Irish Rover's bar staff seals up a full pint of Guinness safely with plastic wrap and a tight lid. And it fits in my cup holder! (Leave it sealed until you get home, though!)
Some people crave potato chips or chocolate. The other day I started craving Guinness stout. The more I thought about that dark, malty, bitter-chocolate beer with its creamy head so thick that you could float a farthing on it, the more I wanted a pint.
Thanks to Kentucky’s newly enlightened alcohol laws, a call to the Irish Rover put that right, and got us a delicious Irish dinner to enjoy with it too.
As it turned out, the Irish Rover – and many other eateries around town, too – were reopening that very evening under the state’s strict “Healthy at Work” regulations.
The Rover’s dining room remains closed, but its front patio and a beer-garden tent over part of the parking lot are open for service, with scrupulous sanitizing, masked servers, and 6-foot distancing. There’s also no-touch pickup for takeout orders over long tables barring public entry at the doors.
Having passed enough birthdays to be technically considered in a risk group (harrumph), I stuck with takeouts anyway, and the Rover handled it beautifully.
Take that Guinness, for example. No, wait, don’t take it, it’s mine.
Until the pandemic prompted a fresh look at some of Kentucky’s more rigid alcoholic-control laws, the idea of ordering a drink online, picking it up, and driving it to your destination was pretty much unimaginable.
But within days after he ordered a halt to dining in at Kentucky restaurants, Governor Andy Beshear and the legislature set up new rules. For the duration of the pandemic, at least, restaurants with liquor licenses may now offer beer, wine, liquor, or cocktails for takeout or delivery.
This seemed worth celebrating with a pint of Guinness to go. Since the rules require that your booze-to-go be ordered with food, we summoned an Irish dinner as well.
Irish Rover’s online menu offers nine substantial pub grub dishes that range in price from $6.95 (for veggie smash with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes) to $16.95 (for cabbage rolls stuffed with ground lamb and smoked cheddar).
Ten sandwiches, all served with Irish chips, are priced from $8.95 (for a salmon burger, Irish club sandwich with chicken and Limerick ham, a pub burger or Irish banger sausage roll) to $12.95 (for a fried basa sandwich).
Fifteen starters, soups, and salads range across the British Isles and beyond, such as British bubble and squeak ($3.95), the Rover’s delightfully filling Scotch eggs ($4.95), Cordon Bleu fritters ($5.95), and Louisville’s own Benedictine ($6.95).
Draft beer taps feature a half-dozen standards, including Guinness and its paler sibling, Harp, and six more rotating taps with regional craft beers. You’ll find broad selections of bourbon and single-malt scotch, and an extensive Irish whiskey collection, of course, with more than 40 bottles for your enjoyment.
I placed our order online, provided my phone number, and headed over to the Rover. ...
Read the complete article on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/guinness-irish-rover
The Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Ave.
899-3544
http://theirishroverky.com
Facebook: http://bit.ly/Irish-Rover
