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I agree. I went to the “old” Tipp once a week years ago. They had the best salsa, which I always found odd since it is an Irish Pub! The beer was cold, the food was good and the service was great. For this simple Republican, that is all I needed.

Then, they went “high-class” and that ended it for me. Slow service, snobbery (word?) and bad food. I am surprised it lasted this long.

I’m sure they are good people but I have to agree with this piece.

I agree with this totally. I wanted to watch a football (soccer) match there one afternoon only to be rudely told that they don’t subscribe to Fox Soccer Channel much less Setanta. How can you be a true pub without at least some footy on the telly

You may have tweeted first, Eric, but once again Unfair Park beat FrontBurner to the Web. Tweet Schmeet.

Back in “the day” a/k/a before kids and moving to the ‘burbs, Mrs. Mantooth and I used to attend Tuesday Trivia somewhat religiously. Martin kept the beer flowing, Mike and Beth kept the trivia going (somewhat drolly) and we all had a drinky good time. Then Martin lost the place (IIRC, that was a landlord problem too), and it just flat changed. The new “authentic” pub decor looked nice but it wasn’t the same bar anymore. I wish I could say that I’ll be there tomorrow night for one more one last beer, but the place just isn’t worth the drive anymore. Especially since the drinks got so pricey. Adios and pogue mahone, New Tipp.

“The bartenders and waitresses were (for the most part) surly and unhelpful, the food was awful, and the drinks were overpriced.”

Sounds more like a “real” English pub to me.

Yeah, I never really did understand why Martin spent all that money on the refurb, plus it kept the cash flow down for so long when it was closed to install all the new booths, etc.

I’ve always felt the renovation was one of the major problems. It created a series of closed-off areas that made the bar a poor choice for people-watching and socializing, and left the bar with an awkward layout with fewer tables than one would expect in a place that size. And the over-amplified Irish music on weekends totally sucked.

I also thought it had a bit of an Epcot Center European Pub feel, kind of like Trinity Hall.

Somebody call Gabe and Kelly from at Filmore in Plano and tell them their new space is ready.

I never had a big problem with the renovations or the decor of the place. It was the prices that struck the Tipp off my list after it re-opened (I was woefully underage during the first incarnation). The drinks were just too expensive for what they were and where they were being served. If I’m at the Library Bar or some place like that, I understand that I’m paying $6 for the cheapest well drink I can get because I am also paying for the ambiance and the fact that I get to drink out of a fancy glass around fancy, rich people. You can’t get the same amount of money out of me for the experience of sitting across from the Lakewood Texaco and being forced to listen to non-stop U2.

Dubious Brother – you nailed it.

The Dubliner on Greenville has remodeled and upgraded a few times in the last 10 years, but it has not lost its charming qualities. In fact, I think the upgrades have improved the place.

Faux Irish pubs are so 1995. I wish their kits pack themselves up and go away.

My prob with the Tipperary Inn has always been that the interior space didn’t lend itself to a pub-like atmosphere aesthetically. I also don’t think this is an esoteric point.

You can readily see from the exterior architecture of the building that the curves give it an almost 1940’s noir look and feel. The interior always matched that.

This was a good fit for its original purpose, a Volk’s department story. The best re-use of the space was in the 1980’s, when it was a medium to upper-end interior Mexican restaurant called Genaro’s Tropical (accent on the last syllable). The food was hit or miss, but the place had a sleek decor that positively soared, much like the stairwell that swirled its way up to the second floor. There was live music most weekends, too, in the later years.

When Tipperary shoehorned itself into the space, it never felt right to me.

What a shame for a beautiful place to go down the tubes…The renovation was beautiful. It looked like an adult daycare center before. But, as they say, looks aren’t eveything. It changed in an unexpected way…And there’s nothing wrong with non-stop U2; that is if you aren’t too young and think you’re too cool to appreciate it.

I’m a former employee at the Tipp. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. The people who owned the place came from some sort of automotive finance business in Miami…basically scumbags looking to squeeze money out of whatever they could, with total disregard for other people/employees. Definitely not restaurant people by any stretch of the imagination.

The TABC was constantly walking in and seizing money to pay for long over due taxes and fees. Paychecks bounced on a regular basis, which didn’t matter so much to us on the floor, but the woefully underpaid kitchen staff got shafted a lot. Constant overspending on raw foods with lots of unchecked spoilage and waste, and an adamant refusal to spend money on equipment. If a piece of their cheap equipment broke in the kitchen, it was coming out of someones paycheck, which would then bounce.

I really hope someone with half a brain leases the space and turns it into the goldmine it could be. It has a beautiful wood dining room/bar designed by some architect in Ireland, with a relatively large kitchen and a cozy pub area attached. There is a balcony overlooking the dining room/bar for private parties or discrete dining. There is a large unfinished 2nd floor area that could easily become a swanky nightclub/cool hipster bar and it even has a discrete separate entrance on the other side of the bulding for a VIP/snobbery entrance. I don’t think many people know about that 2nd floor, but did you ever notice the elevator/stairs by the restrooms? They go to the unfinished second floor.

The location is just far away enough from Greenville Ave to be on the scene but not crawling with Greenville Ave. people. The parking kinda sucks, but that challenge could be overcome.

How is this space not a tremendous success? It seems like it wouldn’t be that difficult to pull off.

Keep the main dining room/bar area and kitchen exactly as they are, tear out the silly little cozy’s and tiny service bar in the pub area and make it a functional place to have a pool table and flat screens for watching sports during the day, as well as being an entrance area to the nightclub upstairs at night. Run the kitchen right and realize that you are gonna make more money on liquor sales than food sales, but food sales drive liquor sales. If you have good food people will willingly overpay for drinks, so make good food that people actually want. Put together a manageable menu. Reward the cooks and take care of them if they take care of you, which is what any good cook does naturally.

Sigh….

I used to work with them a while ago. The food was bad, service marginal and I always felt like the redo made the space like an Irish Denny’s.

I loved it when it used to be on Greenville where the Dubliner is now.

Postscript irony: I went ther originally after reading Tim Rogers’ review of the fish and chips. Which were as good as he said.

This bar was a waste and too expensive. Thank god it closed, hopefully somebody will open a good bar in its place. The Tipp in 1999 to 2001 was great, all down hill after that.