I've been here once, in the past, to purchase some green beer on St. Patty's Day but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I don't remember much of that visit.
Louie and I hit an Italian place that was closed and wouldn't open till four p.m. and then ended up at the Gilford Steakhouse which appeared to be open and advertised eleven a.m. to closing, seven days a week but we couldn't find anybody to serve us. So, we were heading to Alton when Louie remembered Patrick's Pub. Good choice on a day that was very overcast with rain hanging in the wings.
We were met in the pub by a rather chubby hostess with a annoying smile who didn't seem to want to seat us in the Emerald Room where we wanted to eat. She tried to seat us in an upper tier of the pub, which was alight with a deafening din mixture of some stupid sports event blaring on the TV and the usual barroom banter. Luckily for me, Louie won out by persuading the hostess with the mostess in his brash Italian manner to seat us where we damn well wanted to be seated.
We were soon greeted in the Emerald Room by Maureen, a thin, rambunctious, eyebrow studded, blond, dark eyebrowed waitress who was of jailbait age. She was a bit too zippy for me, but she handled Louie like a pro. I must say he was in RARE form this fine, overcast day. Maureen seemed to take the air right out of his sails though.
We ordered out drinks (A citrus cooler for me and the routine decaf coffee for Louie) and I set about perusing the atmosphere. Nothing startling about the Emerald Room really. Circa 1990's green with an upper deck that appeared to be used for a buffet and complete with fireplace and a bookshelf. I wondered why the bookcase? In case you decided to finish that last chapter of Moby Dick while waiting for your entree? Go figure.
Our drinks arrived via zippy Maureen and mine was pleasantly different. A mix of sprite and lemonade. Now why didn't I ever think of that? Impatient Maureen took our orders and zipped off into the bowels of the pub kitchen somewhere. I ordered the Veal Princess; tender veal cutlets lightly breaded and sauteed with baby shrimp and broccoli then topped with a hollandaise sauce and served with baked potato and corn, which was the veggie of the day. I also ordered an appetizer of baked artichoke. Louie ordered an appetizer of pasta with marinara sauce and garlic bread (he is SO Italian) and for his entree, he ordered one of the specials, rotisserie pork described as tender pork loin slow roasted, sliced thin and served with a honey Dijon sauce and served with potato.
My baked artichoke was delicious. It was served in a shallow baking dish filled to the rim with artichoke hearts topped with herb butter, white wine, swiss and parmesan cheeses and baked with bread crumbs. Yummmmm! It had a delicate citrus flavor to it and the artichokes seemed to melt in my mouth. Louie scarfed his pasta with marinara sauce and said his garlic bread was...well, garlic bread. Our meals came out shortly thereafter and I was reminded of why I never order baked potato. By the time I had the damn thing prepared, most of my meal was lukewarm. We had to ask Maureen for bread and more butter (minus ten points) and Louie asked why we didn't get salad. Maureen zipped out some answer to that, which for the life of me I cannot remember but Louie wasn't satisfied with the answer, that I remember.
Come dessert time, I ordered a hopscotch. The hopscotch is a butterscotch brownie covered with butterscotch fudge and topped with chocolate fudge, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and topped with sprinkles and a cherry. Louie ordered more pasta with marinara sauce. Maureen thought he was joking at first but I confirmed he wasn't. Louie is SO Italian. My dessert was freakin' awesome!
Louie finished up by ordering one last piece of garlic bread and then complained about it's size when he got it. The bill was rather pricey if you ask me, but then if you aren't asking me you can just forget it. Louie fell in love with Maureen, but then Louie is a dirty old man. I found her a tad irritating and that ring in her eyebrow was driving me nuts. I kept wanting to pull it out, spank her and send her to her room.
Overall, I would rate Patrick's Pub a **** four star rating, right up there in comparison with last weeks review. The portions were a bit to be desired, we had to ask for bread, no salad was served and Maureen was irritating. The food was fairly good but not as tasty as I like and I would have gone lower had it not been for the artichoke appetizer and the hopscotch brownie. You can peruse the Patrick's Pub website by clicking HERE, but if you ask me they should concentrate more on improving their service than working on a website.
Most people in the area know that Patrick's Pub is famous for it's comedy night on Thursday. I'll have to check that out and order the artichoke dish again.
-Jeeem-
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