Galway Bay Bar Limerick

JoeLapira

bennyl10 wrote: »

JoeLapira wrote: »

Nope, im just a craft beer lover who's delighted to see Limerick finally have a proper craft beer pub.

Ah come on?
Mother macs more than fills the motif of 'proper craft beer pub'

In my opinion a 'proper craft beer pub' sells craft beers exclusively. I'm not for one minute downplaying Mother Macs, they have been a great servant to the craft beer scene in Limerick of late and i've tried plenty of new beers in there and enjoyed some of the great Meet the Brewer nights. But if the other GBB pubs are anything to go by, The Wickham Tap will supply a larger and more dynamic range of craft beers.

JoeLapira

bennyl10 wrote: »

JoeLapira wrote: »

I dont think it will be that tough, Mother Macs has definitely filled the craft beer void over the last while but The Wickham Tap will be up a level in terms of their craft beer offering, as i mentioned earlier, they have 19 taps and probably a fridge or 2 full of various craft beer bottles.

Which doesn't sound all that different to mother macs?....
A couple extra taps?
Will need to do more than that.. certainly won't do stuff like meet the brewer or beer type fests... wouldn't suit GBB surely?..

19 compared to the 4 or 5 Mother Macs do is more than a couple. Look as i said, im not here to bash Mother Macs, its a great pub. As for the meet the brewers, that Mother Macs, nobody can take that away but i can see the Wickham Tap getting involved in Beerfests and Tap Takeover etc.

bigpink

Had a beer in there
Not a bad job kept the decor simple used the old bits of the existing pub.
All craft beers no heineken or guinness
Old school chairs not very comfy but 2 cool big picnic tables
Not a bad job

bigpink

Going for the exact same crowd so both places will have to be top.of there game good for the customer

JoeLapira

bigpink wrote: »

Had a beer in there
Not a bad job kept the decor simple used the old bits of the existing pub.
All craft beers no heineken or guinness
Old school chairs not very comfy but 2 cool big picnic tables
Not a bad job

Big crowd??

Insect Overlord

JoeLapira wrote: »

Big crowd??

Very good atmosphere in here now. Every table is full, but it's still comfortable standing.

Drinking 200 Fathoms on draught for the first time in about 3 years. This is what it's all about!

um7y1h83ge06nx

First there was Burrito Wars, now we have Craft Beer Wars...

Let's get ready to rumble!

bigpink

I was in early at 6.But heard it was packed tonight

dashoonage

Molly Fierce Parrot wrote: »

First there was Burrito Wars, now we have Craft Beer Wars...

Let's get ready to rumble!

Hipsters ASSEMBLE!!!!

BnB

dashoonage wrote: »

Hipsters ASSEMBLE!!!!

JoeLapira

Got in there over the weekend and it was excellent, simple decor, knowledgeable and friendly staff and a good chilled atmosphere. Went in with most of my group not particularly liking craft beers but thanks to a few samples they all found something they liked. One of my mates, who loves his whisky, was very pleased with the offerings they had. We were only going to stop in for 2 or 3 beers but ending up spending most of the night there. Can't wait to get a growler and start enjoying some of their core range at home fresh from the tap.

squonk

I was in Thursday night for an hour or two. Echo what the previous poster said. I found it grand but it was very quiet for a Thursday night. It’s early days but I hope the crowd picks up. We were long enough waiting for a proper craft pub so hopefully this place will be a success.

sioda

Without food options I'm not sure how well they will do. The salt House and Oslo both do excellent grub

dominatinMC

sioda wrote: »

Without food options I'm not sure how well they will do. The salt House and Oslo both do excellent grub

The Old Fire Station are supplying them with pizzas, so that's a food option..

um7y1h83ge06nx

Some of their pubs do a great deal for 2 - a big sharing bucket of chicken wings to start, 2x steak dinners and a pitcher of beer.

Edit - should have said the price. 40 euro.

Strettie11

When did the Salthouse start serving food?

