Irish pub strives to be the real McCoy

Annie Moore's settled in a tourist haven, yet it particularly lures European-born residents and visitors who appreciate its authenticity.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

ST. PETE BEACH -- Dave D'Arcy claims to "pull the perfect pint" of Irish-brewed Guinness. He can even etch a shamrock in the head of the beer as he draws it from the key.

But you can't buy a shamrock-embellished Guinness in D'Arcy's new Irish pub.

"We don't do that," he'll tell you from behind the bar at Annie Moore's in St. Pete Beach. "In Ireland, they only do it at the tourist bars."

A tourist bar is not what D'Arcy has in mind for Annie Moore's, despite its location on tourist-saturated Gulf Boulevard in St. Pete Beach.

"A pub evolves to suit its customers," said D'Arcy, who opened Annie Moore's in January. "We are going to try and not let that happen. Ideally, we're going to try to do as much as we can that is true to what we want to be -- an authentic Irish pub."

D'Arcy and his wife moved their family here six months ago to open Annie Moore's, named for the first Irish immigrant processed through Ellis Island.

The D'Arcys welcome tourists, of course. But the new pub has become particularly popular with European-born residents and tourists who appreciate its authenticity.

Customer and Ireland native Eugene Harley said that of the 20 people in the pub one night listening to Irish folk music, not one was an American. Annie Moore's, which serves little food, opens at 4 p.m. daily.

D'Arcy, 43, grew up in Dublin. His wife of 19 years, Elaine, 42, was born in upstate New York to two Irish immigrants, who moved their children back to Ireland in the 1970s. Dave and Elaine D'Arcy met and married there, then moved to the United States, where they started a family and ran a janitorial business in Largo for 16 years.

They returned to Ireland in 1996, presumably for the last time. D'Arcy began helping his sister run her Dublin pub, Cozy Corner, but the D'Arcys always hoped to open a pub of their own.

Then they got their chance.

"We got the opportunity to come back and open this pub," D'Arcy said. "It was a tough decision to leave Ireland this time because it's home."

Choosing the name for the pub was an easier decision. Annie Moore, a 15-year-old from the same port town in Ireland that the Titanic would later sail from on its final voyage, was the first immigrant processed through Ellis Island when it officially opened on Jan. 1, 1892.

The name fits the D'Arcys' back-and-forth existence between the United States and Ireland.

Still, they want the pub to have a decidely Irish feel. They offer live Irish music four nights a week. They are trying to attract the area's best musicians, but they have already found their niche: pleasing patrons who know what real Irish pubs are all about.

Even the bartenders have Irish accents.

"Some nights this place is like the United Nations," D'Arcy said. "The northern Europeans don't really like the Irish music, but they like the beer."

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