The Luck of the Irish

In a post on his blog the other day, Pat Hiban painted a pretty grim picture of the state of the local commercial real estate market. He pointed out recent retail failures including the former Trapeze restaurant in Maple Lawn.

The picture may not be as bleak as Pat paints.

Last Thursday, Looney’s Pub opened in the space that Trapeze vacated last fall. Today, TW and I dropped in for a St. Patrick’s Day lunch. It was packed.

“This is nothing,” our bartender informed us, “We were jammed over the weekend.”

I’m thinking good for them. Judging from the looks of the place the owners spent a few bucks transforming the joint into an Irish sports bar, not mention hiring a very large staff. They’ve placed a big bet in a down market and from the looks of things so far it was a pretty good bet.

Perhaps the luck of the Irish will spread throughout the county now.