From Maine lobsters, to San Juan Hill, now to the Emerald Isle. That has been the saga of 112 King Street over the past 25 years.
In early 2005, "Bullfeathers" restaurant, named for one of President Theodore Roosevelt's favorite sayings, will officially reopen as "Daniel O'Connell's Irish Restaurant," according to Mark Anthony Kirwan, one of two principal owners of the new establishment.
In late June, Gordon King, owner and operator of Bullfeathers for the past 20 years, consummated the sale of the building housing the restaurant and the store, "Hats In The Belfry," to Daniel O'Connell's Virginia Holdings, LLC. Bullfeathers is closed and the chapeau shop will follow suit on July 13.
Kirwan and the other primary owner of the new restaurant, John Pius Brennan, reportedly plan to invest upwards of $3 million to transform the 8,000 square foot eatery into "a very high end Irish restaurant that will showcase the excellent skills of today's best trained Irish chef's," Kirwan promised.
"A lot of people are not really aware of how excellent Irish cooking has become. Ireland's culinary schools produce many of the top chefs in the world today," he said.
"We are entirely gutting both Bullfeathers and Hats In The Belfry to redo the entire site to make it into an elegant dining experience. The interior of the restaurant and particularly the bar, which will be a dark wood bar, are being constructed in Ireland and will be reassembled here," Kirwan explained.
"In my opinion we could not have moved to a better place than Old Town. I have been looking for a long time for myself and when Gordon indicated a desire to sell, that was it.
"The only downside was the King Street entrance which did not lend itself to an elegant entrance. Then when we realized he also owned the hat store that enabled us to create the elegant facade we wanted," he added.
THE PRESENT ENTRANCE has been the same basic format for more than 30 years. Prior to King purchasing the restaurant in 1983, it was primarily a seafood eatery known as "The Lobster Shed." The entrance was the same with an identical canopy in red stating the former name. It has read "Bullfeathers" for the past two-plus decades.
"Twenty one years is enough. It's time to move on," King said.
King and his wife, Karen, own a home in Santa Monica, Calif., where they plan to move in January, Gordon King said. "I also have other business interest in this area and will be traveling here periodically. But I'm looking forward to doing very little this summer," King said.
As for Hats In The Belfry, they hope to reopen by September in the same general area of King Street, according to Chuck Christy, director, Store Operations. They have other stores in Georgetown, Annapolis, Baltimore, Destin, Fla., and Philadelphia.
"We are in negotiations now on a couple of locations. Hopefully, we'll be able to stay in the same block of King Street. But we definitely want to stay in Old Town. We like the market and the neighborhood," Christy said.
The 27-year-old enterprise has been in Alexandria since 1990, at its present location. The original store was in Annapolis, according to Christy. "We have every kind of hat imaginable. You name it and we either have it or have sold it at one time," he said.
Both Kirwan and Brennan bring a wealth of experience to their new endeavor. Kirwan, born in Dublin, grew up in Roscrea, County Tipperary. He first moved to the Washington area in 1992 and became the manager of The Dubliner Restaurant just off Capitol Hill near Union Station.
Following that he served as Business Development manager for Guiness Brewery for eight years, specializing in opening Irish restaurants throughout the United States.
"I helped entrepreneurs develop the nuts and bolts of how to run a restaurant. After they were up and running I did their audits to evaluate their business," Kirwan said.
A graduate of University College, Dublin, he holds a degree in equine science. "I was helping everybody else to get into the restaurant business but I wanted to have my own restaurant." He returned to Ireland and through a mutual friend, William Patrick James O'Sullivan, met Brennan, a resident of Waterford, Ireland, who also had experience in the restaurant business, he explained.
"I realized I wanted to live here so I came back. I'm now engaged and live on Capitol Hill. However, we plan to move to Alexandria in the near future," Kirwan confirmed.
Brennan, born in Kilkenny, Ireland, moved to Germany in 1980 and then to Australia, where he and his family spent the next 15 years as he utilized his training as a civil engineer on that nation's cross-country pipeline. They moved back to Ireland, where he and his wife, Margaret, opened an Australian-themed restaurant and bar.
They now have two restaurants in Ireland.
ON A VISIT, John "fell in love with Old Town and set his heart on opening a restaurant here. An area he feels he and his family can call a second home," according to the Owner's Profile in the city's application. His primary residence will remain in Ireland with Kirwan being the local presence.
The kingpin of the triumvirate is O'Sullivan. He introduced Kirwan and Brennan. O'Sullivan brings with him "the extensive expertise that he has obtained and finely honed as the managing director of O'Sullivan's Interiors, Ireland's premier quality restaurant and pub design and construction company working in the United States today," his profile notes.
Educated at Waterford Institute of Technology in the Master Carpenter and Joiner/Design Construction Management field, O'Sullivan "has been involved in the opening of more than 100 Irish restaurants and pubs in Ireland, Europe, and the United States." Assessing Alexandria for the new venture, O'Sullivan said, "Old Town is the most suitable location for this type restaurant I've seen in my more than 20 years experience in this field."
As a partner in the firm, O'Sullivan will utilize his expertise in restaurant ambiance to create the new Daniel O'Connell's. "This is not going to be Disneyland Ireland with a lot of bric-a-brac. It will be more in line with the Old Ebbitt Grill. We want to create a very high-end restaurant," Kirwan said.
"In addition to creating a high-end atmosphere we also need to bring the building up to code, which it isn't now. This includes making it ADA compliant and installing a sprinkler system," Kirwan said.
"Although we have a great deal of respect for the Irish pub-style establishments currently operating in Old Town, Daniel O'Connell's will not be an "Irish Pub." Rather, we intend to place a much higher and stronger emphasis on the culinary enticements of Ireland. We will not offer "pub grub," the partners stated in their application to the City's Department of Planning and Zoning.
A SAMPLE MENU attached to the application shows what the new owners mean. The entrees include such items as filet of sole stuffed with salmon, crab, and prawn mousse; herb crusted rack of lamb; herb roasted chicken; and cannelloni di casa, a tri-colored pasta stuffed with spinach and three cheeses.
However, it also touts "Traditional Irish Fare" such as Irish stew, shepherd's pie, fish and chips and Irish bacon "ham" and cabbage. There will be an array of sandwiches and salads with offering as Tipperary salad, Kilkenny salad, Brennan's corned beef sandwich, and rasher's "Irish bacon," lettuce, tomato with Tipperary mustard.
In addition to the regular restaurant and bar, there will be areas for private parties and musical entertainment.
In addition to the present two-story floor space, the area now occupied by Hats In The Belfry will be incorporated into the renovated structure, as cited on the floor plans submitted to the city.
Capacity is planned for 310 patrons at tables with an additional 40 spaces at the bar. This includes 65 seats not used for everyday dining. Fifty of those will be set aside for special use banquets, receptions and other functions. An additional 15 seats will be seasonal provided for outdoor patio dining, according to the application. Plans call for 24/7 operations from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
When asked about the name for the restaurant, Kirwan explained, "Daniel O'Connell, who died in 1847, was one of Ireland's most famous politicians. He was known as the liberator for helping the catholics as Mayor of Dublin. He took the gun out of Irish politics and relied on reason. We thought he made a good model for our restaurant."