There was a time when the idea of an Irish Pub on the square in the town of Covington wouldn’t have made sense, but those days are in the past. Like many towns in the deep South, the sale of alcohol went through various stages, and so, it simply would not have been a practical choice of location “back when”. Irish Bred Pub (which appears to be either a franchise or at least in multiple locations) did well with converting one of the historic buildings and actually has a fairly quiet downstairs area and the larger upstairs “events” room. It was Trivial Pursuit night last night. http://www.irishbredpubcovington.com/

The fare is as expected with a couple of regional variations such as shrimp and grits as part of the menu. The beer selection is appropriate and they have an interesting arrangement with Cork, their neighboring wine store. If you bring a bottle from Cork with your receipt, you don’t pay an outrageous corkage fee. Considering how difficult it is to resist temptation while traveling (I certainly didn’t for lunch yesterday), I ordered the onion soup and fields greens salad with pecans, roasted corn, and topped with steak. The salad was wonderfully fresh and the steak perfectly cooked. Hubby had beef stew with their Irish flair. (For those who may not be familiar with it, traditional Irish stew is made with mutton.)  Had we not been so tired from getting up early and more traffic than we hoped, we would have sampled the Irish coffee. That will have to wait for the next trip. The weather was clear for travel though and we’re quipped for the chillier temperatures.