Nightlife: A supersized cozy Irish pub

When I drove out to St. Louis Park last Wednesday for the opening night of Cooper -- the new Irish pub from the king of Irish pubs -- I half expected to see owner Kieran Folliard presiding over the place like an Irish godfather. I envisioned City Council members from this first-ring suburb bowing at his feet, overjoyed that something substantial finally has come to this tame corridor of suburban freeway near the Hwy. 100 and Interstate Hwy. 394 interchange.

Instead, I found Folliard screwing in a light bulb.

The jolly figurehead of a pub empire that includes the Local, the Liffey and Kieran's was on light-bulb duty at his fourth and possibly most ambitious bar to date.

With his silver curls and a smile that could charm a leprechaun, Folliard has long been one of the bar scene's most successful proprietors. But even he admits that opening the new bar -- his first in the suburbs -- has been a bit nerve-racking.

"The expec-TAH-tions have risen," Folliard said in his delightful Irish accent.

Cooper is an anchor tenant at the $400 million Shops at the West End, a new lifestyle center expected to have a major impact on suburban nightlife with its 14-screen movie theater, a third Crave restaurant and the upcoming Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill.

Just don't tell Folliard that St. Louis Park is in the suburbs.

"We're on the edge of town," he said with a grin. His other bars are in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.

He could have opened Cooper in Delano and it would still be a hit. Folliard is the type of bar owner customers fawn over. He shook maybe 400 hands on opening night; some wanted their photo taken with him.

"I can only think of one other job that's better than Kieran Folliard's -- and that would be a Jameson taste-tester," said Brian (BT) Turner, the Cities 97 radio host. He was at Cooper four days in a row last week.

The pub's in the blood

Folliard wasn't born in a bar, but he was reared -- from a young age -- to love the pub. I asked him if he remembered how old he was when he had his first drink in a real Irish pub.

"I was 15 years of age," he said. "It was in another town after we had played a football game. Somebody put a pint in front of me and said 'Drink that.' And the rest is history."

Folliard, 54, grew up working-class in a small town called Ballyhaunis, near the western coast of Ireland. His father drove a hackney cab; Kieran helped him. An old friend still sends him the region's weekly newspaper. "It arrives at the Local every Monday like clockwork," he said.

When he left Ireland, Folliard found himself working in the corporate world, eventually landing in the Twin Cities in 1987. In Minnesota, he realized that his passion lay elsewhere.

"I decided I would open an Irish pub -- and that was the amount of strategy that went into the decision," Folliard said.

In 1994 he opened Kieran's Irish Pub, cashing in his 401(k) and racking up $49,000 in credit-card debt. He had a business partner in Henry Cousineau. As they opened more bars, they added partners, such as Peter Killen and Valid Serhan (GM at Cooper).

For Folliard, expanding an Irish cultural footprint in the Twin Cities has been an important enterprise, one that has gone beyond the bars. During his decade as chair of the Irish Fair of Minnesota, he helped transform the annual festival into a 100,000-person extravaganza. That success led to the Irish Fair's Legacy Fund, with proceeds from the event benefiting not only Irish cultural groups but new immigrant causes.

Folliard's bond to Minnesota also can be seen in Cooper, its name steeped in Twin Cities history. It's a tribute to the Cooper Theatre, a legendary movie house that once stood nearby. Folliard said the movies he saw on the theater's giant screen are still "ingrained in his head" long after its 1991 closing and subsequent demolition. (A "cooper" is also the trade name for a barrel maker.)

All the way from Ireland

Folliard's Irish pubs are big and bold. Inside the Local, there are certain architectural flourishes (the cathedral-like back bar) that make me wonder if I should be partying or praying. Cooper was designed with that same sense of grandeur.

While its room isn't as large as the Local, the 7,400-square-foot layout still seems huge. The bar and fittings were a $1 million job, Folliard said. Red-velvet curtains swoop down from what seem like 20-foot ceilings. A dramatic 60-foot horseshoe bar snakes its way around the center of the restaurant. Large portraits of women (painted in the French art nouveau poster style) loom overhead. "It's all in the details," Folliard said. (Check out the gold door hinges.)

All of the wood and glass were crafted in Ireland by the same Dublin-based company that outfitted the Local. The mahogany and etched glass were then packaged in several 40-foot shipping containers that arrived one by one. Some of the bar's best woodwork was carved by a 70-year-old Irish guy in his back yard. "You can't tell him when you want the stuff; he'll let you know when he's done," Folliard said.

During Cooper's first week, the restaurant's 280 seats filled quickly during happy hour and dinner. The restaurant's menu puts a twist on traditional Irish cuisine. It's not all shepherd's pie. How about fish and chips made from walleye, shrimp or salmon? Or a vegetable and lentil curry called the "Punjab Glory"? The only thing Irish on the juicy bison burger is the white cheddar. Nothing is over $17.

During the first few days, Folliard seemed confident in Cooper's menu, its staff and its design. And while he maintained St. Louis Park's "edge-of-town" status, he wasn't sold on the prospects of a late-night crowd out here, which has been a staple at his other pubs.

"That's my biggest concern. There isn't a culture of it in this neighborhood," he said. "So we're going to have to try to create the culture."

Sounds like vintage Kieran Folliard to me.

thorgen@startribune.com • 612-673-7909