An
Poitin Stil is truly an authentic Irish pub. We
like to think of The Stil as an extension of Ireland located
in County Baltimore. In creating The Stil, Irish and American
architects worked together to consider every detail in
an effort to insure its authenticity.
The entrance to the Pub resembles a castle. It has wooden
doors and heavy steel hinges and is capped with multiple
tower clocks that face the four winds. The side of the
building is a series of doors replicating actual pub fronts
found in Ireland. As you enter the pub through the castle
doors, your eyes focus on a magnificent
bar area. |
An
Poitin Stil has several bar styles. The first, encountered
upon entering the pub, is a "pulpit-type"
bar manned by one bartender who actually
greets the new visitors to our "Ireland". Next,
there are "shop bars" that include facades of a
pharmacy and
a hardware store. There is also the "public bar"
designed for punters, men who would normally come
and stand at the bar to drink their Irish beverages.
In addition, one section of the bar has a motif
of the Victorian Age and features paintings of Irish
horse racing.
But let's continue our journey through The Stil.
As you enter through the castle doors and look right,
you see a remnant of a wooden wall, the top of which
is burned. This represents the eviction wall. During
the potato famine, the Irish, unable to farm their
land, had no money to pay the required rent due
the British government. Therefore, their homes were
burned. The eviction wall is a reminder of this
plight.
Turning left, you encounter Casey's
Cottage a nook representing a typical Irish
cottage found in the countryside of Ireland. Inside
Casey's Cottage a mural shows Mrs. Casey spinning
her yarn.
Continuing down the entrance aisle, you see the
Monk's Cell
to the left. This is a reminder of the various circular
towers that are present in different parts of Ireland.
In these towers, the monks isolated themselves to
meditate and pray. The Monk's Cell has stained glass
windows representing the traditionally religious
background of the Irish people. The cell is elevated
slightly to give another perspective to the entire
Pub atmosphere. Next to the Monk's Cell is the Minstrel
Gallery. This area represents where the
King sat to welcome his guests into the banquet
room while being entertained by his minstrels. This
area is also elevated, has a stone façade, and includes
a table in the shape of a harp.
Next to the Minstrel Gallery is the main
banquet room, complete with a large fireplace
and a hardwood ceiling with hand-hewn beams. This
area, a replica of the castle banquet room, is adorned
with swords, war armament, and chandeliers created
out of stag horns. Directly across from the Minstrel
Gallery is a castle ruin. This serves as a stage
for the Irish bands that entertain our guests on
many evenings.
If we take our attention back to the entrance and
venture right, behind the eviction wall, we enter
the Victorian parlor.
This is adjacent to the Victorian part of the bar.
This room gives the true feeling of an Irish pub
with its low tables, stools and roaring fire. |
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A striking
feature of the pub is its flooring. As you approach the
different areas, the floors change to reflect the theme.
The entrance and much of the bar area is hardwood. This
changes to blue stone around Casey's Cottage and, then,
into tile integrated into wood. The tiles have images
representing the various artists who created the Gaelic
signs throughout the Emerald Isle. And in the banquet
room the floor has a blue stone base.
The pub is filled with Irish artifacts brought from all
over Ireland. These add to the atmosphere and provide
stimulus for many a conversation while sipping a Guinness.
Well that completes our pub tour. We hope that you will
be visiting An Poitin Stil very soon because, indeed,
this is a magical place. For but a brief time, you can
escape to Ireland. |
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