Shaughnessy's. Syracuse, New York.

550 South Warren Street

Guinness Tag: $9.00 | Overall Rating: 5.95

Today's Dedicated Pint: Dolph Schayes

Syracuse may not have any current professional sports teams, but it does own a lot of unique history in almost every popular sport. Once upon a time, there was a basketball team called the Syracuse Nationals who played in the founding years of the NBA. In 1950, they ended the regular season with a phenomenal, 51-13 regular season record (.797%), and lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA Finals. The National's wooden floorboards from their home court are what you will walk on as you sip your suds under the Shaughnessy roof! I'm not going to lie, I think that's pretty damn cool.

We pulled into the downtown area of Syracuse on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the midst of a long drive toward Boston for a quick little pick me up. When I say pick me up, I mean a pint of Guinness, of course. The downtown area was eerily dead as a doornail, and Shaughnessy's was no different. I'm from Cincinnati, which means I am used to a downtown area being dead on a Sunday without any Bengals or Reds games going on, but Syracuse gives a special definition of "dead" or "ghost town," when referring to the amount of foot traffic on a hollow Sunday. Anyway, that's not necessarily Shaughnessy's fault.

Its bones lay underneath the Marriott Hotel along the corner of Warren and Harrison. In fact, Shaughnessy's doesn't even have their own bathrooms, which was actually a first for me (after the 130+ Pubs officially visited so far). If you gotta pinch a loaf, you have to leave the bar and use the hotel lobby's bathrooms, and if you're a guy; you need to find out the bathroom door's security code in order to let loose. Not cool. Not cool at all.

As we bent the elbows upon the bar, it surely took a while for the Guinness to arrive, despite being the only ones inside. The bartender seemed like she couldn't give two shits that we were there, and to be honest, I'd go as far as to say that it felt as if we were inconveniencing her for even showing face and asking for a pint. After acquiring the mediocre pour with a side order of snide, I almost wanted to say "Sorry for coming in." This place may offer love, warmth, and hospitality to some people, but I'm surely not one of them, haha. Maybe my face is becoming more and more punchable looking the older I keep getting, who knows.

This is surely a sports bar first, Irish Pub second. They showcase a lot of neat sports memorabilia alongside their comfy booths and a handful of unique things on the wall. You'll find over 20 TVs for spectating all the games, a good selection of draft beer & wine, and an alright whiskey choice. They provide green lighting throughout the place alongside a rather boring barcounter. The bar itself is a large horseshoe, which is always good for conversations amongst the bar crowd, and the barstools are your typical metal swivels that you'll find in 500+ restaurants throughout the states. The Pub as a whole is very clean.

If you're into Golden Tee, then you're in luck. As you look around, you'll notice dirty windows, but worthy ceiling tiles & crown molding. The food menu here is nice and simple, as it seemed to have just 5 appetizers and 5 entrees to choose from. I like simple menus. The music today was a soft rock, and it's probably safe to say that soft rock is their typical default station during shifts without any sports to watch. There was a Touchtunes, but I decided to pass on the opportunity to throw money on a song for an audience of 5: the two of us and the few staff members walking around.

I know I stepped foot in here on a slow day, but I'm confident that I'd have the same things to say had there been 20 more people hanging out. It'll hit the spot for anyone looking to hang out before/after a Crunch or Orange game, but this Pub doesn't really scratch my itch.

I'm off to Albany. Slainte!

I wrote a book!