Ireland's 32

This place is overrated. It's a seedy bar in Van Nuys which normally should mean cheap drinks and trashy debauchery which are all things I am looking for in a typical Friday night. Everytime I've gone here the service has been slow. Like waiting for the bartender to look at you for over 15 mins when the bar isn't poppin slow. Plus the bartenders all kind of look like they hate their lives here.

Also no one wants to hear this crappy country band play in this Irish bar at midnight. Ambience is nice, it's a divey Irish bar filled with older patrons. Doesn't make up for the slow service. Maybe it's better during the week but I doubt I'll ever find out. This place has been a bust and has left me wishing I'd spent my money going somewhere else every time I've gone.

Alpha Bar - The letter I

Ireland's 32

So, the name Ireland's 32 comes from the 32 counties of Ireland and thus I was transported deep into the county Kildare upon walking through the door, passed through Killkenny on my way to the bar, and camped out in the green hills of Tipperary as we found a table.  In a corner there were several musicians playing traditional Irish folk songs on their Uilleann pipes and mandolin.

Except totally not.

Ireland's 32 is a dive bar.  I think I may have seen an Irish flag somewhere, and perhaps there was a map of Ireland on the wall and perchance there was Guinness and Harp on tap, but that's about it.  The rest was just, well, just a bar.

My Alpha Bar crew descended upon Ireland's 32 around 9 pm on a Friday night.  When I arrived a few of my party were already there, and I was presented with a shot of Jamison and a miller light upon walking in.  Good friends has I.

The layout of the place is Bar on left and tables on right, separated by a counter area you can sit at with stools.  The lighting was brighter than most bars, but I don't really have a problem with that.  Some bars just get too dark, and you don't know who you're talking to.  And here, you really wanted to know.

The clientele of Ireland's 32 skew slightly older.  And by slightly older I mean 40-60.  Our group of 25 to 35 year olds were perhaps the youngest bunch there.  Nothing wrong with that, but it seemed like some of the patrons had been fixtures there for years, and the stools at the bar were perfectly contoured so that only they could sit in them.

The Drinks are cheap.  This is a good thing.   My tab was 30 dollars and I was there four hours, and buying my associates drinks.  Definitely a place to go for inexpensive drinking, which may be why some of the clientele seem like they've been there since 1970.  They can afford to.

And there is a kitchen as well, and that kitchen will swerved you only the best in Fried food. French Fires and mozzarella sticks are always good for soaking up your very affordable whiskey.

But the place just didn't feel like an Irish pub, like the name would indicate. There were no steel tip dart boards that I could see, which is  clear indicator of an Irish or English pub, in my opinion.  There was a golden tee from 1998 there and I think perhaps a galaga arcade game.  And there was live music....but it was country music.  COUNTRY MUSIC!  I nearly spit my bit and galloped out of there.  And this country band played a Pouges song, because, as they noted, they were ostensibly in an Irish bar.  But they countrified it.  I'll take extremely annoying for 1000, Alex.  

Well, there you have it.  Cheap drinks, older clientele, greasy food, country music.  Everything you'd expect out of an Irish pub.  Maybe they should change their name to Valley's 40, for the 40 communities in the San Fernando Valley.  Because that's what this was.  This place is your quintessential Valley Bar.  And rating it as such, I like it a lot.  It's not really an Irish bar, but that's okay.  Not many bars in the valley are, and really, most people don't really care about all that.  They want cheap drinks, people they know, and comfort food.  This place supplies all three.  And, apparently, country music. Well, nobody's perfect.  Four stars.

Stay tuned, as our next foray into the alpha bar gets a little racy for the Letter J.  A little bird has told me we'll be going to Jumbo's Clown room.  Gods help us all.

Cool place Cool tunes Cool crowd
I can dig it