In New York for a trade show recently, I had hit it pretty hard the night before and I needed a good greasy cheeseburger to set my stomach right. I had walked past an Irish pub on my way back and forth between my hotel and the trade show venue and I thought it might be a good place to go there for lunch, plus catch some of the Iowa women's basketball game that was slated to start at 12 noon that day. I snuck out of the trade show and went across Times Square and ended up at McCarthy's Irish Pub on W. 46th St. (see map)
McCarthy's is a relatively new restaurant/bar in the land of multiple Irish pubs in the five boroughs of New York. It opened in April of 2022 and is owned by a group of investors headed by managing partner Kieran Greene. A native of Falcarragh on the northwestern coast of Ireland, Greene and his partners are also involved in Gossip, an Irish-American bar located on 9th Ave between W. 49th and W. 50th streets in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
I got into McCarthy's a bit after noon and I was looking around at the long narrow space for a television that might have the Iowa women's basketball game on. But each television had the Liverpool FC/Manchester City Premier League game on. And soccer rules over any other sports in most New York City Irish pubs. While the place wasn't packed, there were enough people who were into the game where I didn't think I could ask someone to change the channel on one TV. I was able to get the women's basketball game on my DirecTV application on my smartphone, so I sat at the bar and watched it there.
There were a trio of bartenders working that day. The main bartender who first approached me had a heavy Irish brogue when he dropped off a menu and asked me what I wanted to drink. McCarthy's had their own beers on tap - an IPA, an amber and a lager - in addition to the usual suspects of Guinness, Harp and Smithwick's along with about a dozen other beers on tap. I thought I'd try the McCarthy's IPA and I got a pint of that. It was OK, but for my second beer I went with Merman IPA from the Coney Island Brewery that was better than the McCarthy's house IPA.
For food selections at McCarthy's, there were a number of Irish specialties such as Shepherd's Pie, an Irish Beef Stew, fish & chips, bangers & mash, and an Irish chicken curry dish with vegetables and rice in an Irish curry sauce. Other entrees included a pan-roasted chicken breast, rigatoni pasta in a pesto cream sauce, grilled salmon in a lime/butter sauce, and lobster ravioli in a cream sauce. Appetizers such as margherita flat bread, fried calamari, beef nachos and chicken wings were also on the menu.
My stomach was still a bit queasy from too many beers the night before, but I needed something to eat to settle it down. I figured a burger would be good, but McCarthy's basic burger - an 8 ounce black angus burger with lettuce, tomato, and onion with fries was $19 bucks. I knew I was in New York City, but I just couldn't see paying $19 bucks for a basic burger. They had a steak sandwich and a pastrami panini on the menu, but I went back to burgers. I ended up getting the Gaelic burger with fries.
The Gaelic burger featured an 8 ounce black angus patty topped with Irish bacon (basically ham or Canadian bacon) with sharp cheddar cheese and sautéed onions on a sesame-seed bun with fries on the side. The ham/bacon was sort of dried out and the burger was slathered in cheddar cheese so much that it was difficult to taste the flavor in the beef. The burger was just OK. Even though I was in the mood for a burger when I ordered it, I really wished I would have gotten something else a couple bites into the burger.
McCarthy's Irish Pub is one of hundreds of Irish pubs in New York City and it was fine for what it was. Good beer selection, food was OK, lots of televisions tuned to soccer matches - it was your typical run-of-the-mill Irish pub. It was really nothing special, but it was also nothing bad. If you're in the Times Square area and in need of an Irish pub fix, McCarthy's Irish Pub would be a good stop.
Comments