JoeLapira

sioda wrote: »

Without food options I'm not sure how well they will do. The salt House and Oslo both do excellent grub

Salt House doesnt do food.....maybe your confusing it with one of their Dublin pubs, Against The Grain maybe. I was in there again last night, the place was pretty much full all night and again a good atmosphere. Ive had 3 visits in total now and tried 12 new beers, what more could you want.

sioda

Must have sampled to much.

bigpink

Is it taking Mother Macs crowd?

JoeLapira

I guess its hard to tell, a mate of mine stopped in Mother Macs first before meeting us in the Wickham Tap and he said it was busy in there, no tables free. Same can be said for the Wickham Tap.

dominatinMC

Was in The Wickham Tap last night and the place was deserted, only 6 other people in there at around 10 pm on a Friday night. We went up there after being in Mother Macs - which was very busy (as you would expect of a Friday night). Hopefully business improves for The Wickham Tap, as I can't see it lasting too long if every Friday night is like last night...

Insect Overlord

I've been away for most of the summer, but I'm planning to make it my regular watering-hole once the Gaelic football season is over.

bigpink

dominatinMC wrote: »

Was in The Wickham Tap last night and the place was deserted, only 6 other people in there at around 10 pm on a Friday night. We went up there after being in Mother Macs - which was very busy (as you would expect of a Friday night). Hopefully business improves for The Wickham Tap, as I can't see it lasting too long if every Friday night is like last night...

Yeah i have been in a few times now with different friends altho only for one drink but seemed very quiet after the busy opening.Early days yet

Mc Love

Was in there Bank Holiday Sunday and it was quiet enough, there was a particularly loud group in there and the bar staff turned up the music, would have had another if the bar wasnt so loud. Few others in there but I would have said it was busy. I do hope it is successfully because its in a great spot

dominatinMC

Mc Love wrote:

I do hope it is successfully because its in a great spot

Ya I hope it's a success too, but last night (and the posts from others in this thread) doesn't bode well for the place. Maybe there isn't a market for another specialist craft beer pub in Limerick? Mother Macs was always busy from the outset and is fairly well established in the Limerick social scene at this stage. They've done a really food job there, and I'm not sure the crowd that go there regularly for their craft beer fix are going to migrate to The Wickham Tap...

Silentcorner

The way I see it, the hipster/craft beer thing never really took hold here in Limerick like it did in other cities for whatever reason...

If the current model isn't/doesn't work, there is nothing stopping them adjusting to the market...its still a nice pub in a good location in my opinion...

Poxyshamrock

I didn't like it when I was visited. It was quiet and anyone in there seemed to part of a clique. The decor isn't much either. There were menus for pizzas on the table so I went to order to be told they weren't doing pizzas that night (it was one of the nights they do pizzas!). I don't see why they couldn't just take the menus off the table. Left shortly after and went to mother macs.

Reputable Rog

I was in there yesterday and I thought it was awful.Terrible smell in there.
It was fairly empty.
It's basically O'Donnells with a beer memorabilia strewn around.
I asked the barman what trade was like and he said very quiet 'because people can't accept that we don't have Heineken'. I told him I had been in Mother Macs just before and that it was busy,he said that's because they have Heineken, I told hik however that I didn't see anyone drinking Heineken.
I think the location is bad and that they've made a mistake hooking up with a vegan restaurant, they'd have been better off hooking up with Donkey Fords.
Overall it's a poor effort.

zulutango

This discussion isn't going to do much for the place anyway. Limerick is very quiet in summer time so now is the wrong time to judge it. I've been quite a few times. It's different but I like it. I like Mother Mac's too but not when it's busy. Some pubs are just better when they're quiet. Obviously it's more difficult for them to survive but it can be done. I suspect that the owners never expected The Wickham Tap to be heaving every night of the week and that they're simply trying to establish a footing initially. The street itself doesn't help their cause. Ideally they'd be able to have a few tables and chairs outside. It would make it more popular for smokers and daytime drinkers and it would advertise its presence also. The Council should really bite the bullet and reduce the traffic to one lane and widen the footpaths. It would do wonders for the vitality of the street.

Insect Overlord

Hear hear! The way people tend to park on the edge of the footpath in the right-hand lane up there, reducing it to one lane proper would make little practical difference to traffic.