Pictured: Delany's delivers the real craic with lamb shank and a proper Guinness. Photo by Alex Alfaro.

Enter Delany’s Public House, and the scent of wood and gravy hits you before you find the bar. Tory Delany and her husband and co-proprietor Darren Shore have conceived eight restaurants, including Allswell at Waterside. But for this one, Delany flew home to Ireland. “The community wanted a truly authentic Irish bar, not a bar with Irish menu items,” she says.

Delany sourced the interior herself, commissioning bespoke chairs in Northern Ireland to endure decades of lively nights, picking through salvage yards for vintage mirrors, traditional curios and stained glass. Seating 250 guests, the dining room breaks into cozy snugs, appointed with hand-curved wooden settles. Button-tufted banquettes flank a grand hearth. Black-and-white landscapes and portraits grace the walls, including one of Wilde. “This is absolutely like every bar that we’ve ever grown up with in Ireland,” Delany says.

Executive Chef Nils Tarantik, also of Allswell, turns out generous, rustic plates. Plump bangers arrive over creamy mash with a nest of crispy onions. A braised lamb shank slides off the bone into a dark, unctuous gravy. Pub snacks range from corned beef and cabbage rolls to beef-tallow fries doused in curry and chip butty on Brennan’s bread slathered with Irish butter.

Beneath the bar’s carved wood canopy, bartenders serve up pints of Harp, house ale and a two-part Guinness pull topped with a dense, velvety cap and shamrock etching. “Irish people are very proprietary of their Guinness,” Delany notes. For last orders, pair it with battered sausage or beans on toast.

A small stage brings live music that packs the house, spilling onto a hundred-seat outdoor patio. A provisions store stocks imported favorites like Boland fig rolls and Tayto crisps.

“Number one is the hospitality,” Delany says. “Truly welcoming somebody who genuinely wants to talk to you, to hear your story.”

Delany’s Public House, Sun-Thurs 11 am-12 am, Fri-Sat, 11am-1am, social hour Mon-Fri, 3-6pm, 8110 Lakewood Main Street, Lakewood Ranch, delanyspublichouse.com

Pictured: Delany's delivers the real craic with lamb shank and a proper Guinness. Photo by Alex Alfaro.