LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For nearly three decades, The Irish Rover has felt like home to Siobhan and Michael Reidy.
“It’s a little piece of Ireland inside a 5,000 square-foot building,” said Michael Reidy.
The building that houses the restaurant on Frankfort Avenue in Louisville has been around much longer than that — about 170 years.
Siobhan Reidy recalled the day she picked out the spot.
“When I walked in here, I was like, ‘This is it,’” she said. “It was perfect. It ticked all the boxes, in terms of the location, the neighborhood, the look of the building.”
With a building that age, there’s always something that needs work.
Recently, the Reidys learned The Irish Rover was one of only 25 small historic restaurants in the country to receive a $40,000 grant to make updates.
The Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grant Program is from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express.
It launched last year to help restaurants recover from challenges related to COVID-19.
“It’s quite an honor,” said Siobhan Reidy.
The Reidys plan to extend a pathway outside the restaurant and add a porch near the back of the building, she said.
Since The Irish Rover first opened its doors, the team has weathered the storms that come with running a restaurant.
Michael Reidy shared a photo of the blizzard that buried them in snow the year after they opened.
“It was one of the biggest storms ever to hit Louisville, Kentucky,” he recalled.
When the pandemic began, they pivoted to carry-out orders and set up a tent in the parking lot.
“It was obviously difficult,” said Siobhan Reidy. “The shutdown of all restaurants came the day before St. Patrick’s Day.”
They’ve adapted and kept going.
A sign near the bar shows the traditional Gaelic saying, “Cead Mile Failte.” In English, it means “One hundred thousand welcomes.”
Next year, the Reidys will mark 30 years of welcoming customers to The Irish Rover.