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Longmont Local: Much about Mike O’Shay’s on Main Street has stayed the same for four decades

Since taking over O’Shay’s three years ago, owner Reuben Verplank said has tried to make as few changes as possible:  “It was important not to make changes that would be so substantive that it would feel like a different place."
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Mike O'Shay's Restaurant & Ale House has been a Main Street mainstay since 1981. (Photo by Deborah Cameron)

It’s hard to find a Longmont resident who hasn’t enjoyed at least one meal at Mike O’Shay’s, the Irish-themed restaurant and ale house that’s been on Main Street since 1981.

Customers have come to count on O’Shay’s as a welcome meeting spot with a menu that has something for everyone. Those include people well known in the Longmont community who can be found at the same tables time and again for business lunches, happy hours, dinners out with family and celebrations.  

“St. Patrick’s Day is by far the biggest day of the year for us,” said current owner Reuben Verplank. “We open about an hour early, and there are people waiting. The pipers come. It’s a packed house the whole time.”

Verplank previously owned Reuben’s, a beer and burger restaurant in Boulder. Since taking over O’Shay’s three years ago, he has tried to make as few changes as possible.  “It was important not to make changes that would be so substantive that it would feel like a different place. Most of the changes were related to how the restaurant runs,” he said. “Things like updating the computer systems that were here.”

O’Shay’s employees have stuck around, too. 

“We still have a great number of staff from the original restaurant with three people who have been here more than 20 years,” Verplank said.

He has made changes in one area, however: the restaurant’s craft beer lineup. “I come from a beer background, and it is really a passion of mine. O’Shay’s has always billed itself as an ale house, and I wanted to expand that.”

In addition to supporting local craft beer makers, Verplank has ensured beers represent the restaurant’s Irish theme with premium offerings from the U.K. He’s also added imports from Germany and Belgium.

Original owner Mike Shea still visits from time to time and is glad to see the restaurant remains a community hub. 

“I put my heart and soul into it. My wife and I started it and O’Shay’s evolved to more than we could have hoped for,” he said. “We had a lot of regular customers and that was the lifeblood of the place. People that came in every week, numerous times every week, or during happy hour.”

When asked if there was a story that represents what the restaurant was to him, Shea mentioned couples’ engagements between and family celebrations, but had a hard time singling out just one anecdote. Instead, he talked about how much he enjoyed his time there.

 “I only lived five blocks away and they couldn’t get rid of me. Now regulars still know me. Even with a mask on in the grocery store,” he said.

Verplank appreciates the restaurant’s legacy as he continues what his predecessor started.

“O’Shay’s has been a big part of people’s lives. Because it’s been here 40 years, I get people who tell me the stories about how they’ve been coming since they were kids; since it opened,” he said. “People feel a real connection to it.”



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Correction: Mike Shea's was misspelled in the original posting of this story.