Rosie O'Grady's Irish Pub is moving, but not far. The venerable Ferndale institution is in the process of moving to a much bigger space in a more central downtown location.
"We're tightening up, moving away from the bar format to a restaurant format," says Ed Jeffery, vice president of operations for Rosie O'Grady's.
The building at 175 W. Troy St. has been a bar, in one form or another, for the last 70-80 years. It became Rosie O'Grady's 20 years ago and quickly became one of the business names synonomous with downtown Ferndale.
That tradition will continue but at a different address – 279 W 9 Mile Road. The people behind the bar are taking over the old Eyeglass Factory storefront and turning it into 15,000 square feet of dining and drinking space, which is more than triple the size of its current location.
The new location will feature a 4,500-square-foot patio the owners plan to trick out with $100,000 in landscaping. The space will have a patio bar and fire pits to compliment the new greenery. The $3 million project will also include banquet facilities, a coal-fire pizza oven and a theater-style kitchen "so everything is out there so everyone can see," Jeffery says.
Rosie O'Grady's 2.0 is set to open its doors by February. In the meantime the old location on Troy Street will remain open until the night before the new bar opens. Once the move is complete, the owners will begin to remodel the old site into a Mexican restaurant. That should be done within 3-6 months after construction starts.
Source: Ed Jeffery, vice president of operations for Rosie O'Grady's Irish Pub
Writer: Jon Zemke
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