Premier League soccer fans were set adrift in July 2024 when Crown & Anchor abruptly closed its doors after nearly 30 years as a gathering place.
Some fan groups made new homes at pubs around the valley, but others, including the Tottenham club Las Vegas Spurs, struggled to find the right fit. Then The Irish Spot opened in April in the same, well, spot that had housed Crown & Anchor.
“They didn’t really want to open for early games,” chairman Rajeev Chhabra says of the pub where the Tottenham fans gathered to watch matches in the interim. “Once these guys announced they were reopening the bar, we were like, ‘We wanna come back.’”
Some 50 to 60 members of Las Vegas Spurs showed up at The Irish Spot, 1350 E. Tropicana Ave., on Saturday for the 9:30 a.m. match against Brentford. The day’s first match drew around 20 Manchester United supporters at 4:30 a.m.
“The plan is, every single Premier League game will be on the TVs here,” says Ryan Whelan, the pub’s managing partner. He calls the collection of English teams “obviously the best football league in the world.”
‘A real Irish pub’
Whelan picked a good time to establish The Irish Spot as the valley’s home for English soccer. During England’s World Cup matches, as many as 250 fans packed the pub, excitedly spilling their beers with every goal.
“I think everybody’s kind of on a soccer high after the World Cup,” he says. “I think America really got behind the World Cup this year.”
The sport most Americans think of as football also will have a new home this season when The Irish Spot becomes a New England Patriots bar. Aside from the UNLV basketball and football photos upstairs in the Rebel Room, though, you won’t find other team memorabilia, ensuring everyone feels welcome.
“Our whole goal is to invite all the Premier League fans to the pub,” Whelan says, “whatever team you follow.”
It wouldn’t be a morning in an Irish pub without a full Irish breakfast ($22) — two rashers, two bangers, two eggs, black pudding, white pudding, roasted tomato, Heinz beans, spuds and brown bread. (The half portion is available for $12.)
It’s part of the authenticity Whelan brings in his goal of creating “a real Irish pub” in the desert.
The beer-battered chicken tenders ($16) are inspired by those served in the chip shop in Lismore in County Waterford, from which Whelan’s father and maternal grandparents hail.
“I’m not from Ireland, but I’ve been there enough times,” says Whelan, who was born in America but also has Irish citizenship. “I was raised Irish by only Irish people.”
‘Chef-driven’ menu
The menu features a traditional shepherd’s pie ($15.50 with beef, $17 with lamb), as well as shepherd’s fries ($14 and $15), which is the pie filling atop chips with melted cheese, and The Sloppy Irishman ($16), which puts the pie filling with onion and cheese on a brioche bun.
“Bangers and mash ($16) might be the most quintessential Irish comfort food in the world,” Whelan says. “Couple of sausages, bit of spuds, bit of gravy with the peas.”
Another Irish staple is the ploughman’s lunch ($16). “You could call (it), like, Irish charcuterie, but it was really just poor people food,” Whelan explains. “Stuff you could put in a bag, go out and work in the field all day and then eat.” It consists of brown bread, ham, white cheddar, a hard-boiled egg, tomato, pickles, brown mustard, marmalade, pickled onions and Kerrygold butter
“Everything we do is chef-driven,” Whelan says. That includes making his own rashers, baking traditional Irish brown bread, cutting the chips by hand and butchering the Alaskan line-caught cod.
The traditional fish and chips costs $21.50 for cod and $19.50 for haddock. On Fridays, the all-you-can-eat fish and chips special is $30.
Then there’s The Waterford Whale. The massive fish averages 2 pounds before it’s fried and comes with four or five servings of chips, as well as large portions of tartar sauce and mushy peas. It’s $75, designed to serve four or more people and only available on Fridays.
“It’s a bit of fun. It’s a bit of viral,” Whelan says. “It’s a bit of ‘Let’s go over there and all share this big fish and chips.’”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at [email protected] or 702-380-4567.