An Irish Pub Tucked Into the Heart of Ormond Beach, Florida

Patrick's Day is coming up in one week.

And you know what I thought?

Let's go ahead and kick this party off by heading to I feel the best Irish pub we've got where I live.

Now, I know I've got people listening to this podcast around the world, but you know what?

We all hear about the thing of shop local, support local businesses.

And I'm a firm believer in that.

And so I thought, you know what?

I think it's a perfect opportunity for me to highlight one of my favorite restaurants here where I live in Ormond Beach, Florida.

And you know what?

This doesn't just pertain to you if you're a local to this area, but we're right here on the I-95 I-4 corridor.

So if you're heading down 95 on vacation, well, whenever vacationing kicks back in, when you're headed down 95 and you're headed maybe to Disney World, well, before you get on I-4, quick make a stop in Ormond Beach, Florida, at lunchtime, dinner time, grab an awesome corned beef Ruben, grab a beer, hang out at Fletcher's Irish pub.

So today we are speaking with the owner of Fletcher's, and his name is Bill Fletcher.

And well, the guy is awesome, the place is awesome.

Let's get this St.

Patrick's Day party started.

But before that, I'm curious.

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Hey guys, I am here today with Bill Fletcher with Fletcher's Irish pub.

Bill, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: Awesome.

Well, thank you.

Well, man, I want to have you on today.

Coming up next week is St.

Patrick's Day.

And so I wanted to reach out to you as you have uh, I feel like uh pretty much the coolest Irish pub we've got going around here.

So uh thank you so much for being a guest.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate the uh consideration.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, awesome, man.

Well, I guess let's get started.

If you would like just to introduce yourself, um kind of like where the pub's located, and that way people know where to find you.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

So I'm Bill Fletcher.

I own uh Fletcher's Irish pub up here in Ormond Beach, depending on where you're coming from.

It could be up here or down here.

Located at three physical address is 393 West Granada Boulevard, 32174.

So we are not beachside, we're on the mainland.

Easy landmarks where everybody kind of knows in the area where I'm at is um you have the Wendixie Plaza right there, and I'm right beside the Wendixie Plaza and across from Taco Bell.

So as long as you know where to get your your fast food and your your groceries, you know how to get to me.

SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, that's awesome.

Well, well, I know I absolutely love the place.

I feel like it's it's one of those little places tucked away.

It's like the perfect little uh neighborhood spot.

And um so anyway, so awesome.

Well, well, I would love to know where did the idea for for the pub even come from?

SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, the the the pub started out 14 or just about 14 years ago in September.

I was located, you know, at another smaller location and on Hand Avenue, uh probably about a 1200 square foot spot in Hand Avenue, and we originated as a cigar bar.

So my original concept was, you know, Fletcher's cigar bar and social.

So with that being said, you know, I we grew and and uh the old saying, the best form of flattering is imitation, other cigar bars kind of opened up around us, and um it's a it's a niche market, and it would be hard, it was hard to kind of compete when you saturated such a small niche.

With that being said, I decided to, you know, kind of close down and change our name for about two weeks to kind of do a rebranding.

And when I originally thought about this concept, that was either gonna be a cigar bar or a an Irish pub, because I'm Irish and Scottish.

So I decided to uh, you know, just retire the the cigar bar and go forward with the um Irish pub concept.

Like I said, about seven, just about seven years ago.

We're about 50-50 right now for how long we've been open.

We're at my other location, probably about oh my gosh, we've been here about four years.

So we're at the other location for a total of ten years, relocated to this larger spot.

Now, the the irony of this spot is it is tucked away and it looks a lot smaller than to the eye rather than when you get inside.

But we went from a 1,200 square foot spot to a 5,000 square foot spot.

So I like that we're referred to as a good little little pub, but uh we're probably the largest indoor restaurant in Ormond Beach with that much space under the roof.

So with that being said, you know, we moved to a larger spot and uh with we were able to kind of expand our opportunities and decided to do uh a full kitchen, which is um we're probably about 90% scratch and made-to-order kitchen and very traditional as well as you know, some American, you know, pub food, you know, Irish and Scottish pub food, and kind of has our own spin on certain items to kind of make our own.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.

And I think I mean, I think I think the the location is is awesome enough.

And honestly, if if for those who who are familiar with the Ormond Beach area, was this not the location of uh CC's pizza back like a super long time ago?

SPEAKER_02: Right.

Yeah, a long time ago.

