The Blackfinn in Royal Oak - New Bar!!! (Got Guinness Potential)

Last night, a small handful of us visited the Newest Bar To Hit Royal Oak. This is The Blackfinn, in place that used to house Fudruckers.

Royal Oak has been waiting for this place for quite a while now - apparently it had to jump through all the hoops to get that highly coveted thing, a Royal Oak liquor license. There was quite a lot of controversy; city residents were worried that there would be all kinds of drunken debauchery happening. Well, apparently common sense won over and the place was allowed to open.

It was originally discussed as an Irish theme bar & Restaurant. From what I could see there was very little that made it Irish, apart from Guinness and Smithwicks.

Anyway, I got there at about 6 or so. The place was packed! Apparently it was its Grand Opening, even though I believe it has been open for about a week. What made it a Grand Opening? There were people wandering around giving out snacks. Which is never a bad thing.

Now, for me, the litmus test for any bar is the quality of it Guinness. So, I found a place at the bar and ordered a pint from a male bartender. The pint came up excellent. Creamy, smooth and cool.

My friends joined me, and a round of pints was pulled by one of the gals behind the bar. Unfortunately, she was not as good as her male counterpart - no top up, - just pour and go. Which gave us pints with large heads and lots of bubbles. But we drank them none the less.

One really nice thing here was the very high ceiling, which allowed the smoke to be not too noticeable.

I didn't have any food, nor did I even look at the menu. Next time.

The restrooms..... Functional, but complete with one thing that really really annoys me - an attendant. Why anyone would feel the need to have someone hand them a paper towel, and maybe spray some smelly stuff on them is beyond me. What exactly is the purpose of this guy???

So, in summary...

Pros: Potentially good Guinness, lively atmosphere, reasonably priced Guinness ($3 - maybe happy hour?), airy, lots of TVs.

Cons: Some bar staff who can't pull a good pint of Guinness, Bathroom Bouncer, crowded, lots of TVs.

I'll be back.........

Update.... there was a comment about the bathroom attendant explaining his purpose... contained some swearies so I had to delete it.