Derry Hegarty’s

I took the family to Burke’s Irish Castle for the first time last night, and we had a nice time. They don’t have a kids menu per se, but can custom-​make food for the kiddies…, decent mac-​n-​cheese, grilled cheese and whatnot. It’s not really a family-​oriented place, but everything was good. The service was prompt and attentive. The bathrooms were very clean. We had frachos, which were delicious. There are lots of TVs for sports-​watching. It’s probably not the best Irish bar in Milwaukee, nor the best sports bar, but it is a friendly place with decent food, so I’ll probably be back. They had lots of daily specials which look like they’re worth checking out.

Burkes Irish Castle. Great Time on a Friday Night. Stopped in on a Friday Night for a few drinks and appetizer. Potato Skins were awesome, Bartender was fun and everyone was friendly. Will definitely repeat.

Burke’s Irish Castle is the reason why Unilocal should consider adding a «zero» star rating.
How this place stays in business is beyond me. Everyone who eats here must already be intoxicated upon arrival. There is no other feasible explanation.
Four of us tried to grab a quick bite to eat here prior to the Brewers game this past Friday night. We arrived fashionably late in an attempt to avoid the throngs of fans headed to the game. This worked reasonably well, but our very inexperienced waiter still took about ten minutes just to get us drinks, then another ten to take our food order.
Little did we know that this would be a highlight of our experience at Burke’s.
The kitchen could not have been backed up, because most of the fans had departed by the time we were seated. Still, it took over 45 minutes for our food to arrive. Considering what we ordered, that’s completely unacceptable. Also unacceptable was the fact that our clueless waiter did not keep our drinks filled during this painfully long wait.
Now on to the unpalatable food:
The «bangers and smash» were not «smashed»…and pretty terrible to boot. The plate looked like a Swanson TV dinner served on a Sysco Foods plate.
Two in our party had a «wedge salad» which had one half piece of bacon on it and was smothered in pretty terrible dressing. One of the girls had just run 3.5 miles prior to our arrival. She didn’t even finish a salad – it was that awful.
I had the «apple walnut» salad with chicken, which consisted of two small, overcooked chicken tenderloins – perhaps three ounces in total. I asked for the maple walnut vinaigrette on the side, but it did not arrive with dinner. I asked for it, but threw in the towel and ate the salad sans dressing. Twenty minutes later, my dressing arrived… as we were ready for the bill. Just for grins, I tasted the dressing. This, like dining at Burke’s in the first place, was a regrettable decision.
Our waiter made no offer to comp anything, despite his shortcomings and the elongated wait time. I don’t expect to eat free of charge, but a round of drinks on the house was certainly in order given our awful food coupled with his poor performance.
We sat outside, thankfully, but the inside of the bar was as hot as a Norwegian sauna and the men’s bathroom smelled like an unsanitary boy’s high school locker room.
Burke’s gets a sold «F» in my book for all elements. The food was awful, the service was worse, and the place isn’t clean. The puke-​green paint on the outside of this place tells you all you need to know about the establishment.

I’ve been around quite a bit to the Irish Pubs in Milwaukee. And to many on the Emerald Isle itself. Derrys — now Burke’s Irish Castle, is creeping into my heart. It is under recent new ownership and was smartly renovated. This is a rather large space — BIG event rooms off to the side with a whole other BIG bar — which was PACKED on St. Patrick’s Day (green beer was being served — Ian Gould was setting up to treat us all with live music!) Tonight I partook of the food offerings of Burke’s for the first time and was very pleased! Crab Cake sandwich — greatly flavored crab cake, soft and tender bun, and the chips must’ve been homemade — thick and crispy. Our waiter was awesome to us although we were a cumbersome large group with several complications. The décor is great and has had a lot of thought, effort and care put into it. Parking can be a trifle tricky on the streets around on weekends though. One night a week is a trivia contest (which seeemed popular) and now advertised is five card stud. 2 well known and respected Irish community organizations were holding meetings there tonight — that is a good sign for an Irish Pub, when these folks choose to frequent it. Looking forward to my next visit!

Never been to this establishment when it was Derry’s, so I can’t compare. Normally this is the type of place I would avoid like the plague, since I have an aversion to all things faux-​Irish, bro-​tastic, and sports-​fan-​related. If there are TVs plastered on every surface that stands still, you can bet that I’d rather eat and drink elsewhere.
Sadly my sentiments are not shared by the majority of people around these parts, so for the sake of my social life I’ve seen the inside of my fair share of sports bars etc. But I digress…
We came to Burke’s Irish Castle for team trivia. I actually enjoyed the atmosphere and décor (minus the TVs), though the bathrooms were «eh». Nice sinks and stuff, though. Nice warm water! Everything was largely clean, but it was a Monday. They had a decent crowd, a mixture of diners, basketball fans and trivialists.
The thing that stood out from the start was the service. There were at least 3 – 4 people running back and forth around and behind the bar. It was difficult to tell if they actually worked there or were just friends with the staff or what. Especially one female employee, who had on orange day-​glo sweat pants tucked into Ugg-​style boots, a big t-​shirt, and a hat covering her long, ratty-​looking hair. She looked like she rolled out of bed. I only surmise that she worked there based on her access to the cabinets containing serving ware.
There would be 1 – 2 people seated at the bar, being helped by one bartender, who would then subsequently ignore you as you stood at the end of the bar waiting to be helped. I was waiting to just get a glass of water, and gave up. I did get one eventually, but it was a while before I was noticed the second time I tried.
A couple people in our group of 5 ordered food — one Reuben sandwich and one Irish «fratchos» (whatever that means — I guess it’s nachos, except they’re waffle fries, topped with kraut and corned beef?). The friends who got food had to go to the bar to order, despite having menus on the table. They had to wait a while, too. The «fratchos» actually looked really good, when they eventually came, but the friend that ate them didn’t like the corned beef on them (and she likes corned beef normally) and reported feeling unwell the following day. Not sure if related, but still. No reports on the Reuben — I assume it was fine. He ate every crumb.
I had only free things, as it turned out — free popcorn, which was a bonus, free water, and our team won a free pitcher of tap beer. We chose Spotted Cow, which was a nice option to have. Things began looking up part-​way through the evening: our waters started getting refilled, we were asked how the food was, etc. I guess they were just overwhelmed by their crowd when we got there? If you ask me it wasn’t all that huge of a crowd, but maybe they just aren’t used to that or something, at least not on Mondays?
We took first place, so we’ll be coming back and ordering food/​drinks again. We’ll see how they do next time I guess! Stay tuned…

