June 12, 1998
AIDAN'S PUB & GRUB
A wee bit of Ireland in a pair of East Bay pubs

By DONALD BREED
Special to the Journal-Bulletin

Are Irish pubs this popular in Ireland?

I was left wondering this on my visits to Aidan's of Bristol, which has been open six years, and Aidan's of Newport, which opened this year just before St. Patrick's Day.

In both places, but especially Bristol, there was a mix of clientele not usually seen in the same place: Generation Xers, sitting around languidly in backward baseball caps; yuppies, fresh from the office; people my age (63) and even older; men in uncomfortable-looking dark suits; construction workers; kids in highchairs; women out by themselves. Both visits were on weeknights, but there were lots of diners, and in Bristol we were lucky to get a table.

Aidan Graham, 48, the proprietor, hails from Mullingar, County Westmeath, in the midlands of Ireland. He's a drummer who played in a variety of bands and came to the United States about two decades ago. According to his manager, Paul Palumbo, Graham had always wanted to own a pub. He has owned Aidan's since 1992.

Aidan's of Bristol is essentially a big room with a bar at one end and an outside terrace at the other end. There are low, round tables, the kind people in Ireland sit around to drink their pints, but otherwise it could be called a bistro, or even a bar.

Aidan's of Newport, near Eisenhower Square, is a much more studied reproduction of an Irish pub. Palumbo said Graham not only drew on his own memories, but got books on Irish pubs, went back to Ireland to look at them, and imported stained glass and the material for the tables and chairs (which they built themselves). Palumbo says there's an ornate back room, suitable for private parties, with mahogany cabinets and more Irish imports.

The whole air of the place, befitting Newport, I guess, is more formal. And pints cost a quarter more: $3.75 for most kinds in Newport, $3.50 in Bristol.

I first heard about Aidan's when I was writing about Emerald Isle Brew Works of West Warwick, a microbrewery whose products are for the most part cask-conditioned and must be drawn with an English-style "beer engine." Any bar that lays out the $400 or so for one of these must have a commitment to good beer, I figured.

Emerald Isle's Bank Street Ale is served at both places, and Newport will also have Emerald Isle's Porter soon, Palumbo said. He added that Aidan's of Bristol has long sold more Guinness Stout than any other place in Rhode Island, but now Aidan's of Newport may be beating it.

Here are the other draught brews, at both places: Harp Lager, Boddington Ale, Bass Ale, Newcastle Brown Ale, Woodpecker Cider, Belhaven Scottish Ale, John Courage, Double Diamond, J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown, and the Samuel Adams seasonal ale, now summer ale. All but the last two are either Irish, English or Scottish.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Tennent's Lager and Old Speckled Hen are on draught only in Bristol. The last two are Scottish and English.

If you want a Bud Light, Miller or Coors, they have it in bottles, along with many other brands.

Clearly, it was the beer that drew me to the two pubs, but Aidan's also has distinctive food, including Irish items. (Every Thursday, not just St. Patrick's Day, they have corned beef dinners.)

Perhaps the closest Aidan's gets to "gourmet" is Grandma Ennis's Chicken Dinner, $7.95, chicken breasts sauteed with mushrooms and Bailey's Irish Cream Sauce, or Sizzling Angus, $13.95, a 14-ounce Black Angus steak sauteed with Irish whisky and then run under the broiler.

In Newport, where we went first, I started with a very good chowder, which had a clear broth with what appeared to be sea clams and salt pork, among other things.

My wife got a Dublin Pot Pie, $7.95, and the taste of the filling I got seemed rather ordinary, but she said the puff pastry was very, very good.

My choice was Irish Mixed Grill, $7.95, which included steak, imported Irish bacon, which is sort of like bacon-size slabs of ham, and imported Irish bangers, sort of like a spicy hot dog.

My mashed potatoes, while edible, were bland, and I swore they were the instant kind. Palumbo declares that couldn't have happened. However, the mashed potataoes in Bristol were creamy and delicious and there was no question they were homemade.

At both places, especially Newport, I got a gargantuan portion of broccoli, which was steamed perfectly, bright green and slightly crunchy, but unadorned -- no hollandaise, butter, garlic or mayonnaise. I cleaned my plate, nonetheless.

Apple pie a la mode ($2.95) came with nice, chunky apples and a lovely, flaky crust almost as good as my wife's, except she noticed it was quite salty. I counted the chowder and pie as the best parts of the meal in Newport.

The meal in Bristol began with goulash, thick and delicious with quasi-exotic spices, presumably paprika.

My stuffed scrod ($7.95) was covered with the kind of garlicky crumbs one gets with baked stuffed shrimp, and the exemplary mashed potatoes and abundant broccoli.

My wife's fish and chips ($5.75) were very good, based on the taste I got. Her chips, of which I got quite a lot, were outstanding: not the usual French fries, but thin slices with the skins on, sort of like potato chips. The cole slaw was also excellent.

So this time the potatoes were outstanding, as indeed they ought to be in an Irish place. Right?