Milestones Icon: Mike O’Shays

It’s a challenge to find an empty seat at Mike O’Shays on St. Patrick’s Day.

Customers pack the pub on the Irish holiday. They feast on corned beef and cabbage and sheperds pie and wash it down with Guinness. “We bring in bagpipers and drummers,´ said owner Mike Shea, who comes from a long line if Irishmen. “It’s by far our busiest day of the year.”

O’Shays stays busy the rest of the year, too. In fact, it’s the longest-running independently owned restaurant in Longmont.

From its Irish pub ambience, bangers and mash to its fresh seafood, Mike O’Shays Restaurant & Ale House has been an iconic eatery on Main Street in Longmont for the past 30 years.

Mike and Nania Shea opened the pub in 1981, patterning it after some of the restaurants Mike worked for while growing up in New Jersey. It features a 45-foot-long bar down one side of the narrow space with booths and tables on the other side at 512 Main St.

With its predominately wood décor, high ceilings and brick walls, it has the feel of an old-time pub yet it has a popular modern-day menu, well beyond the scope of its Irish fare to include fresh fish entrees.

When the pub opened in 1981, a raw fish bar at the entrance greeted patrons, and shucking oysters on the spot was a delight for many.

Shea’s love affair with seafood goes back to his Jersey Shore days. He started working in restaurants when he was 13, busing and waiting tables, washing dishes, cooking, and learning a lot about buying and preparing seafood.

At O’Shays, the menu offers a variety of seafood dishes, and he packs the daily specials with selections from the sea. Fish and chips is the restaurant’s top-selling entrée. “We use high-quality Icelandic cod and our original batter,” Shea explained.

O’Shays also is known for its hand-cut steaks, homemade sauces, batter and soups and seasonal cocktails.

The menu has more than 50 entrees, daily lunch and dinner specials and features fresh fish every day. There are more than 15 wines by the glass and 12 beers on tap. It also offers baked goods and tasty desserts conjured up by Nania.

O’Shays has been a perennial winner in the Times-Calls Readers’ Choice awards for best overall restaurant, best lunch, best desserts and best happy hour.

In 2010 Shea renovated the pub to increase seating and create an outdoor patio.

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