You've been to an Irish pub before, right? Picture it in your head. It's loud, from the drunk and raucous people to the TVs blaring soccer and other sports, or bad music from the jukebox. It smells like cigarette smoke and bar food—buffalo wings, hamburgers and, if you're lucky, sirloin steak. It's dirty, or at the very least, dirtier than a 'classier' restaurant, and you certainly wouldn't want to pour pancake syrup on the already-sticky floor and lick it up with your bare tongue. In short, it's the place you go to go crazy and have beer, after beer, after beer, after—you get the picture.
D4 (named after the poshest postal district in Ireland) isn't that kind of Irish pub. The floors are spic and span and beautiful (the kind of floor you'd beg to lick some syrup off of, any kind), but only half as beautiful as everything else. The walls, couches, tables and chairs are all decorated like Christmas—and we don't mean literally like Christmas, but rather the colors of Christmas, myrtle green and scarlet red. Seriously, you've never seen such beautiful (and large) auburn-colored, posh leather booths. They look like they were made for giant kings of fantasy worlds in universes far away. The lighting is low, the atmosphere serene (no smoke to speak of) and the layout far beyond impressive, with lounge, bar and restaurant areas. In the bar and lounge areas, there are two sections made up to look like your uber-expensive winter home in the Swiss Alps with enormous fireplaces and kindling fires to boot.
And I haven't even mentioned the food and drinks. The only thing that even vaguely resembles the Irish pubs you're used to is the menu, with appetizers that include black-and-blue baby angus burgers, pulled pork mini bites and Jameson chipotle buffalo wings ($6-$12), only classier (hence the extra qualifiers). Sandwiches include cheeseburgers, the D4 (marble rye, grilled bangers, Swiss, kraut, horseradish mustard) and a grilled chicken club; entrees include Smithwicks-boiled bangers and mash (Irish sausages, stilton mashers, Bass gravy), fish and chips, a 14-ounce bone-in pork chop and a 16-ounce bone-in drunken ribeye (from $11-$28); and then there's the 9-inch deep dish, Chicago-style pizza pies for $10 ($2 additions). The beer and wine list is even more extensive, with beers from all over the world (Ireland (duh), England, New York, Chicago, Indiana, Austria, Belgiam, Denmark and Germany) and wine as abundant as D4's oozing and ever-present hyper-style.
No, you don't go to D4 to party down (or, much to our surprise, to watch the third sequel in a series of Mighty Ducks movies), but you do go to relax, enjoy the scenery and eat great food at, well, not great prices. Hey, you wanted something different.
Centerstage Reviewer: Benjamin Andrew Moore
