RESTAURANTS: Exploit your inner Irish at Devenney's

Devenney's Irish Pub (Credit: Mikey Livingston)

Make your way down one of the rare undeveloped roads in Central Florida and you may just come across a hidden watering hole with more promise than the local rundown bars. Off Highway 27 in Clermont is the newly opened Devenney’s Irish Pub, a larger venue with the potential to bring a more traditional Irish spirit into Orlando. The warm atmosphere has yet to be tarnished with cigarette smoke and the bright lights inside were a great relief from the unlighted highway outside. Now, I have yet to travel to Ireland, but a little research leads me to the conclusion that this place wasn’t decorated blindly. As their Web site brags, “Our design, layout & furnishings, menu and beverages all hale from old Ireland while our music, staff and owners connect more so with the contemporary pubs and bars of modern Ireland.”

The closest thing I’ve ever had to anything on the list of Irish specials was a bad excuse for a steak pot pie, so the chef whipped me up a sampler of the steak and Guinness pie, fish and chips and chicken curry, and I can’t say I’ve ever had a meal this good at a pub.

Devenney's is located at 16909 High Grove Blvd. in Clermont and is open from 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. daily. Call: 352-432-3925.