An Irish Inn, Complete With Irish Pub
Owner Tom Conkey mans the in-house pub at his Killahevlin B& B in Front Royal, Va.
(By Kelly Koehler)
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At the Killahevlin B&B's in-house Irish Pub, last call falls somewhere between bedtime and checkout.
"The pub's open as long you can find it," said Tom Conkey, who runs the inn in Front Royal, Va., with his wife, Kathy. "And if you can't find it, you don't need it."
The cheery corner room sits just beyond the main parlor. It is near the table covered with coffee-table books on the Emerald Isle, but even closer to the piano, with its songbook of Irish ditties. If you hit a plaque that reads "Ceid Mile Failte, One Hundred Thousand Welcomes," you've gone too far. But if you see an L-shaped bar with a plateful of homemade brownies, a row of wooden stools and a working Harp tap, you've found it.
"This the best place to be," said Tim Menzenwerth, a repeat guest from Leesburg who was knocking back a few pints last weekend. The fire chief had snagged a seat within arm's reach of the keg handle (sit and self-serve). But when his wife, Alyssa, needed a white zin refill, he had to get up to play bartender, rummaging through small fridges filled with wine, soda, bottled Guinness and chilling mugs.
Each room in the early 20th-century Edwardian mansion, whose original owner was an Irish immigrant, has a distinct purpose. The living room, with its fireplace, throw blankets and dozing cats, is where you go to read, knit or talk in your quiet voice. The four graceful guest rooms (with "Princess and the Pea" four-poster beds, claw-foot or whirlpool tubs, etc.) are ideal for a luxuriant bath or restful slumber. The morning-bright dining room is for eating homemade apple cinnamon scones and French toast stuffed with sweet spiced apples. But it's the open bar -- and the Conkeys really mean open, as in: The beer is free for inn guests -- that is the social epicenter.
The private pub has been known to become quite lively, in that Old Eire way. On our cold winter's eve, five guests passed around the brownies and refilled each other's glasses. A visitor from Anchorage pulled away at 1:15 a.m. For the others, Menzenwerth called it at 2:25. But like any veteran bar patron knows, last call isn't the same as the very last call.
-- Andrea Sachs
Killahevlin B&B Inn in Front Royal, Va. (1401 N. Royal Ave., 800-847-6132, http:/
