Patrick McGovern’s Pub – St. Paul, MN

D.Rough has been talking about the Turkey Dinners they have at this place for some time. We actually popped by one afternoon to find out they only served breakfast and a super small lunch menu until about 2. So we took a picture of the waterfall on the patio, had a drink of lemonade, and then walked next door to Cosetta’s for lunch. But we seriously came back the next day AFTER 2 to try out these famed Turkey dishes.

The patio of this place is really nice. Lots of tables on different levels, a nice waterfall, an inside-bar on either side of you with clean restrooms, and very attentive wait staff. The actual for-real menu is REALLY large and has tons of stuff. As usual, in these situations, it’s terribly difficult to decide what to eat. But since the Turkey Dinner was talked up so much, by D.Rough, I thought I’d better go with that. D.Rough got the Turkey Melt, which is kind of an old stand-by for her – she knows it’s delicious. I got a vodka lemonade with Chambord in it and D.Rough got something summery and boozy as well.

The drinks arrived quickly and were just ok. Not life-changing or anything. They were good, especially in the summer. I couldn’t taste much Chambord and D.Rough’s tasted a little watery. But whatever, we weren’t there to get loaded – we were there to hang out and eat. For some reason, my drinks always look much larger than D.Rough's. Weird.

The food came out a short while later and I was pretty impressed. D.Rough’s sammich looked really good, but my dinner was waaay larger than I expected. Multiple large slabs of turkey on top of some bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and then everything was covered in gravy. I dug right in and was pleasantly surprised. Everything was perfect – even the stuffing, which I’m not usually a fan of. I questioned whether I was going to finish it all, but I came through with a second burst of hunger towards the end. The meat was very juicy and the gravy wasn’t boring and flavorless, like brown gravy sometimes is. VERY well done, McGovern’s. I loved it.

I had a bite of D.Rough’s sammich and it was pretty delicious as well. A little more compact and hand-held, which is nice at a bar, but I think I’d go with the full Hot Turkey Dinner when I come here. However, there’s a bunch of other things on the menu I need to try as well. We’ll see if I can pull myself away from the Hot Turkey next time.

Top 5 things about Patrick McGovern’s Pub
1. Hot Turkey Dinner
2. Turkey Melt Sammich
3. Outdoor Patio
4. Open last with multiple happy hours
5. Giant menu with lots of tasty looking things

Bottom 5 things
1. Small menu until 2pm
2. Cocktails weren’t very special
3. I think it’s going to be really difficult NOT to get the Hot Turkey Diner every time I go there
4. Wish we had gotten the timing right the first time – either earlier for breakfast or later for full menu action
5. There was some sort of whore birthday party event on the patio while we were there and it got loud and whore-y

www.patmcgoverns.com