Allan Appel Photo
Town Green’s Win Davis, Higgins, Carty, Mayor Harp cut the ribbon.
The Trinity Bar & Grill, which suffered a devastating fire two years ago, formally reopened for business Wednesday with a ceremonial mayoral ribbon cutting.
Twenty people, including government staffers and fans of Trinity from across Orange Street, were on hand to join Mayor Toni Harp, who said she has missed Trinity’s quesadillas, to congratulate stalwart owners Eddie Higgins and Shane Carty.
Bartender Mike Beirne beside ten of the 20 lines of beer on tap.
“I’m relieved you’re back,” said Town Green Special Services District Executive Director Win Davis. “This place is an anchor for this community and the Ninth Square. Trinity is also a wonderful partner. They offer up Trinity for so much community programming. Welcome back.”
Co-owner Carty said water that had put out the upstairs fire had fallen all over the booths, the bar, and the floor, and down into the basement, ruining the offices along with all the beer lines. (When you order a brew on tap, a line or small pipe pulls it up from the large containers in the basement.)
Devil’s Gear’s Johnny Brehon and LCI’s Carmen Mendez.
All the furniture has been replaced and the 20 lines restored, along with new lighting, AC system, and AV system that services 14 screens. The screens are always full of Premier League soccer and soon NFL football —and, more exciting to a number of Trinity staffers, the Rugby World Cup, which is to begin later this month.
Insurance covered all the rebuilding and refurbishing costs, according to the bar owners.
Eddie Higgins said that business has been good since the soft reopening on June 19, with many old timers and devotees returning. They include Livable City Initiative staffer Carmen Mendez, who entered the bar excitedly declaring, “I waited forever for this. I was devastated when the fire occurred. It really hurt us. There’s nothing better than a good Irish bar.”
Johnny Brehon, who along with colleague Matt Feiner from the nearby Devil’s Gear Bike Shop rushed in to help when the fire broke out, agreed with Mendez.
“We noticed business declined. The block was kind of dead, especially in the evening. We’ve definitely noticed an upswing in business when it reopened,” he said.
Bartender Mike Beirne put it this way: Although the place is called a bar, Trinity is truly a pub in the English and Irish sense of it. What’s the difference? “A bar is a place for drinking,” he said. “But a pub is a social hub. There are constantly meetings, fundraisers,” along with business gatherings, and community events.
Among the regulars: several English Premier League football club fan groups. Unlike Dubliners Higgins and Carty, Beirne hails from the small Irish town of Leitrim, and supports the fan club for the Liverpool F.C.
Why would Irish people be rooting for an English football club?
“A lot of people feel Liverpool is the capital of Ireland,” he replied.
The formal grand reopening celebration of Trinity will be Saturday night, said Carty. “Everyone’s welcome.”
Shane and Trinity have been much missed.
As for the observation that "A lot of people feel Liverpool is the capital of Ireland," my Irish grand-mother from Liverpool would have agreed.