Ask to see a menu at Celtic Crossings and the friendly bartender (who'll most likely be Irish) will point you toward a rack of potato chips. Ask about the drink specials and she'll gesture toward the beer on tap, which features such UK specialties as Guinness, Harp, Newcastle, Murphy's and Boddington's. As for entertainment, live Irish bands rev up beer-swiggers every Sunday at 9 p.m.

The moral of this story: Celtic Crossings is an Irish bar. It's not the kind of Irish that runs in a dyed green river or comes served as a green "leprechaun" martini; it's the kind that draws in homesick folks from the Emerald Isle itself.

They'll find respite in the bar's distinctly cottage-like feel: Enter through a red wooden door and find a seat near little windows covered in checked curtains. Yellow stucco walls and a stone fireplace are accompanied by shelves of porcelain parrots and wooden ships plucked straight from a storybook set in Grandpa's home. The front section of the bar hosts a slew of low-slung tables; hi-tops cluster along the wall, leading to a back space full of curly-edged wooden chairs that invite hours of sitting. A no-TV policy keeps bar-goers chatting, and conversations often take on a literary bent.

Centerstage Reviewer: Jennifer Berg