Sunday, July 11, 2010

O'Neill's Pub & Liquor


O'Neill's is almost like a little bit of Ireland in Wisconsin.  They even have shuffleboard and darts.  The ceiling over the bar has been lowered, probably to give more of that Irish feel.  It's a toss up as to whether this or Off the Wagon is my favorite bar in Superior.  This is one of the few bars that has a fireplace and while we always say we should sit in front of it some cold winter night we never get around to it.  


The staff is always very friendly.  The pours sometimes are great and sometimes not so much.  And this usually determines how long we stay.  It's more pricey than most of the bars in Superior so we don't tend to stay long for drinks that taste more like water than anything else.  I think part of what determines your pour is if the bartender recognizes you.  Seems like when we're frequent visitors we get better pours than if it's been awhile.  And their specials aren't anything exciting, either.  Unless you happen to like beer and neither of us does.  

O'Neill's doesn't have food other than the obligatory appetizers.  We've tried them and they're average.  We really like their pizza fries and will sometimes do those for lunch.  Sure, not the most healthy thing but then neither is drinking so we might as well go all out.

There is one sort of odd thing I have to mention: the bathroom stalls open out instead of in!  What does that mean?  No contorting of the body because the stall is small enough without the door opening in!  Honestly, it puts a smile on my face whenever I have to use the facilities here.  No idea if the same holds true for the men's room...

The other unique aspect about this bar is it has a drive-thru liquor store.  Seriously!!  It's one of their advertising points.  I think the building used to be a Wendy's and when O'Neill's took it over (or whomever) they never took out the drive-thru window.  I guess rather than let it remain useless they decided to gimmick it up.  And why not?  I've heard of liquor stores that deliver (and there need to be more!) so why not one with a drive-thru?  


Off the Wagon


When we first started going to this bar, it was Adam's Last Call. Owned by a guy named, obviously, Adam. He was a nice guy from somewhere in Eastern Europe, I believe. He would gab with us and even gave us a shot of his special reserve vodka once. We loved hanging out there. But then for reasons that I won't go into, he had to sell the bar. So it's now Off the Wagon. The new owners are just as nice as Adam and they haven't really changed much about the place, other than the name and cleaning it up some. Even though it's in Superior it was and still is a Vikings bar. Probably it's an all MN sports bar but we don't pay attention to any other sports.

They still do an awesome pour as they kept on most of the old staff. Like the vast majority of WI bars, they don't serve food other than pizza. I think they have two kinds, one from a local place, Lil Nick's, (which I've heard is very good), and the other from one of those 'bar' pizza companies.

Like so many bars, this is an old one. It has a lot of the original woodwork, to include the bar and the behind the bar area. It also has some beautiful stained glass on either side of the mirror that sits behind the bar.

We really like this bar. It has become 'our' place to hang out. Attending Vikings games there is a lot of fun. Adam would have food and drawings and we only hope the new owners will do so as well. I'll let ya know in a few months.