Like I said, we've been here four years, and then CC's pizza wasn't here for like I want to say nine or ten years, and a lot of people don't it, you know, time flies.

Exactly.

I remember coming here with my little brother, and and uh, but yeah, this used to be a CC's pizza a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's so awesome.

Well, I have to say, I feel like yours is a much better uh use of the space than the CC's pizza.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.

The the irony of the whole CC's pizza is you know, it was gone so long ago, so there's a lot of younger kids that are, you know, just coming up 21 and maybe in their mid-20s that remember coming there for CC's pizza and now they're coming here as they're older.

So it's kind of uh it's kind of a neat little full circle type effect.

SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's so awesome.

Now, so I'd love to know, so your roots.

So you said you you have roots in in both Irish and Scottish.

And so I'd kind of love to know, like, yeah, what what that your family history is on that.

SPEAKER_02: You know, unfortunately, I don't we're actually in progress of trying to figure that out with a lot of the different online options, it still takes a lot of time to kind of really dig into it.

But, you know, from a very high level, you know, I'm I'm third generation in the US.

My grandmother, I'm sorry, my grandfather was from Dublin, and my grandmother was from Northern Ireland.

I just don't know where exactly.

Uh-huh.

And we do still have and we have roots back to since Northern Ireland and Scotland are so close together.

We have family that was in Scotland that that I'm assuming came over to Northern Ireland and then, you know, worked their way down.

So unfortunately, I don't have a very impressive genealogy right now.

You know, shame on me.

But uh it's it's definitely something that is in the works that uh, you know, I think I've I've uh able to recruit my niece and my daughter to start, you know, really heavily get into it.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

That's awesome.

Well, I don't, I know I got my my mom for Christmas, what of the uh the ancestry DNA thing?

Right, I've done one of those.

I'm t yeah, I'm telling you, man, that stuff is fascinating, the stuff that she's she's constantly finding, and and it's just it's really remarkable.

So so so maybe at one point, but I mean it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort into it, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it it definitely does take a lot of time.

And so some of our younger ones are a little bit more, you know, computer savvy than like my my parents.

So, you know, I'm kind of letting them take the reins, and it'll be good for them because then they can do, you know, almost like interviews with my parents and and really make it into a discovery project.

So, all things considered, it's probably the best timing now because they're old enough to be able to appreciate the time and effort that it takes to put into it, and they'll really get a good, you know, history lesson out of it.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.

So now, so now I'm just curious as far as like the food that you serve up at the at the pub, where did those recipes and stuff come from?

SPEAKER_02: Are they are they from family recipes or yeah, I mean, I mean everything, I wouldn't say everything, but I'd say about 50% of everything is from family recipes.

And then even from the family recipes, I've I've kind of put my own my own twist on it.

You know, uh like our our not the corned beef and cabbage, but our shepherd's pie, for example, you know.

So a lot of people think a shepherd's pie is made with ground beef, and that's actually called a cottage pie.

Uh, shepherd's pie is called a shepherd because it's made with a lamb, because you know, the shepherds took care of the the lambs.

So the the spin that we did on it was my dad, you know, there was there was five of us, so you know, corned beef isn't the most inexpensive thing.

So he would make a shepherd's pie out of corned beef hash, which was an interesting take on it, but really good.

So I took that recipe and and just created my own Guinness gravy and and used the corned beef that we make from scratch to create our shepherd's pie.

That's how that kind of evolved.

Other things like our, you know, our burger, my my mom makes a great meatloaf.

So I kind of took her meatloaf recipe and and tweaked it a bit, added some corned beef and trimmed down some other stuff, and uh, we're gonna be having or we're gonna be launching an Irish meatloaf soon.

Similar to our hamburger, our hamburger is a now, this was kind of just my creation because the way I look at it from a food standpoint, there's a lot of people that do burgers and wings.

So everything I do I try to make unique to us.

So it it can't be it can't be replicated.

Or if it can be replicated, you either have some inside or you know how to really do what you need to do to make it work.

So we we brine our corned beef for 10 days and then we um we brazen it in the oven for you know anywhere from six to ten hours.

And then I grind my my corned beef to a ratio of basically a 70-30 ratio for our burgers.

So what that does is you know, you have 70% ground beef and you got 30% corned beef.

And that's that's all we do.

We leave all the flavors of the corned beef flavor the meat.

We don't use salt, we don't use pepper, you know, we cook it real good.

And um, you know, it's a little deceiving because when you order a medium well or a well, I mean it's still pink because corned beef has pickling salt in it, which is pink, you know, Prague salt.

