18-03-2025
McGuire's Irish Pub opens in Panama City Beach
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Panama City Beach residents have been anxious for McGuire's Irish Pub to open the new Front Beach Road location. But the wait ended on Monday.
The restaurant can seat more than 500 people and there wasn't an empty seat in the restaurant.
The restaurant will feature live Irish music seven days a week. The menu highlights Irish delicacies.
'Everybody's coming for the Irish fair for sure. So we sell it. It's on and for me, it's cabbage. And then, of course, we had cut our own steaks here every day. Very popular. So we sell tons of revised filets and New York strips,' McGuire's Irish Pub General Manager Jeremy Merrill said.
McGuire's is located in the old Boar's Head restaurant. The building itself was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael. Construction began a year ago.
McGuire's founder, Martin McGuire, helped design the interior of the restaurant, resembling the two other locations in Pensacola and Destin.
'McGuire handpicked all the artwork that's on the wall. If you take the placement of all the pictures, all the decorations, all the fun things inside,' Merrill said.
Customers are excited to have a Panama City beach location.
'We're just enjoying the fun here at McGuire's. It's so exciting that this place is opening up,' McGuire's Irish Pub customer Mia Hakenpwert said.
The restaurant includes a brewery where McGuire's makes beer. It's also the source of one of the house favorites called the 'Irish Wake.'
'We say it comes in a dirty old mason jar from the cemetery. It's got a picture of a leprechaun passed out on the front of it. It's called an Irish wake. It's an IPA with orange juice, you know, which is rum-based. And I'm sure going to sell a lot of those today,' Merrill said.
McGuire's will be open until 2 a.m. tonight with live music and entertainment. The restaurant is creating more than 300 new jobs.
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