June 21, 2013 By Bill Parry
The owner of the popular Woodside pub, Sean Og’s, opened an upscale gastropub in Astoria on Wednesday.
Jimmy Sullivan, who has owned Sean Og’s for the past 13 years, said he did not want to open another Irish bar. “There’s not as many Irish in New York City anymore,” he said. “Ninety percent of Sean Og’s business used to be Irish off the boat – now it’s about 10%.”
Sullivan’s upscale restaurant, Oliver’s (located at 37-10 Broadway), offers menu items such as fish and chips, grilled skirt steak frites and grilled legs of lamb. Appetizers include organic scotch eggs and PEI mussels steamed in white wine. Meanwhile, the sandwich menu includes shaved prime rib, buttermilk fried chicken and a pork belly BLT.
The chef, Joe Butler, comes to Oliver’s via The Seagull in Rockefeller Center. “I love the space and the opportunity to do the variety of food we’re going to do here,” he said.
For drinkers, Oliver’s serves 47 bottled beers, with 14 microbrews and pilsners on tap. Additionally, it offers 13 different wines, although that list is expected to grow.
The restaurant provides communal seating for 75 diners.
“We’ve got permits on the way for 30 outdoor seats,” said restaurant consultant Antonio Prontelli. “It will really be nice with the whole front opened up to the street.”
Sullivan said he chose to open in Astoria because “it’s such a happening place right now – very young and vibrant – and it has everything. Why go into the City?”
7 Comments
I miss the merry go round for all of you here long enough to remember it.
Celticwinnie, It’s the owner of the pub using that expression, the SSP is just quoting him.
Really “off the boat”? Come on Sunnyside Post.
Good Luck, sounds like a nice place ………
Astoria is lucky that Jimmy is bringing his expertise and sense of what a pub can be to them. We have been very blessed with Sean Ogs, and not just because his is the only one with an outdoor cafe.
Some of the most attractive commercial facades these days are the pubs. Og’s is quite impressives.
The best of luck to you.