And uh so people get a little nervous and they're like, well, it's it's it's not it's not well done, which you shouldn't, you know, my opinion, there's nothing should be well done.

SPEAKER_00: But uh I agree.

I agree.

SPEAKER_02: So it's uh it's a great blend of um of the two two meats, and it and it just works.

Now, granted, that wasn't any secret, you know, recipe from my family, but it was just something that I was like, all right, we make such a great corned beef, and we're known for our corned beef and pastrami.

Why not see if we can enhance our burger?

And with that being said, I mean we we got within our first two years of doing that, we got our number number two best burger in Horman Beach.

And uh, you know, so so far I think we're we're striving to be number one.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

Well, I can say that is my go-to.

Every time I come, I always tell myself, you know what, I'm gonna try something different this time.

And I always go back to the burger.

Especially what I love about you guys is is the options that you have to to put on the burger.

And so I'm always somebody about like adding it up with the different condiments and stuff.

And so, so I'm I'm a big fan of the uh adding on the fried jalapenos and the and the uh I think I do like the blue cheese and the like the pepper pepper jam or something like that.

And oh yeah, or onion jam.

Yeah, yeah, dude, it makes it absolutely insane.

I love it.

SPEAKER_02: So we do a uh, you know, do for those for those people who like to experiment, you know, on Mondays, we do a five-dollar burger, and then it's a basic burger, and then you add whatever you want.

You can add everything from your onion jam to onion rings to fried jalapenos to fried mac and cheese.

You name it, you can add it, and you can make a pretty insane sized burger, you know, for not a crazy cost.

And it's kind of just fun to do too, to mix and match flavors and textures and go from there.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.

Now, now the place, you know, before one to get at is kind of how would you describe the overall like atmosphere?

Is it is it somewhere that like families can come to or yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: I mean, I got um I'm a family guy.

I mean, there was five of us.

There's I have three kids.

I always strive for you know a family type environment with a you know comfortable feel more than anything else.

So I would say yes, families are you know encouraged to come.

We kind of put have an unspoken rule that I mentioned to people that you know after nine o'clock, typically it get it get does get you know more adult, and you know, adults don't want to feel like their kids are watching them or or there's kids running around at that time.

So it's it's definitely not like uh you know a Chuck E.

Cheese or a Dave and Buster's, you know.

I'd say it's it's kind of the best of both worlds because you don't have the flashy games.

We do have a lot of fun games, you know, but they're they're primarily adult games, but you know, kids play them too.

You know, we have your we have the basketball, we have our shuffleboard, we have air hockey, a couple pool tables, soft tip and hardpoint, and uh foosball.

So I mean, there's a lot of fun bar games without the overwhelming sense of digital games everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: So that that's what I think makes real comfortable for people.

You know, like you said, you have you have a it feels quaint and smaller than it really is, because you know, we have it sectioned off to where you you have the it's an open seating, you know, open dining room, and the bar, you know, the bar sits probably 20-some odd people.

The the dining room sits probably close to a hundred people, if not more than a hundred.

And then you have all your high tops back where the games are.

So you you really have you know three comfortable areas depending on what you're looking for when you come in.

So I mean it kind of gives that variety of you know, three businesses in one, really.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

And and I can even say from from my perspective, as somebody walking in, as somebody who who is blind, and and I think you kind of alluded to this earlier, is is you would think kind of where you guys are located, kind of tucked in over there on the side of you know, next to to Wendix, you would think it was a small place, but I can even tell from the sound when you walk in, it's a big open room, you know, and and it's great.

I always I'm always always there with my dad, and uh, we always stop in for lunch during the week and we always find ourselves, we just sit up at the bar and whatnot.

But I think it's really awesome.

And I think I think what you know, talking about the games and stuff that you guys have, I think I think that's really awesome because not many places have that.

I can't think of any right off the top of my head around, you know, around the area that have that type of variety.

And you know, and so many times you see these families now, they come in to restaurants and they immediately hand the kids an iPad.

Right.

And and to have something else to get them off of the electronic device, I just think is pretty awesome.

Yep, yep, I agree.

Yeah, well, cool.

Well, well, sounds good.

Well, I would love to know do you guys have any big plans for for St.

Patrick's Day?

That will be this is being released, I believe, exactly a week prior to St.

Patrick's Day.

And so yeah, wondering what what what the pub has in store.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I mean, as much as I tell people, I mean, my my common quote is uh drinking and bad decisions.

Which uh, you know, I I put that out there.

