Waxy O’Sheas Opening: New Irish Pub for KC
I’m told that the greatly anticipated new Irish pub for the Kansas City area, Waxy O’Shea’s, is about to open.
Waxy O’Shea’s Irish Pub opens in Shawnee, Kansas, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 11am.
Update: A glimpse inside Waxy O’Sheas Irish Pub of Shawnee, KS
What do we know about Waxy O’Shea’s? From the minutes of the Shawnee Planning Commission last month we can glean some information:
Waxy O’Shea’s Irish Pub & Restaurant is a full service restaurant and Irish bar that is occupying the tenant space that was the former location of the Bandana’s BBQ restaurant. The full service restaurant will be themed in an authentic Irish Pub tradition. The applicant proposes to offer live traditional Irish/Celtic music, Celtic/Irish rock and general rock music for the entertainment of the bar and restaurant patrons. They are also planning live entertainment in the form of a DJ, Karaoke, and Open Mic Night’s
Location
The new Irish pub is located at 11900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, at the NW corner of Quivira at Shawnee Mission Parkway, which is west of I-35 and east of I-435. The pub’s space is located in the east end of the building located at the southeast corner of the Ten Quivira Plaza (formerly Bandana’s BBQ). The entrance to the restaurant is on the south side of the building, facing Shawnee Mission Parkway.
Hours of Live Entertainment
Live entertainment shall be limited to live music from a band, DJ, or Karaoke, Sunday through Thursday from 7pm to midnight, and on Friday and Saturday extended to 1am.
Céilidh
Céilidh events (described in this instance as “traditional Irish and Scottish musicians that get together to play unamplified traditional folk music and storytelling”) will be allowed on Sunday afternoons somewhere between Noon and 7pm. This should remind Kansas City patrons of similar events which were held once a month at O’Dowd’s Little Dublin on the Plaza back in its Irish heyday.
This is all fairly standard stuff and Waxy O’Shea’s has indicated that the provision of live entertainment will not necessarily occur every night of the week, and the Céilidh events will be periodically on Sunday afternoons.
St Patrick’s Day
As you might expect, live music will be allowed prior to 7pm on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) of each year.
2 Stage Areas
In a floor plan submitted by the pub, 2 stage areas were indicated - the larger stage area would be located in the south east corner of the building in the main dining area, and a smaller stage area would be more centrally located within the interior of the dining/bar area.
Parking
It’s Shawnee. It’s a shopping center. Bring a big car. You’ll be grand.
The Name
Asked by Commissioner Pfflum where the name for the pub came from - the Waxy’s part that is - Lee Sanford replied, “It is an Irish nickname for a candle maker”.
Gigs
I’ve already seen a gig listed for Waxy O’Shea’s Irish Pub & Restaurant - Vera, Chuck and Dave on August 14, 2009 at 9pm. Regulars of Tuesday Folk in Lawrence, Kansas should be familiar with Vera, Chuck and Dave.
Phone
I’m told that the telephone number is 913-631-1759
Owners
Waxy Shawnee Pub, LLC, is listed as the business owner. Lee Sanford filed the planning application and Bob Ridenhour was also present at the planning commission.
Sanford & Ridenhour have a pedigree in opening Irish pubs in the KC area. Mostly known for WJ McBride’s Irish Pub & Restaurant in Overland Park (that closed (under different ownership), then reopened as the KC Public House, and closed again), they also helped found O’Dowd’s Little Dublin on the Country Club Plaza before that.
In recent years they’ve been responsible for the sister pub to this new pub, Waxy O’Shea’s in Branson, Missouri, and prior to that were associated with the other WJ McBride’s the one by the Legends in KCK over by the Speedway, that is now a chicken restaurant.
Disclosure
I did web work for both WJ McBride’s Irish Pubs - designing each version of the Overland Park pub and maintaining the sites of both pubs. I also created and presented the Pub Trivia Quiz competition (multimedia, big screen affair) that ran for several years in the OP pub.
See Also:
• The History of an Irish Pub
• An Irish Odyssey in Kansas City
• A Bad Pint
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
We tried Waxy O’Shea’s this evening. We tried to get served, we tried to get someone’s attention and we tried to explain that waiting for service while more recent arrivals got served wasn’t condusive to repeat business. We miss McBride’s - used to go there at least once a week. I doubt we’ll give this place another try before it closes.
We’ve tried it twice, and I think it’s great–the first time, it was still during their soft opening, and, yeah, there were some kinks to work out (like the tap wasn’t working yet and the servers were getting the hang of things), but we went back tonight (8/4), and it was terrific. Great Irish/UK beers on tap, great pub food (Scotch eggs were tasty—so was the curry and chips). Good sandwiches. I even like the music (no lame classic rock or icky pop). We’ll totally go back–it’s fantastic to have some place this tasty with good beer on tap in Shawnee! Young’s Double Chocolate Stout? Yum!
We’ve been there 4 times now to eat & twice to enjoy the evening entertainment. Definitely took time to get the kinks & training worked out, but the food has been great everytime; both appetizers & main courses. We’ve seen 2 bands but difinitely enjoyed TOEJAM the most. Heard schedule of several other bands for Sept. that should also be great. Service was superb last visit & Ruben sandwich is fantastic.
We were excited to try Waxy O’Sheas for dinner this evening, but what a disaster. We received our dinner and my husband and I were quite shocked. My Stew had been warmed over evidently for weeks. It was like mush and I absolutely could not eat it. The rolls were smashed and cold and of course not fresh. My husband’s dinner was a disaster also. He ordered Shepherd Pie and it looked like something from a Sheperd’s livestock and not something you would eat. We set our food aside and the waitress never came to check on us and we waited and waited for our check. I finally had to ask someone to get our check so we could leave and finally the waitress brought it over and it was $26.82 for food we could not eat. I came home and had toast and cream of wheat. I will not ever recommend this place to anyone and will advise my friends not to go there. I must say the fish and chips that was being served did look ok and if anyone does go to this restraunt, stick to fish and chips. McDonald’s is looking better all the time. Applebes has good fish and chips, we will go there in the future.
It was not good. I’m not a picky eater and neither is my boyfriend. Our appetizers were soggy and supposed to be fried, bad margaritas, even worse entrees. We got their recommended best food by the waitresses and neither of us ate 1/3 of our food. We will not be going back.