Dick O'Dow's Irish Public House, Birmingham

Dick O'Dow's

It's St. Patrick's Day!  St. Patrick's Day is a holiday honoring St. Patrick (for something involving a snake in Ireland), Irish Americans (for leaving Ireland), and beer (self-explanatory).  A summary of the traditional celebrations can be found here.  This year, I celebrated by having a burger at Dick O'Dow's two days ago.

Elliott (who, for brevity's sake, I usually just call 'Dad') with the Dick O'Dow's Menu.

I've always been enamored of Irish Pubs.*  It's amusing to me the way that so many of them follow the same naming convention ("Something O'Something"), and how much of the menu and interior decorating is the same.  For example, even if I hadn't see the green paint or read the sign at Dick O'Dow's, I could have figured out that it was an Irish pub immediately upon entering, when greeted by more Celtic detritus than my mind could process.  There were more Celtic crosses, tin flutes, and notices of their specials on Guinness and Corned Beef and Cabbage than I cared to count.  Two days in advance of St. Patrick's, our waitress was already rocking some green flair.  Almost all the furniture was wood, and while I was not personally seated on a stool or backless bench, I could have if I'd wanted to.  The floor was a mix of wood boards and some sort of uneven stone.  

We were seated in the non-smoking room, and were the only people there at the dinner hour.  Occasionally, though, we could hear the noise drift in from the smoking room.  It started to fill up as we were leaving, reaching the level of noise I associate with any place calling itself a pub.

I can't start talking about the burger without talking about the bun.  The bun, as you can see, was pretty huge compared to the patty.  It was also square for some reason.  It was soft on the bottom while being crunchy on the top, which was an excellent best of both worlds experience.  The bun also had a very distinct, doughy taste. 

The tasty bun was a pleasant surprise, but it was also a necessary surprise, because the patty just had a generic ground beef taste.  I tried to take bites with and without bun to get the comparison, and while the bites with bun had a very distinct (and good) taste, the bites without were really very weak.  That said, I would recommend the overall burger experience.

The fries were pretty standard rectangular cut fries.  They were unsalted, and due to the absence of salt and potato skin, there wasn't much there to like.  There was a hint of an oil taste, but otherwise, they were pretty tasteless.  They were an essentially functional side, with their main functions being 'filler' and 'ketchup delivery vector.' 

I can say with some certainty I'll be back.  I really like the burger here, even though it has nothing to do with the meat quality, and I can forgive a mediocre fry.

Now say it with me, because you know you want to: Erin Go Burger!

Many people will walk into bars like this today, and some will even remember it tomorrow.

*By which I mean Irish themed pubs found in the US, not pubs of any theme found in Ireland.