A new restaurant is under construction at 4752 California Avenue, called A Terrible Beauty. They describe themselves as "An authentic Irish Pub. Amid the crowded byways of cloned chains, A Terrible Beauty follows its own path, with an unparalleled commitment to authenticity & atmosphere, a gourmet, affordable menu and 28 imported and local beers on tap."

Run by Jenna Shannon Garvey-O'Brien and Paddy O'Brien, the couple is hoping for a May 1 opening, depending on construction. The family already owns and operates A Terrible Beauty in Renton on Williams Street where they've been open for 21 months and are doing well. "We're going to turn this into a proper irish pub," Jenna said.

"We're going to mimic our other location to the best of our ability," Jenna said which means everything from a stone front on the building to the food on the menu to the beers on tap.

The West Seattle Herald visited their Renton location to take some photos, sample the food and give you an idea what you can expect when the new location opens.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE SOME PHOTOS OF THEIR RENTON LOCATION

The food will be authentic Irish pub fare, "but gourmet," added Jenna with items like Guinness & Garlic Mussels & Clams, Sweet hard shell clams & savoury mussels steamed with fresh garlic, herbs & Guinness Stout, or Hooligan House Hot Dip Tender roast beef OR turkey breast, melted Swiss & whole grain horseradish mustard on a freshly baked baguette. Served with our own Guinness gravy dip. "We make all our own bread and pastries from scratch and we slow roast our corned beef 16 hours.

The restaurant will feature a full handcrafted bar with 30 beers on tap, and you'll Irish Import Market and Southside Irish music. "We've got an awesome back bar in Renton and we want to replicate it here. It will be about 2 feet shorter. We have some beautiful end pieces that are from the Crown Pub in Belfast (one of the most famous in Ireland) and they were salvaged so they won't be in West Seattle but we're going to bring as much of our culture into this place as we can."

They will have traditional Irish music and, "we do some real good foot stomping Irish rock on the weekends. We do two sessions of proper Irish music at Renton, then we have additional live Irish music Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We also do a live jazz brunch and all that will come up here to West Seattle."

They were drawn to this area by "the community and the people. This is where we want to be."

"Our philosophy really is we want to make our place the kind of place we want to come in to," Jenna said. We make it feel like our home. We get to know our customers. We actually do care and we're doing exactly what we want to do with our lives. We both grew up in this industry. We surround ourselves with people we want to spend our lives with. We have a zero toxicity policy. We don't let toxic people in our lives and it creates a really wonderful culture and environment. We knew we would become emotionally invested in our restaurant, but what was incredibly humbling to us was that strangers so quickly became emotionally invested in our place and our success (…) and it just grew and grew and grew.

When we first set foot in this location we heard ,'Oh that place is cursed,' and we started reading about it and people had all these negative things to say. But this is a great place, it's a beautiful location in a wonderful neighborhood. We've always wanted to be on 'restaurant row' with other great restaurants. And there's nothing like this here. I just know we're not going to disappoint the community, I'm not going to let it happen.

They will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner plus weekend brunch.
Hours Mon - Fri: 11:00 am- 2:00 am Sat - Sun: 9:00 am - 2:00 am