Heart and Crown

Great discovery. We were waiting for our dinner reservation at another restaurant and needed a beer. Very friendly and speedy service, we were barely sitting down and already enjoying a Guinness. We shared the bruschetta and it was perfect. Not crowded and great outdoor space. Worth going around the block.

Black Rose is the basement pub that’s part of the Irish Village pubs. It’s like the crazy uncle that gets hidden and neglected. On weekends people trickle into here because the rest of the bars are packed. On most other nights when the rest of Irish Village has some people this place is dead.
There is 1 large screen in the basement with a shared Heart and Crown menu. I’m not a fan of the food at Heart and Crown. If you want a quite night to have a drink and chat this might be the bar you want but it has this weird vibe to it compared to the rest of the Irish Village pubs. I think it’s a little to bright. The service seems slow on most days and probably because it feels like they have 1 or 2 servers waiting the whole village!!! If you don’t mind long waits for drinks and want to have some good conversation, then you can tuck away in here, otherwise you may want to go elsewhere.

I’m not a big fan of the Irish Village in the ByWard Market since these four connected pubs get insanely crowded to the point I want to scream. I’m obviously not much for crowds and I’m definitely not much for (often bad) cover bands, which is usually what the Irish Village offers. However, the Black Rose is the lesser of four evils. Okay, «evil» is an exaggeration, but you know what I’m getting at. The Black Rose is the pub that most people either avoid or forget when they come to the Irish Village. It’s the only downstairs pub and there’s drastically fewer people here. You can actually sit, enjoy your drink and talk to your friends, as opposed to struggling through a standing room only crowd as you spill your drink and scream to your friends while trying to ignore some cheesy singer squeak out the lyrics to an STP song.
The menu for the Black Rose and Mother McGinty’s is actually delicious with prices that are moderate for the Market (about $ 15 per dish). They have a number of Irish inspired dishes and creative flares to the usual pub grub. Their beer selection is fantastic, as they have about 20 kinds on tap, including Hoegaarden. Yessss!
This bar is among a very popular night destination in the Market, so it’s definitely worth checking out. You may also like the other pubs (Heart & Crown, The Snug Pub and Mother McGinty’s) if you’re not an old fogy like me.