BATH – A Sunday-evening supper at Byrnes’ Irish Pub involves an Irish-American sing-along led by the Roberts trio — John Roberts, son Rob and wife Lynn, who plays the washtub drum.

With many folks in the pub singing one song’s chorus, “Jack was every inch a sailor — he was born on the bright blue sea,” and more than a few tooting along on kazoos, the whole room was wearing a smile.

Music fills the calendar at both the Byrnes’ Irish Pub in Bath and its sister pub in Brunswick.

The Brunswick pub offers $3.50 pints of McSorley’s Irish Pale Ale at its happy hour, but any day of the week in the Brunswick or Bath pubs, you can get a 22-ounce mug for the price of a 16-ounce beer once you enroll in the Mug Club — membership costs $75.

With an upcoming performance in Bath of the Maine Public Safety Pipe and Drum Corps at 3 p.m. Aug. 17 as one example of many, you can count on enjoying an hour or two at Byrnes’. And amid the clapping and toe-tapping on one Sunday night, the three TV screens were more or less ignored.

If you come for dinner, you will do well with the Irish bangers on the menu. Pub owner Joe Byrnes claims the Brian Boru Reuben ($7.50) is the best anywhere.

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A few of the tables are made of old wooden hatch covers from sailing ships, wrapped in thick coats of polyurethane. Worn wood flooring is comfortable underfoot, and all manner of kitsch hangs on the exposed brick walls, from old license plates (not particularly Irish) to Irish street signs, green plastic inflatable Guinness shamrocks and a lighted Smithwick’s sign.

Speaking of not particularly Irish, Byrnes is satisfied that so long as it’s served in his pub, the food — including chili and a guacamole made with Cashel Irish blue cheese called “cashemole” — qualifies.

We started a meal with a cup of clam chowder ($3.99). Unfortunately, the milky broth had curdled, likely because it had boiled. It had a mild, pleasant flavor without saying much about the sea. The clam bits were tough; the potatoes soft.

The whiskey wings ($7.99) were better, dripping with a sticky sauce that was bright orange and tangy, smelling of cumin and tasting of sugar and chili. A few carrot and celery sticks lay on the side of the plate next to a little plastic cup of thick blue cheese dressing.

Beef chili and Connemara chicken and white bean chili (both $3.50 a cup and $5.99 a bowl) are also on the soup list.

The Caesar ($4.99) comes with crunchy bits of fried Parmesan, salty and golden brown, on a large plate heaped with chopped, fresh romaine. The creamy dressing tasted of mustard and not so much of garlic and lemon, but if you fancy anchovies ($1), they would be a surefire way to add some pizzazz.

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Bangers and mash is listed under Hearty Irish Fare and specialties, along with Pam’s macaroni and cheese and shepherd’s pie — the Byrnes’ Irish Pub version uses ground beef and pork cooked with Guinness onion gravy.

The same gravy came with the browned Irish bangers ($8.99), wonderfully seasoned pork sausages from New York’s Schaller & Weber. Chopped cabbage edged a golden brown from the saute pan had been cooked until it was soft and buttery. Straightforward mashed potatoes with bits of red skin filled the rest of the plate.

It tasted good with Guinness. My properly pulled pint wore a cap of silky mocha-colored foam etched with a shamrock.

The “Destroyer-Bath Built Is Best Built” ($8.99), an open-faced pastrami sandwich with melted Swiss and thousand island dressing, holds a clue about the hosts at Byrnes’ — Joe Byrnes retired from the U.S. Navy in 1996 as a master chief petty officer.

He opened the pub on St. Patrick’s Day 2008, and the Brunswick pub on that same day in 2010. He is Irish American, and always wanted to open his own little Irish pub.

The Byrnes’ Irish Pub marching kazoo band, visible in framed photos in the pub, performs in the July 4th and St. Patrick’s Day parades in Bath.

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“We call ourselves the Pub Scouts,” said Joe Byrnes, who counted 20 to 25 in the band. “We have little animal hats we all put on to do the Unicorn Song,” a tune played by the Irish Rovers back in the 1960s.

The brownie sundae ($3.50) was transformed into an Irish dish with a fairy dust of tiny green candy shamrocks.

But the proper American components were all represented, from melting vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to the essential, hot moist and chocolate brownie made even richer and moister with chocolate sauce.

N.L. English is a Portland freelance writer and the author of “Chow Maine: The Best Restaurants, Cafes, Lobster Shacks and Markets on the Coast.”

 


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