Eating Out - Irish and Jewish

Nothing goes together like matzoh balls and shepherd's pie.

Star and Shamrock Tavern and Deli (Irish and Jewish - seriously)

Last weekend we met up with our good friends Tom and Tani to try out one of H St's newest curiosities - Star and Shamrock. The establishments bills itself as "a place where two ancient cultures come together." Although the mix sounds rather odd, they pull it off as well as can be expected. Here's the run down.

Observations

• The restaurant and bar is more of a bar. There are only a few tables, and the entire room is dominated by a giant wooden, well, bar. Unless you come before peak drinking hours, there probably won't be a place to sit. Fortunately, we just barely beat the rush at 8:30 on a Friday night.
• The food was damn good (although tough on the stomach). I had the aforementioned matzoh balls and shepherd's pie. The shepherd's pie is authentic, made with lamb instead of beef. I prefer the grade school cafeteria version with tater tots and ground beef. This was our first time trying matzoh balls, but Kathryn and I were both impressed. With potatoes, broth, and onions, where can you go wrong?
• Kathryn's dinner was something else entirely. The Latke Madness is a Reuben sandwich with potato latkes instead of rye bread. It was essentially an Irish Double Down. Amazing....
• Kathryn tried the blueberry wheat beer (and really liked it). I, of course, had a Miller Lite (and really liked it).
• My only complaint with Star and Shamrock is that it was more of an Irish bar than a Jewish deli. I'm not the biggest fan of Irish bars in part because they (i) rarely have "regular" beer (i.e., Miller products), (ii) play that terrible music people pretend to like when they are at Irish bars, and (iii) are filled wall-to-wall with d-bags. This place was no exception on the last of that list, but the band was actually pretty tolerable.

Somehow they never gave some cheesy toast. Cheers to them!