Celebrate all things Irish at Raglan Road at Disney Springs, just don't ask for green beer

By the morning of March 19, the thirsty thousands, having sung, danced, eaten, imbibed and proclaimed their manifest Irishness will have departed Raglan Road and its sizeable corner of Disney Springs will be tranquil again. 

Yes, “Mighty” St. Patrick’s Day will have been celebrated there, starting March 16 and lasting the entire weekend, as it is every year, having spilled into the streets in one of the country’s largest such events.

Yes, there will have been music by the likes of the Celtic-rocking Young Dubliners, the more traditional Maguires, Byrne Brothers and Reel Republic; all-female Briste; house bands Out the Gap and the Raglan Roots Coalition; and the U2 tribute band Elevation. 

Yes, there will have been step dancing. 

And Lord knows, yes, there will have been beer: pints and pints of it, from Ireland and elsewhere, including five varieties brewed specifically for Mighty St. Patrick’s Day. If you prefer spirits, there will have been Bushmills, Jameson, Redbreast, Tullamore Dew and the rest, much available by age and in flight. 

But at the end of it all, Central Florida’s quintessential pub still will be Irish, with no need for a hooley to fete that which is good and tasty and congenial about the Emerald Isle. St. Paddy’s — “St. Patty’s” is an insult — will have been celebrated there merely because it is a good excuse to get people together. 

As for the rest of what Americans expect of what started as a religious observance, and not a major one at that, don’t look at Raglan Road.

Leprechauns and shamrocks are in scarce depiction there, and if you want green beer, try Chicago. Neither will you find corned beef on the menu because, in the words of front of house manager Enda O’Connor of Killarney, “It’s not Irish. Irish-American, but not Irish.” 

Yes, you can order a burger or a salad, largely because such things are found on modern Irish menus, but the point is to showcase what real Irish cuisine is, prepared and presented by people from throughout the island, or who understand it very, very well. 

Raglan Road is owned, after all, by a pair of Gaels, John Cooke and Paul Nolan, who brought the entire place from Éire, carefully, in pieces. Its interior and exterior are decorated with various bits of Irish culture, including original paintings that depict performers like Luke Kelly of Dubliners and Bono of U2, as well as James Joyce and Brendan Behan. 

That statue out front is not of Joyce, but of Patrick Kavanagh, who wrote the poem “On Raglan Road.”

Cooke and Nolan still cross-Atlantic commute, and they do understand Irish food as well as craic and the rest of Irish culture.

Their restaurant incorporates traditional fare with twists from what is referred to as the “Irish culinary revolution” that started in the 1990s and continues, with restaurants-as-destinations and some of the best young chefs on the planet. In 1971, five restaurants in Ireland received stars in the Guide Michelin; since 2011, 16 restaurants have been so honored. 

Television chef-hotelier-restaurateur Kevin Dundon, who has received his share of honors, set the stage for Raglan Road to do what it does. His success being what it is in Europe and being unable to continue to commute, he left the restaurant at the end of last year. 

His successor and right-hand-man, Herberto Segura, is one of the few non-Irish things about the place. Segura continues on the same path with executive sous chef and Waterford man James Guinan, operating what O’Connor joyfully declares “a scratch kitchen. Everything here is prepared in-house.”

Provisions are locally sourced and seasonal, when possible, continuing with one of Dundon’s prime directives (or obsessions, depending on how well you know him). Cold water seafood is flown in daily from Foley’s Fish Market in Boston.

The result is that Raglan's menu is rich in the food Ireland eats, like boxty and a full Irish breakfast for brunch; Heavenly Ham (Irish Mist-glazed loin of bacon with savoy cabbage, colcannon, parsley cream sauce and a raisin cider jus; and It’s Not Bleedin’ Chowder (big chunks of seafood in a cream broth) for dinner.

The menu offers no less than 12 items that feature fish or shellfish, from appetizers to entrees; pork, that Irish staple, is prominent. including Rack of Heaven (Irish-style ribs), It’s a Porker (lollipop-style chop) and Dalkey Duo (sausages with Dalkey mustard sauce); and there is Lambo (braised lamb shank). 

Lots of braising goes on at Raglan Road, because lots of braising goes on in Ireland. And yes, you can get your bangers and mash; your fried, sausage-covered eggs; your meat pies; and your soda bread, and Raglan Road is famous for that dense, dark-ish, slightly salty soda bread of the sort great-grandmother sliced with a cheese wire. “Few leave any in the basket,” O’Connor says.

Naturally, the entertainment is Irish too, contracted through a company in Ireland and featuring people from throughout the island. The youthful Maguires are from Wicklow; the Byrne Brothers are residents of Donegal; Reel Republic hail from the southwest (Cork and Kerry); and Briste’s members are from Armagh and Monaghan in Ulster.

For these and other reasons, Raglan Road is beloved regionally as well as by the tourists who crowd it daily, and its people are not unknown outside Disney Springs either.

“Ah, Nolan’s Irish Pub; I’ve been there and we see people from Cocoa Beach (at Raglan Road), including the Nolans,” O’Connor says cheerfully.

“We love Raglan Road,” says Johnny Nolan of Wexford and now Cocoa Beach, Nolan’s proprietor, for whom pub ownership is family tradition. “It is a phenomenal example of what an Irish pub can be, especially in the modern sense. Raglan Road takes the Irish pub to a new level.”

It points the way for others as well. Nolan expects to install a full kitchen in his establishment that will allow it to serve traditional fare too, but for the time being, lighter food, fine whiskeys and beer — never colored green there either — are served along with entertainment.

“Enda’s right,” Nolan says with a chuckle. “We don’t do anything like that either. Usually the only people not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day are Irish people.”

“The energy starts with the shows, at dinner,” O’Connor says, and gestures toward the dancers who tap away in the background. “But Raglan Road always is Irish, where beverages always are served in glasses and food and entertainment are authentic. No corned beef and no green beer. We are Irish.”

Mighty St. Patrick’s Day

What: A celebration of all things Irish

When: Noon to 1:30 a.m. March 16 and 10 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. March 17 and 18

Where: Raglan Road, Disney Springs

Entertainment: Young Dubliners, Elevation (U2), the Maguires, Briste, the Byrne Brothers,  Raglan Roots Coalition,  Out the Gap and the Raglan Road Irish Dancers.
Cost: $10 cover charge March 17; seating is first-come-first-served

Food: Lunch is served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner, 3 to 11 p.m. weekdays; bar menu 11 p.m. to late; Rollicking Raglan Brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Contact: www.raglanroad.com or 407-938-0300

Dowling is a Central Brevard-based freelance writer.