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UES's Kinsale Tavern To Transform Into New Irish-Owned Bar and Restaurant

By Shaye Weaver | November 9, 2015 6:20pm
 The former Kinsale Tavern is undergoing an overhaul. It will reopen as a new bar called The Weir.
The former Kinsale Tavern is undergoing an overhaul. It will reopen as a new bar called The Weir.
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DNAinfo/Shaye Weaver

YORKVILLE — Irish-born Donal Daly and his business partner Martin Whelan are taking over the former neighborhood haunt Kinsale Tavern with plans to open their own bar and restaurant before Super Bowl Sunday.

Daly and Whelan signed a lease for the space at 1672 Third Ave., owned by Kinsale's proprietor Frank Skuse, in November and are in the middle of transforming the iconic Irish pub into a neighborhood bar and restaurant called "The Weir" — a nod to both a play of the same name by Irishman Conor McPherson and a dam-like device that redistributes fluids.

The Weir will be modeled after a bar that was owned and operated by an Irish family around the turn of the century with exposed brick, dark oak floors and a zinc-topped bar, according to Daly.

Former Kinsale patrons need not fret, however.

"I think it's going to feel somewhat similar, somewhat like a family-operated business," he said. "I think when you take a place that was an iconic Irish bar and change it, a lot of people are going to love the change and a lot of people are going to hate it forever. It's not going to be the Kinsale but I'm from Dublin — it's going to be an Irish-owned and run bar."

Daly, who used to drink at Kinsale during the 1990s, said The Weir will still be the place to watch the game, whether it be soccer or rugby, and that he hopes to bring back a lot of the Kinsale's staff.

A slew of craft beers will be on tap with a variety of traditional beers and only six global beers.

The menu, which is still under consideration, will be slightly "upmarket" from the Kinsale's traditional bar food — Daly said he plans to serve that traditional fare but also grass-fed, hormone-free meats and locally-produced food for lunch and dinner and brunch on the weekends.

Daly, who has lived in the city since 1998 and worked as an institutional bond broker, said opening the bar is a dream come true for him.

"Last year, I decided it was either time to stop talking about it or do it," he said. "Creating this bar is a dream for me, but it has to be a neighborhood place. I think we have to offer something that the neighborhood gets and improves by."

Daly said the hope is to open in January.