1.5 stars for what has gone from Derry’s to Burke’s Irish Castle.
Let me preface my review by saying my husband (then fiancé) and I lived right around the corner from Derry’s years ago. (yes, living in sin, thanks!) At that time, Derry was still alive and had some say in how the bar was run. A few years later they did some upgrades, and it turned into a solid 3 star establishment for me. It was a nice place to meet up with friends before a game, or to meet up on a Friday night and have some good conversation and cheap beer. The drivers were friendly and you could always catch a bus down to the game.
Derry passed away in 2011, and his family sold the bar. I hate to say it but since the new ownership, they’ve changed quite a bit about the bar, and not necessarily in a good way. (the old neighborhood coffee clutch was under the impression they’d still keep it the way Derry had it to honor his wishes). Sure, they did some revisions and tidied a few things up. They made a garage door /​window, to class it up a little more, and brighten up the interior. They also have a new cook, but that doesn’t matter to me since I never ate there to begin with.
My issue is they took something that used to be a little neighborhood bar where you could meet up with family and friends and made it a bland, gross, over-​braggerted (if that’s even a word) sports bar filled with pretentious 20– somethings (a la Kelly’s «Blech“ers). I no longer want to stop in before a game like I used to. You never used to get hassled to show your «ticket» to get a ride to the park and back. (Really, Burkes?) That’s what every other bar on the strip does. We used to go out of our way to patronize Derry’s and their ‘non-​ticket clause’. That, along with an increase on some of the prices and cocky blowhards, is a complete turn-​off. The people who used to be regulars are no longer customers.
Unfortunately, there is nothing out of the ordinary about this bar any more. I no longer want to hang out and talk with friends because it’s impossible to hear what people are saying. (Especially during Brewers season!) Once Nickleback hits the jukebox, it’s all over. That’s what makes me sad. It’s just like the rest of the bars on this area of Bluemound. Arrogant, chest pumping meatheads (some of them wearing Brewers shirts) who just want to drink until they puke. What’s unfortunate in my mind is they lost a lot of the neighborhood business due to this very reason. I probably sound like a crotchety old lady… maybe I am… but I also like a quiet corner bar that offers something a little different from the other annoying bars in the area.
Sure, we’ll still do the Bluemound Shuffle all the way down Bluemound for St. Paddy’s day this year. Maybe we’ll even stop in and have a pint with good ol’ Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan. I know my husband and I will probably hoist a pint to honor Derry. But this year we won’t be hanging around Derry’s (aka «Burkes Irish Castle») too much.

Since it’s St Patricks Day, what better time to review Derry Hegarty’s? Derry’s is kind of a dive-​y Bluemound bar that survives on Brewers fans (they run the «Paddy Wagon») and funeral lunches since they are across from Calvary Cemetery
The actual bar is a pretty typical sort-​of Irish dive bar. Lots of wood, kind of dated, a little dirty, Guinness on tap — you know the kind. The bathrooms are pretty gross and close to running out of TP. That doesn’t stop them from charging you $ 5+ for a Guinness though.
Derry’s tends to be one of our regular stops for St Patricks and apparently the whole West Side agrees because it gets insanely packed! I could write a whole book on the drunken shenanigans we’ve seen here but it would probably violate Unilocal’s content rules. So if you’re on the West Side tonight, stop by and watch the show for yourself!

Derry Hegarty’s is a decent little dive Irish bar. The bar part of Derry’s was cute and the bartender was nice, but I was there for a private party in the back room and that was a whole different story.
A few hours into the party, our keg ran dry. We waited about 45 minutes for them to change out the keg, which never happened and they ended up bringing pitchers of beer back from the main bar area.
That whole situation was confusing. If you know you’re going to have a party of 50 – 60 people and aren’t sure how much is left in the keg, wouldn’t you have a fresh keg on standby?
Milwaukee logic makes no sense.

One of many bars on Bluemound Rd. that runs free shuttles to Brewers games, I ended up here and utilized their Brewers shuttle this past summer. This one wasn’t bad, nice bartender, and they have a small food menu. Beer selection wasn’t too bad, but slightly lacking, at least for microbrews. It also has an internet jukebox, and a very nicely sized party room down a side hallway past their bathrooms. Décor is slightly on the older side, but I don’t mind that at all.
Didn’t try any of the food, so I can’t comment too much beyond my brief visit here. It’s one I’d definitely be fine with coming back to, whenever I make it back to the Bluemound bar strip. And for those not familiar with this neighborhood, you almost always can find free parking just to the north along Wisconsin Ave.