By Vanessa Lantos (Spicy Melon)
July 30, 2024 – Savannah just got a new spot at the corner of City Market, and it had a killer first week.
What’s all the fuss about? Let’s explore a little bit.
It seems like the pandemic left an incessant hunger in people’s chests, to the point where everyone visiting Savannah would ask, “Where can I find some live music?”
Seriously, I get at least five guests asking this question every night when I am bartending.
It is a tricky question because bars and restaurants have different events on different nights of the week: trivia nights, open mic nights, DJ nights, and karaoke nights. And I don’t think anyone thinks about karaoke when they ask for a recommendation on where to listen to live music.
But this new Irish gem in City Market thought of it all: food, drinks, ambiance, and entertainment.
Wexford is booked with live music acts through the end of the year. You can click here for their courtyard entertainment schedule and here for their live Irish music schedule.
This mega-pub opened on Monday, and it gives me a nostalgic feeling for Kevin Barry’s, the last Irish pub on River Street that had nightly acoustic Irish music performances, as well as the downtown location of Molly McPherson’s. Both those pubs closed down, leaving so many broken hearts behind, but this new space captures that familiar feeling.
What feeling? The Celtic music in the background. The warm and cozy yet luxuriously furnished interiors. The hardwood floors. The decorations and Irish history on the walls. The warm yellow lighting, and the drinks warming you up from within.
That new car smell… this pub is gorgeous, and it seems like no expense was spared to bring it to life. I mean… look at the bar booths.
My first visit was on Tuesday, the day after they opened.
Upon first glance at the menu, I have to admit that I will continue to recommend the best Guinness in Savannah at the O.G. Savannah Irish Pub: O’Connell’s. They have the best-poured and most affordable Guinness pints in the city.
What can I say, I’m a loyal girl. I’ve been going there for years.
However, here you can get $6 Harp pints—a great value—and $7 Tullamore Dew whiskey shots, again a great value. And let me say, we got the fish and chips, and it is enough to feed two. Very generously portioned and just $23. SUPER worth it. To my surprise, their coleslaw is delicious! Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a coleslaw snob: every restaurant’s coleslaw is a disappointment. I never order it, only take a small taste of my partner’s slaw if he is kind enough to share a bite.
In addition, a lot of care was put into celebrating the Irish historical heritage of Savannah. Original artifacts and replicas adorn the walls.
They even include an iconic framed jersey from the local Savannah GAA club, which is the local sports team that plays both native Irish games: Gaelic football and hurling. These games can be watched at Wexford’s when in season.
Something unique about this pub is the inclusion of “Pub Snugs” in their spaces. This is very traditionally Irish. “Somewhat resembling Catholic confessionals—and even anecdotally referred to from time to time as confession boxes—snugs started appearing in Irish pubs in the late 1800s. A tiny, walled-off space at the end of the bar, snug rooms typically included small, privacy glass windows near the ceiling.” Source:VinePair
Let’s rewind a little to that initial term used to describe this Irish pub: a mega-pub. Don’t know what a mega-pub is? Walk into this place and walk around for a bit. After marveling at all the different spaces and bars-within-a-bar, go upstairs and get lost. Try to find your way back again. That’s a mega-pub. Endless bars and spaces within one place.
Even trying to understand how to staff this amount of space makes me think of my time working at the Olde Pink House: 11 dining rooms, 350 employees. 500 patrons can be seated at once. That place is a monster.
This Irish pub is not quite that big, but it is big.
I was super happy to find Randy Erickson working at one of their bars. He is a good friend of mine and a local bartender. He has bartended at iconic Savannah spots like the downtown Molly MacPherson’s and The Distillery on Liberty Street, both now permanently closed.
Nothing is quite like finding a familiar and friendly face when visiting a new place, especially someone with the inside scoop. I saw him on Sunday at 9 p.m., and the first thing he said was, “Wonderful to see you! We are out of Guinness.”
But how could that be? This is a brand new Irish pub. He sighed, “15 full-sized Guinness kegs gone since we opened on Monday. Also, the upstairs floor is packed with live music tonight.”
Fifteen kegs…at $8 a Guinness, that’s over $10,000 in sales on Guinness alone…in less than a week.
He also loves the food: for an Irish restaurant, many believe they should be judged first by their corned beef. At Wexford’s, it is brined in-house for 72 hours. If you order either the pot roast or the corned beef, it is so rich and flavorful that it will put you into a food coma. The bourbon carrots are ridiculously good. All the sauces are made in-house.
They also call fries “chips,” just like the Irish properly do.
It is amazing.
It’s only been a week, and both patrons and employees are raving about the place. That’s the thing about new restaurants: they have their best and shiniest shoes on, and their primary goal is to please and wow their clientele.
This spot has been open for a week and is in the honeymoon phase. Come be wowed by the amazing house-made sausage, the house-brined corned beef, and the “chips,” which are the most decadent fries you’ve had anywhere in a long time.
If this is still this good six months from now, I’ll turn into a loyal fan. However, this is a prime location in City Market, a heavily touristic downtown area. The last spot at this location was Wild Wing Cafe, and I heard nothing but complaints about this particular Wild Wing for months: the food, the drinks, the service. But because of its location and endless stream of one-time visitors, it survived.
This is why I appreciate the quality and care that have been put into this new pub. The location is priceless, but the pub itself is a work of art. Truly, I’ve never seen Randy gush about a place like this. He is usually not easy to please, but he is a big fan of Wexford. And so am I.
Hope they doubled their Guinness order for this week!
Sláinte, y’all.
See you in the next one.
Love,
Vanessa
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