Finn McCool’s

2702 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 452-1734www.gerrigilliland.com

Parking: Metered Street Parking, $6 valet lots

M-Sat: 4-7 pm, Sun: 9 pm – close, $4 draft beers, house wines and well drinks, $3 bottle beers, and a nice selection of $4 appetizers

Our next stop on our Saturday Santa Monica Main Street Sweep was the Irish bar, Finn McCool's. We were immediately welcomed by the poster of our friend's (Mancation Necessary) Irish friend, Marian, who performs at the bar every Sunday night. We might have to go back and check out her show, because, well not only do we like support friends and local artists, but the bar seems like it might be more fun with lots of people around.

As it was, we stopped by at about 4 pm on Saturday and the scene was quite quiet. We grabbed a seat around the full island bar and met a couple nice people - a visiting Irishman and an American couple who were on a Japanese game show. Otherwise, the place seemed a little snooze-fest.

Luckily, their happy hour menu was pretty kickin' – a selection of seven $4 draft beers and twelve $3 bottle beers, $4 house wines and well drinks, and eight fun $4 Irish-themed appetizer items like Finn Blarney Bacon Skins and the Celtic Quesadilla. I went for the non-happy hour priced draft Magner’s Cider ($7.25) and L-Belz had the non-happy hour priced Bloody Mary ($8.50) and the delish Coconut Curry Dumplings – a little mix of India meets Ireland, recommended by our good-natured bartender lady.

While Finn McCool’s happy hour had the variety we extol in those bars that have it and lament in those bars that don’t, we gotta knock a few martinis for being such a quiet scene. Of course, this coulda been a bum day and we’d be happy to try again! Will revise rating accordingly :). -- JB

Rating: 3 Martinis