Robbie Fox’s Public House

Nicole Spano tends bar at Robbie Fox's Public House. Photo by Branden Eastwood

John J. Ryan, a British Intelligence officer, sat in Shanahan’s bar waiting. He had come early so he could get a clear view of the front door. His Webley Fosbery automatic pistol was by his side. He knew that Shanahan’s, located in Dublin, was brimming with members of the Irish Republican Army. But he was not after just any IRA member. Ryan was sent to kill the IRA’s Director of Intelligence, Michael Collins, who was, at the time, one of Britain’s most wanted. It was Feb. 5, 1921 and Collins was not intending to show up. Instead, Collins had sent some of his hit men, “The Twelve Apostles.”

Ryan motioned toward his pistol and one of the apostles shot him down. A bullet tore through his heart. During the confusion the glass in the bar backing had cracked.

But now, with the cracked glass still intact, the 130-year-old bar back has made its way to Tempe. All the way to Robbie Fox’s Public House on 6th Street and Mill Avenue.

The bar recently opened on Feb. 5. And on a later day, the bar’s name sake, Robbie Fox, is still making some final adjustments. He is a jocular man with sideburns and an Irish accent. Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” is playing over the speakers. Fox is pacing back and forth across the wood floors, stopping occasionally to write things down in a black notebook. He walks over to the tap and samples some of the beer. He looks pleased.

There is dark, decorative wood that wraps around the ceiling and the eating area. The wall in the front dining area is covered with pictures of people who have some, any, connection with Ireland: John Wayne for his role in “The Quiet man” and Muhammad Ali in the Dublin airport – very tenuous ties.

The bar stools are all soft leather. Waiters are wearing thin green ties and the bartender has a thick red beard. He jokes with customers and pulls out a coin to tap against a glass of Guinness; he does this to make sure the beer has cascaded enough.

This is not the “vomit on yourself and then take another shot of Jameson” type of pub. There is a certain, more refined, tone. But that could just be the cigar smoke wafting in from Churchill’s next door.

You won’t find shamrocks, leprechauns and sparkling green shite all over the walls. Fox says he wants to make this as real of a pub as one you’d find while walking down the streets of Dublin. And, like in Dublin, he wants people to remember that the pub is for everyone.

“Our target market is any decent person with at least half a brain,” Fox says. “Which is about all I’ve got myself, from the ages of 21 up to 90 … actually, we don’t even draw the line at 90.”

Fox is serious. He has taken great care to see that the bar’s ambiance is real. He has hand-picked the playlists, he has imported furniture and tile from Ireland and he has even planted trees in the back patio to make it more inviting. He reiterates that pubs are for everyone.

It’s this same manic attention to detail that makes the pub so comfortable. Fox seems to have put as much thought into the bar as a lunar space mission. But that’s what it takes, Fox says. Pubs should be an area where you come for a bit of chat and friendship.

“When you get a new job, you go to the pub. When someone has a baby, you go to the pub … when there’s a funeral, you go to the pub. You get fired, you go to the pub; It’s always the pub, either to celebrate or commiserate,” Fox says.

Robbie Fox’s has 14 beers on draft, all around $5. Fox recommends trying Magners hard cider in a pint with ice. They have a full menu with appetizers, entrees, soups and salads, and desserts. Fox says to try the Irish potato cakes, his favorite, or the oysters.