While on Hilton Head Island, we did take time out of our lazy days to go out for lunch at a couple of places. The first place we went to was Reilley's North End Pub, a little restaurant/pub tucked back in a corner of a strip mall not too far from our hotel (see map).
We entered Reilley's and found it to be sort of dark and cozy with a lot of wood paneling throughout the dining room. They had a small bar area off to the left and a pretty good sized dining area. We were seated in a nice wood booth and given menus.
Reilley's first location opened in 1982 when Tom and Dianne Reilley started a small pub - Reilley's Bar and Grill - in a strip mall on the south side of the island. They moved across the street in 1995 after a fire destroyed much of the strip mall the restaurant was in. The location on the north end of the island opened in 1988. It underwent extensive renovation a year ago. It's actually very nice on the inside.
We were given a few minutes to go over the menu and in the meantime I ordered a Bacardi Limon and lemonade and the waitress brought out pink lemonade with my rum. I said, "Oh, pink lemonade? You don't have regular lemonade?"
She said, "No sir, I'm sorry. We have sweet tea if you're looking for something more sweet."
I said, "No, no! Pink lemonade (which is usually infused with grenadine) is sweet enough. I was looking for more of that tart lemon taste."
I asked her if they had just the raw lemonade before they mix in the grenadine and she said, "No, it comes in a mix that is already made up for us." Oh well. I just had the one drink before switching to a beer.
Most of the lunch food at Reilley's North End pub was basic bar food - burgers, sandwiches, salads. They have a much more extensive dinner menu that includes steaks and seafood. One item on the lunch menu that piqued my interest was Reilley's Meat Load Sandwich - a healthy chunk of homemade meatloaf topped with cheese and friend onions. I thought that to be a little too much for lunch, so I went with the tuna melt - an open faced tuna sandwich on a toasted English muffin topped with cheddar cheese. Fries came with the sandwich, but I knew I wouldn't eat any of them.
Cindy got a patty melt served between slices of dark rye bread. She also got a side of Reilley's cole slaw - creamy cole slaw infused with raisins. I had a bite of it, but I'm not big on raisins, so I didn't care for it. Cindy liked it, however. She likes raisins.
My tuna melt was pretty good. The English muffin had a generous amount of tuna on top and it was very tasty. Cindy declared her patty melt as "good". She offered me a bite and I gladly accepted. It was very good - the burger had good flavor and was very juicy.
Reilley's North End Pub was good, a nice little place to go to lunch. But the lunch spot that we were thoroughly impressed with was the British Open Pub. (see map) As I said in my post from earlier this week, golfing is king on Hilton Head Island with over 25 great courses on the the island with another 35 courses within a 60 minute drive. One of my long-distance friends, John Stewart of Fort Myers, FL, is an avid golfer and he spends at least a week a year on Hilton Head. He suggested I try the British Open Pub - not just for the food, but because he knows I love sport memorabilia. He said the British Open Pub was chock full of neat stuff to look at.
And John certainly wasn't wrong on the amount of memorabilia. The Titleist Bar at the British Open Pub was pretty cool. I especially loved the glass topped bar that featured the portraits of Americans who have won the British Open framed by Ti tleist golf balls. There was a number of flat-screen televisions throughout the bar area (and actually in the dining room, as well). It was the quintessential sports bar geared more for golf. I used to golf a number of years ago and admire anyone who can hit a golf ball straight, so I was pretty taken in by all the stuff they had to look at.
The British Open Pub has two dining rooms that also have a lot of memorabilia on the walls. I absolutely loved a lot of the old pictures and panoramic photographs of some the legendary British and Scottish golf courses where the British Open has been played.
The B ritish Open Pub on Hilton Head Island is the first of three opened in 1998 by a trio of entrepreneurs, Damian Hayes, Walt Rinaldi and John DeAngelis. There are two other British Open Pubs - one in Okatie, SC at the Okatie Creek golf club; and the other in nearby Beaufort, SC on Cat Island, next to South Carolina National Golf Club.
We were seated in a very spacious booth and given menusto look over. John had suggested the Lobster Pot Pie at British Open Pub - a small crock of fresh lobster meat, with carrots, celery and herbs added, cooked in a Newburg sauce and topped with a puffed pastry. John told me, "It's not cheap, but boy, is it good." Man, that sounded good when he described it to me. But it turned out that they only served it after 5 p.m. We were sort of bummed about that.
The British Open Pub also served traditional English dishes such as Shepherd's Pie, a steak and mushroom pie, "Bangers and Mash", and fish and chips. They also had an extensive list of "sandwedges" - a play on the terms sandwich and the sand wedge golf club. Unfortunately, when I was a golfer, I knew my sand wedge all too well.
I ordered up a Wexford Reuben - British Open Pub's slow cooked corned beef with sauerkraut and swiss cheese topped with 1000 Island dressing served on homemade dark rye bread. Cindy saw something on the lunch specials menu board that got her interest - a lobster roll sandwich. It was fresh lobster meat made up sort of like a tuna salad and served open faced on a hard roll with a side of fries. It wasn't cheap - $19.99 for the sandwich. But, we were on vacation, so what the hell.
And it was very good. She offered me a bite and it was just scrumptious. I was overly happy with my Reuben, as well. We had great service at British Open Pub, as well. It was a very busy place during the 1 p.m. hour.
If we would have spent more time on Hilton Head, we probably would have come back for dinner at least one night as the British Open Pub also featured nightly specials, as well as steaks, chops and seafood. But we really wanted to do nothing but eat the fresh seafood while we were on the island. The Lobster Pot Pie would have been pretty interesting to try. Still, just for lunch, the British Open Pub was a winner all around.
Comments