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very year, for nearly 70 years, Callaghan’s Irish Social Club,
a neighborhood pub in the Oakleigh Garden District of
Mobile, Alabama, has put on the biggest St. Patrick’s Day
party in Mobile. Their street party has become so popular over the
years it’s now the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebration anywhere in
the state.
But Callaghan’s claim to fame isn’t St. Patrick’s Day.
Callaghan’s was named Best Burger in Alabama by USA Today.
Now, I’ve cooked and eaten my fair share of burgers. And I will
come right out and say it, I make the best burger on Hwy. 1. And
I can sniff out the best anywhere else, from the Cheeseburger in
Paradise at Margaritaville in Key West, Florida, to the burger-
baked potato combo at Yo Mama’s Bar & Grill, a hole-in-the-wall
in the French Quarter.
Callaghan’s had me at hello. The pub sits on the corner of Marine
and Charleston streets in a 1920s-era building that once housed a
meat market. The grocer in me took that as a good sign. Green-
and-white tiles line the floor and customer photos line the walls.
They even have a photo of Jimmy Buffet back in the day. The place
has character.
I’d read that singer-songwriters and bands perform at Callaghan’s at
least two nights a week (Will Kimbrough, who toured with Jimmy
Buffett, played Callaghan’s; so did the Alabama Shakes.) My
wife, Cindy, and I went on a Friday, and the stage was empty. The
bartender told us Sunday’s their big night, Thursday’s next best. We
weren’t there for the music. We were there for the burgers. And the
In New Orleans, one of the best spots to watch football, any version of football, is Finn McCool’s, just up the street from our
Carrollton store in Mid City. Finn’s is a home-away-from-home for Irish expatriates and Mid City neighbors who come for a pint
of Guinness, a game of trivia, to watch a match, or to chatter with owners Stephen and Pauline Patterson, who are originally from
Belfast. The bar even has its own soccer team, Finn McCool’s Football Club, which was made famous in the book,
Finn McCool’s
Football Club: The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead
by Stephen Rea.
FINN MCOOL'S
Guinness. And the whisky. All of which were excellent.
You can order your burger topped with American, cheddar, Swiss,
Provolone or Pepper Jack. No fries here, this is a potato chip-potato
salad place.
Friends in Mobile tell me there’s a lunch special called the LA
Burger. LA stands for Lower Alabama, not Louisiana. The patty is
a mixture of ground beef and Conecuh sausage. You can only get it
at lunch. Go early, before they run out.
Callaghan’s Irish Social Club
by
Tim Acosta —Rouses Marketing Director
Tim and Cindy Acosta drinking Guinness at the Guiness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland.
Callaghan’s burger and potato salad.