In all seriousness, I mean it's such a busy day.

I mean, I think we're probably the the busiest, you know, St.

Patrick's Day bar in Ormond, you know, possibly even Ormond and Daytona.

So, you know, we we don't really have a it's basically St.

Patrick's Day year-round for us, but we do have pipers coming in at one and seven, so we have bag pipers coming in.

We typically try to get dancers coming in, but due to COVID, you know, that that kind of put a damper on some things.

But we'll be playing all traditional Irish music.

We'll have a you know our traditional Irish and Scottish fair, and we'll have outside seating, inside seating.

I mean, so if you are nervous about the, I guess, the close proximity, it's gonna be busy.

So, but there'll be options for you to be as comfortable as you possibly can be.

But as far as like any any real lineup of entertainment other than the Pipers at one and seven, we'll just be we'll just be kicking butt and taking names with everybody else.

SPEAKER_00: Well, that's awesome.

That's awesome.

Now, I did want to ask you, I meant they kind of asked this earlier when we were we were talking about like your family history and stuff.

Are you from around the Ormond Daytona area?

Is this where you were born and raised?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm a I'm a I'm a native, so I was born up in Ormond by the city.

Okay.

You know, my family has been here for oh my goodness, realizing how old I am.

You know, they've been here probably about, you know.

SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't gotta give a number.

SPEAKER_02: Right, right.

But but they they've been down here for 40, you know, probably close to 50 years, originated in Pennsylvania, you know, uh suburbs of Philadelphia and Chester and uh Bryn Mawr.

And my grandparents came down prior, and then my my parents followed them down, and my mom was basically sick of shoveling snow.

And uh that's where we that's where we came from.

So yeah, we're there's five of us that all went through seabrees.

Go crazy.

My cousin, my yeah, yeah, my cousins, you know, basically our whole extended family is down here in Florida.

So we do have some great couple removed cousins and stuff still in in Pennsylvania, but for the most part, our family all migrated, you know, like I said, from way back when, from Scotland and Ireland and uh to Pennsylvania, and then from Pennsylvania to to Florida.

So that's where we call home.

SPEAKER_00: Well, that's awesome.

That's awesome.

Well, well, man, is there is there anything else that you would like to share with those listening who maybe, especially those who maybe haven't haven't been to to the pub or anything, you know, any any last parting words?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, not not too much.

I mean, if you have an opportunity, I mean, the I always say the best form of uh advertising is word of mouth.

So we have a great, great customer base, a huge supporting group.

So all I can say is if you haven't been here, you need to you need to crawl out from your rock and get here because it is uh, you know, from food, I would, I would match my food up with any five-star restaurant to, you know, the feel of uh with the comfortability of just being able to come in in your your shorts and a t-shirt and just be able to get a fantastic meal that you you you won't be able to replicate.

We have specials weekly, Monday through Wednesday, everything from the$5 burger I mentioned earlier to our wings.

Our wings are awesome.

We smoke them.

So you have an opportunity to where you don't have to break the budget to come out and eat if you if you pick the day of the week that you know we're doing the food specials on on a pretty regular basis.

So we do have an Irish jam.

We're gonna be kicking off a uh Celtic series where we'll be doing a different thing every Sunday that is you know related to Celtic heritage.

So every first Sunday currently, which is coming up uh shoot, this weekend.

So probably prior to, prior to uh this Sunday, you know, prior, it'll be out there.

The next one would be, you know, the first weekend in April.

We do an open jam session to where we have a lot of Irish artists and and musicians that basically just sit around the dinner table and and play music.

So I mean that that goes on from four to seven every first Sunday.

So, you know, if you want to get a you you want to get transplanted, and this is uh this is a definitely a spot to come to and check it out.

SPEAKER_00: Well, awesome.

Well, man, it sounds great.

I'll be back.

Uh gotta get me one of them burgers, and and I keep hearing about the wings that I gotta try the wings.

SPEAKER_02: So uh Yeah, you gotta try the wings.

And the best thing, like I said, come on a Wednesday.

Wednesday's Wednesday wing day, and they're 75 cents.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounds perfect.

Well, well, man, Bill, thank you so much for being on the podcast and just uh really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.

What I'll have to do to repay you is uh I do a thing a couple days a week of beer and a shot with Bill.

And uh we'll have to get you on that and talk about you as well.

SPEAKER_00: Well, sounds good, man.

Well, well, sounds awesome, and we will go ahead and wrap this up.

All right, thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_03: And that's the lowdown on Light and Crap Ball.

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