Staying out by O'Hare International Airport during my work visits to Chicago, I'm always looking for a good place to eat that's within a 5 to 10 minute drive from the hotel. There's a number of restaurants along Northwest Highway in the far northwest Chicago neighborhood of Edison Park and one that I found recently is an authentic Irish pub by the name of The Curragh. I went there one recent evening for dinner.
Actually, there are four Curragh pubs - 3 in the greater Chicago region and one in Holland, MI. And after I had dinner at the one in Edison Park, I realized that my wife and I ate at the one in Holland during a short vacation we had in the area a few years ago. (Click here to read about our visit to the Holland Curragh location.) At that time, I knew there were sister restaurants in the Chicagoland area, but I can never remember names of some of the places we'd been to. On my visit to this Curragh location, I never put two and two together that this was affiliated with the one in Holland until afterward.
The Curragh (pronounced CURR-ack with sort of a phlegmy throaty emphasis on the "ack") is named after the home of flatland racing in Ireland, the Curragh Racetrack, a historic race track that hosts all five of the classic Irish horse races - including the Irish Derby - and has been around since the 1700's. It's documented that chariot races were held on the grounds of the Curragh race track in the third century.
The original Curragh Irish Pub opened in 1999 in Schaumburg, IL next to the massive Woodfield Mall. But the roots of the pub go back even further to a Chicago area restaurant called J.J. Finnegan's that was started by Jim Leongas in 1984. His son, Paul Leongas, was the managing partner for the first Curragh and they later opened a second Curragh location in Skokie. (The original location in Schaumburg had to move due to development of a strip mall on the spot where the building stood. They moved the original building, piece by piece, to its present day location on Northwest Highway in the Chicago suburb of Edison Park.)
Jim Leongas opened a J.J. Finnegan's in Holland, MI in 1988 and it was run by his daughter, Sophia. Sophia and her husband, Dave Jurgensen, opened the third Curragh in Holland around 2006 and closed the J.J. Finnegan's restaurant in Holland in 2009.
The Edison Park location actually is the original Schaumburg Curragh. The Schaumburg location stood on a plot of land where a developer wanted to tear it down and put in a strip mall a number of years ago. Rather than having the building torn down, the Leongas family decided to find a new home for their brick building. They ended up dismantling the building - brick-by-brick - and moving it to Edison Park where they painstakingly reconstructed the building - brick-by-brick - to the present day Curragh on Northwest Highway. (see map)
I was able to find a parking spot in a small municipal lot just down the street from The Curragh and made my way inside around 7:30 one somewhat warm and humid evening. I walked into a small front room that was a cozy little public place with the Irish phrases Céad Mile Fáilte ("a hundred thousand welcomes") and Céol Agus Craic ("music and fun") on the wall. Just past this little room was the bar area featuring a curved bar around a center island.
There's a back area just past the bar where the table are a little larger and more spread out. A brick wall with a large fireplace were the features of the back wall of the restaurant.
I ended up seated at the bar and was met by Martina, a middle-aged lady with a quick smile and a heavy Irish brogue. In talking with her later in the evening, she told me that she was an Irish ex-patriot who had lived in the States for over 20 years. "Fell in love with a guy here, but that didn't last," she said. She still had family back in Ireland and she was, in fact, heading back to see them in a couple days. "I usually try to get back once a year, sometimes twice, if I can," she said in her Irish brogue. She poured me a pint of Smithwick's, one of many beers they had on tap at The Curragh.
Martina gave me a menu to look over and it was pretty extensive with a number of traditional Irish dishes such as Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, and Shepherd's Pie. But there were also a number of other items such as appetizers, sandwiches, and main entrees such as Romano chicken, and a Gaelic steak that featured a 16 ounce rib-eye with a mushroom marsala sauce. I seriously thought about getting the corned beef on rye sandwich after Martina told me that they made all their corned beef in house.
But I ended up getting the corned beef and cabbage boxty. A boxty is an authentic Irish dish where they stuff the contents into a potato pancake. They also had a vegetable boxty on the menu, as well as a chicken boxty. When I ordered the corned beef and cabbage boxty, Martina said, "Oooo, that's my favorite."
And I can see why it was her favorite. the corned beef and cabbage boxty came with a side of mixed veggies and mashed potatoes. It was stuffed full of delicious and tender corned beef, the cabbage wasn't limp and overcooked, and the potato pancake - on its own - was outstanding. This was a "stick-to-your-ribs" meal for a cold winter night, but it even hit the spot on an unseasonably warm early spring evening. There was no way that I could eat the whole thing, but I put a serious dent into it. When Martina looked at the remains on my plate, she asked if she could box it up. "It tastes great warmed up," she said temptingly. But I told her that I was traveling and even though I did have a fridge and a microwave in my room, I just didn't think I could properly bring it back to life as a leftover dish.
I've now eaten at two Curragh locations - the one in Holland, MI and now the one in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood - and both times I've walked away impressed with the food, the service, and the atmosphere. The corned beef and cabbage boxty was outstanding and the friendly service I received from Martina at the bar that evening was all a single diner can ask for. It's always great finding authentic Irish bars and The Curragh is a great place to get your Irish on if you're on the northwest side of Chicago.
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