On Sunday, O’Hare’s Gastropub celebrated 30 years in the pub and restaurant business by inviting its decidedly Generation X following, sprinkled with younger Boomers and older Millenials, to a pig roast.
As the many placards suggested, there would be ‘no snivelling’ on his day, at Richmond’s only independently-owned Irish pub.
Staying true to the gastropub’s roots, retired founder Jack O’Hare, now 73, kept his speech to the crowd simple and to the point.
“One of the things I must remember to say is, thank you to everyone who is here and participated in O’Hare’s. . . Thank you to Erinn and Grant. They said, ‘Dad it’s about time you stepped aside.’ By God they were right.” Anyway, I just want everyone to have a good time. I hope everyone enjoys a few tunes from the old country,” said Jack.
Jack was referring to daughter Erinn Bryan and son-in-law and fellow Celt Grant Bryan, who have operated the family business since 2005.
Few restaurants make it so long in the industry. Jack said he started the pub with a focus on value and loyalty for the customer, and the Bryans have continued onward with his legacy.
In 1987, he walked into The Windsor, as it was called back then, at the corner of Steveston Highway and Railway Avenue.
“It was kind of dead. It was like a chicken with its head cut off. It didn’t know what to do. I found out who owned the place and made them an offer,” said Jack, who was catering in hotels at the time.
By all accounts and tales told on Sunday by regulars, O’Hare’s remains a vibrant neighbourhood pub — a rare species in local economies across North America and especially in Richmond.
“You gotta remember, it’s a pub where people go to have a good time. They want to go to a place where they feel at home and don’t feel overcharged,” said the pub’s patriarch, who hailed from Ireland where he was schooled and trained in hospitality and catering.
In Jack’s footsteps have emerged Erinn and Grant, who have put their own spin on the pub.
They were big footsteps to fill, admits Grant.
“He’s the figurehead and very much still part of the business. He sat at the bar holding court making everyone feel welcome,” said Grant.
Over the past decade, Grant and Erinn have modernized the business in many respects, having both worked in hospitality in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Grant was raised.
But, “I’ve had my fair share of fights with Jack . . . I lose many,” quipped Grant.
For instance, five years ago, “if you asked Jack about craft beer, he might have sworn aloud,” chuckled Grant.
Now, Jack admits O’Hare’s transformation into a gastropub, featuring a rotating line of popular craft beers and locally sourced food, has been a positive evolution for O’Hare’s.
The two generations play off one another. Jack may have conceded to craft beer, but he has kept his stamp on maintaining the wholesome, traditional menu and Irish pub vibe and decor.
Grant said he and Erinn once tried some “funky, cool dishes that ended up a disaster.”
“But [Jack] reined it back in,” explained Grant.
“Things are evolving. I’m from the old school,” said Jack.
But, “we still have pies. You gotta remember you’re in Canada, in North America; the most important thing is, and I say this unabashedly, a good burger, pie or sandwich, is a good thing for the pub business. And we don’t try to give stuff fancy names,” he said.
While true to the classics, O’Hare’s does evolve, noted Grant, who was excited to renovate the patio to bring in high-top tables.
Investing in the pub has never been questioned. O’Hare’s is part of the family, said Grant. Recently, Jack was given a lucrative offer to sell the land to a developer interested in building townhomes. He said no.
And, as Grant contends, O’Hare’s has gone from playing its traditional role as neighbourhood barkeep to also branching out more in the community. Erinn co-founded the Steveston Mom’s Network, an online group of area moms who host social events, while both are active with the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and Steveston Merchants Association. O’Hare’s also hosts numerous beer and wine tasting events in Steveston.
“Ten years ago, you probably wouldn’t see a handful of ladies having glasses of wine. It was more a pub. So, it’s much less pigeon-holed as a pub now. And it would be wrong to say it’s more like a restaurant too,” said Grant.
However best to describe O’Hare’s, the Bryans have started emphasizing a family-first mantra, outside of late-night weekends, of course, when the craft beer and darts fly as merrily as the tales told between friends.
“It’s a place you take your kids for family lunch. It’s the cornerstone of community, the neighbourhood pub, just like ‘the local’ back (in Scotland),” said Grant.
In 2013, O’Hare’s was one of the first B.C. pubs to apply for a licence that allowed children into its liquor-licensed area up to a certain time (10 p.m.).
“We were very excited about it. Some pubs weren’t; they still wanted to be the old man’s boozer, but that was never the Old Man’s (O’Hare) bag.”
“I grew up in a pub; that’s what you do; you hang out with your family and neighbours,” said Grant.
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