Pub grub steps up game

Celebrate with recipes from local Irish restaurants.

Irish actor Peter O’Toole once famously quipped that his three favorite Irish foods were all Guinness.

But nowadays, Irish cooking isn’t about paucity. It has become much more sophisticated, with explorations of the island’s bounty of local seafood, meat, dairy and produce. And even what was once considered the most basic pub grub has taken more sophisticated turns.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day — a holiday that’s still much bigger in the U.S. than Ireland — we gathered three favorite recipes from three of Atlanta’s most popular pub companies.

While none of the dishes are strictly a pint of Guinness, a la O’Toole, one of the recipes does use the classic Irish dry stout as an essential ingredient.

More surprisingly, perhaps, two of the recipes call for demiglace, the silky French sauce of haute cuisine. But don’t worry, you can buy it at specialty food shops or online.

Bryan McAlister is the corporate chef for the Atlanta-based Fado Irish Pub company, which has locations in Buckhead and Midtown in a nationwide chain that features craft beer, cocktails and plenty of small plates, alongside more traditional fare.

McAlister’s tried-and-true Shepherd’s Pie is a regular menu item at Fado, currently served up in nifty cast iron skillets. The recipe uses ground beef instead of lamb and a rich sauce made with demi-glace.

“The recipe has been around a lot longer than I have,” says McAlister. “It’s a pretty simple comfort food dish but we pay attention to a few things inside the recipe that help with consistency and flavor and quality of the product. The big thing is the demi-glace.

“The goal is to make the mix of ground beef and vegetables as savory and rich as possible with the mashed potatoes or colcannon. It’s the classical French mother sauce and it’s the best solution to impart flavor into such a simple dish.”

Brian O’Rouke is the executive chef at Meehan’s Public House, with five metro Atlanta locations — Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Downtown, Atlantic Station and Vinings — that serve as elevated Irish eateries as well as neighborhood sports bars.

O’Rouke’s menu ranges from starters and salads to burgers and entrees. But his Bangers and Mash is an Irish classic made local with Heywood’s Provision Company Irish bangers, plated with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions and peas in a red wine demi-glace sauce.

“We spent an entire day tasting different sausage recipes at Heywood’s until we found one that met our qualifications, which was to be the pub that served the best banger possible,” O’Rouke says. “Our onion gravy is an old family recipe made in-house, along with our mashed potatoes.

“Our Bangers and Mash fit with the menu because it’s a traditional pub dish. We felt we couldn’t truly call ourselves an Irish pub without having the dish on there.”

Geoff Kokoszka is the director of operations for Atlanta’s Olde Blind Dog Irish Pub, a traditional pub with locations in Milton and Brookhaven that in 2015 was chosen Irish Pub of the Year by the Irish Pubs Global Federation of Dublin, Ireland.

Olde Blind Dog’s menu features Start a new tradition with recipes for Irish fare,

CONTRIBUTED BY FADO IRISH PUB Fado Irish Pub executive chef Bryan McAlister makes Shepherd’s Pie with ground beef and vegetables in a rich sauce topped with colcannon.

CONTRIBUTED BY OLDE BLIND DOG IRISH PUB The Guinness Stout Onion Soup at Olde Blind Dog Irish Pub is an Irish take on the French classic.