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Food:
The bar offers a tight selection
of sandwiches and entrees including
some Irish favorites such as
Shepherd's Pie, Corned Beef &
Cabbage, and Fish and Chips.
It was nice to see a few different
Irish sausage dishes on the list of
appetizers and within the entrees.
The bartender recommended the
"Pastry Coats" appetizers, described
in the menu as Irish sausage baked
with a pastry wrap and served with
mustard sauce. While I didn't
try the pastry coats, I did go for
the Shepherd's pie, which Pat's
prepares with lamb. It was
excellent. The meat was tender
and the dish was laced with strong
spices. It was served with
fresh French bread. Later I
tried Pat's Cottage Chicken Pie dish
which was also very nice.
Drink:
I had a couple pints of Guinness
from the tap. Cold. My
only concern is that the brew was
served in a 16 ounce pint glass.
That's nice, but just like real men
buy 2 hotdogs at a time, real men
drink 20 ounce pints. They had
a few other beers on tap but I had
neither time nor interest to stray
from the Guinness.
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Decor: Upscale, yet with a
traditional old European look.
They have a few Rugby
shirts on the wall. The north
wall is old stone accented with
cherry woodwork. The rest is
brick and wood. It's clean and
pleasant. Both traditional and
modern Irish tunes surrounded the
pub, but the din wasn't overbearing.
There are several well-placed TV
sets throughout the restaurant but
only one in the bar area. I'd
like to see at least one more TV in
the bar, but overall you are not too
far from a set during the big game.
Pat's doesn't have the new Michigan
Lottery product Keno, but again, the
place just opened a few weeks ago.
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Location and info:
Pat's
Two Dragon
Pub
100
East Michigan Ave (below Mac's)
Saline, Michigan 48176
Phone:
(734) 944-8288
Schedule: At the time of this
review, the pub is open weeknights
and Saturday. Closed Sunday
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Smoking: You can't smoke
anywhere within Pat's. If
you're in a pinch, you can lumber
upstairs to the Mac's bar and toke
on your heaters. I don't smoke
(much) but usually don't mind others
that do. I'm not sure
why they went this route, but it's
not a big deal - especially with
Mac's right upstairs.
Wireless interest access.
They slapped a
wireless router inside the
restaurant for patron use. As
soon as I walked in I asked the
owner, Pat, the name of the network
ID. [I need to type in the name of
the wireless network in order for my
laptop to find it]. Pat
stared at me for a second and said,
"Hey, I just turn it on and it
works." I see this as a good
thing. I prefer my Irish Pub
proprietors IT-illiterate.
Geeks and pubs don't mix. The
co-owner, Wally, actually walked me
through the kitchen to their office
to check out their configuration and
get the SSID [note: it's tc3net].
I camped in the far corner of the
bar. The network signal was
weak but I was able to browse the
web with little trouble.
Owners. The owners were
friendly and accommodating.
Since Pat's just recently opened,
I'm sure these guys have been very
busy. Pat offered that, as
expected, they've tweaked the menu,
hours of operation, etc., in the
past several weeks to figure out
what works best. One nice
touch: When I ordered the Cottage
Chicken Pie for carry out, they let
me take home the ceramic dish that
they serve the pie in. Jess,
who has worked literally dozens of
restaurants back in the day, was
shocked when I told her this.
This isn't normal practice of Pat's
of course; the owner didn't feel
they had a suitable carry out
container for this entree.
They ask me kindly to return the
dish when I can. This would
never happen outside a small town.
Overall Pat's was an excellent pub
experience and a welcome addition to
downtown Saline. We'll be back
to try some of the other items on
the menu.
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