O’ROURKE’S IS BACK.
There is really nothing that we can write to adequately express our feelings about O’Rourke’s and its triumphant rise from the ashes of the Great Middletown Fire of 2006. We’ll miss the Irish songs on the jukeboxes, which have disappeared from the tables, but now that Irish bacon, Irish soda bread and the “Irish Ecstasy” (grilled Colcannon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, corned beef hash and brown bread, $9.50) are back in our lives, Middletown is whole again and Irish eyes are shining down upon us.
Brian is still parading through the restaurant in his floppy toque as if nothing ever went wrong, posing for pictures with patrons and doling out snacks to the starving masses in line outside. The single-barrel milkshake machine is whirling once again, turning out the same delicious chocolate or vanilla shakes and sounding more like excruciating dental work than ever. We even saw a waitress stroll from booth to booth with a giant, industrial beater covered in frosting, offering up a free lick to anyone who deemed it sanitary enough to do so. Nobody did, but that’s no matter. The beater-licking spirit that makes and has always made O’Rourke’s so worthwhile has returned, and so should you. If that’s not reason enough, the diner is now open for dinner Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, where the Irish Stew is not to be missed.
More likely than not, we are just preaching to the O’Rourke’s choir, but it is truly a pleasure to have this Connecticut dining landmark back in business, hopefully for good.
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