and all — is being manufactured in Ireland and shipped across the Atlantic as we speak.

“We will not be a ‘Disney Ireland’ as some Irish pubs choose to be,” owner Mark Kirwan said via email. “We are not trying to be an Irish-American pub, but rather I am trying to re-create what a true pub is like in Ireland.”

In addition to authentic, Samuel Beckett’s — named as the Nobel Prize-winning Irish writer — will also be huge. Kirwan anticipates indoor seating for 280, outdoor seating for up to 100, an upstairs mezzanine level, and three bars to make sure nobody is ever too far from a Guinness.

The pub will be located at 2800 South Randolph Street. Kirwan, who’s a partner in Daniel O’Connell’s restaurant in Alexandria but is striking out on his own with Samuel Beckett’s, expects to be able to open the doors by mid-October.

Logo via Shirlington Village Blogspot

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