Friendly bartender keeps Irish eyes smiling in Turkey Creek

Photo by Greg Wood

Mark and Patricia Eklund kick back in the Irish Times at Turkey Creek.

Photo by Greg Wood

Mark and Patricia Eklund kick back in the Irish Times at Turkey Creek.

Irish Times doesn't make it into my bar rotation often. I've only ever been there two or three times in my life. But recently two friends and I made a late weekend trip to the Turkey Creek bar and restaurant to get a new perspective.

While researching the place online I noticed that it keeps late hours throughout the entire week, which isn't typical of Turkey Creek venues. Gearing to the older, more upper-class West Knoxville and Farragut crowds, the restaurants and bars mostly shut their doors before midnight. With the exception of the Pinnacle movie theater and Steak and Shake, Turkey Creek is abandoned at a reasonable time.

The Turkey Creek area doesn't really do it for me, but Irish Times is an exception.

The bar has a plush seating area outside and is paneled with dark wood on the inside. Along the east side of the restaurant are a number of high pub tables while the bar is a long island in the center of the room. It's a pretty standard set up, but the plethora of Irish decorations (flags and Guinness signs included) makes the bar stand out.

Part of our experiment was to see if Irish Times would draw in a crowd on a Sunday night after noticing it's the only place in the area open late. And we weren't disappointed. There were about 15 people sitting around the bar area watching the Winter Olympics on several TVs. Most everyone was older than 30, but a group of three people who looked like young college students hung around for a while.

Most people stuck to themselves, and I had some rough times convincing people to get photographed for the paper (such is a common occurrence of West Knoxville venues, though).

The bartender, however, chatted with us briefly and always checked up on us. I probably wouldn't go there to meet people, but the friendly staff makes it a comfortable enough environment.

Irish Times has happy hour until 8 p.m., and then every day of the week a different beer has a special price. Fortunately on Sunday the Irish staple-beer Guinness was on sale for $3 draughts. Guinness isn't my favorite beer, or my favorite Irish beer, but I won't turn it down on draught for $3.

We snacked on some beer-battered mushrooms during the evening, which were superb. And although we went a bit too late to order dinner, the word on the street is they serve great food.

As the night went on we watched the U.S./Canada hockey game on their largest screen TV (which most people there focused on) and chatting over a few drinks. The sound level wasn't too loud, but we could still hear what was going on.

On Friday and Saturday nights, however, the bar usually has live music on the small stage in the back corner. The crowd is much larger (obviously) on these nights.

Every college town has an Irish-themed bar. It must be some kind of municipal requirement. So it's surprising the only bar that really hams up the Irish theme is so far away from campus. But it's worth the trip. Just be sure to bring a designated driver or take a cab - that Guinness hits hard.

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