ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Betoota Heights has welcomed another pokie den disguised as a family hotel this week with the opening of PJ Gilroy’s Irish Pub on Hinze Link Road.
The town’s newest pub opened its door on Wednesday to mild local fanfare, with one local resident telling The Advocate that they don’t even have Guinness on tap.
“They said it’s coming,” he said.
“They offered me a hot stubbie of Toohey’s Old and said it’s pretty much the same thing,”
“In hindsight, I don’t know what I expected.”
PJ Gilroy’s is on the site of the former Royal Imperial Commercial Hotel, which burned down late last year to no surprise.
The hotel had been struggling financially for quite some time before the Irish stocktake, leaving many in the community suscious over the cause of the fire.
Despite being investigated thoroughly by the Betoota Heights Arson Team, the cause of the fire was found to be electrical.
The pub’s owner, Borislav Babić, said he plans to keep the pub as traditionally Irish as possible.
He’s taking inspiration from Dublin’s infamous Copper Face Jacks night spot and O’Malley’s in Mooloolaba, arguably the best Irish pub in the southern hemisphere.
However, he declined to provide comment to The Advocate as he’s currently in the crosshairs of our paper’s investigative reporter over a different matter
More to come.
