{"id":311397,"date":"2026-05-27T21:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311397\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:33:08","slug":"irish-spice-bags-in-dallas-where-to-find-the-dublin-pub-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311397\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish spice bags in Dallas: Where to find the Dublin pub food"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSpice bags are served with a side of curry. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Photo by Austin Wood<\/p>\n

Alan Kearney\u2019s pub group<\/a> has ripped open the bag on a beloved Irish street food and post-bar snack for Dallasites.<\/p>\n

Since 2022, all things Irish have made their way into the global cultural mainstream. Actors like Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy are representing the country at major award shows for their roles in blockbuster Hollywood productions, while bands like Fontaines D.C<\/a>. have surged on U.S. charts. And there aren\u2019t many more widely understood symbols of the Irish than Guinness, which is enjoying record popularity in the U.S. as younger generations try to \u201csplit the G<\/a>.\u201d In fact, from 2022 to 2023, Guinness sales increased by 20% in North America.<\/a><\/p>\n

The so-called \u2018Green Wave\u2019 has also hit Dallas, with more and more pubs popping up<\/a> while Guinness becomes near mandatory for even the most American-style sports bars filled with TVs. Its latest splash? The spice bag.<\/p>\n

Is a spice bag like a dime bag? <\/p>\n

Kearney owns five pubs in Dallas and opened up a sixth, Henry McCarty\u2019s Irish Pub, in Fort Worth in January. Like most pubs in the U.S., his group\u2019s pubs have menus that are a patchwork of traditional Irish fare and American bar staples. To bring the spice bag to the menu, Kearney and his associates spent a few months in R&D to create a dish that wouldn\u2019t feel out of place in his native Dublin, where he operated several pubs before coming to the U.S.<\/p>\n

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THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"aSteak fries are mixed with peppers and chunks of battered-and-fried chicken, then tossed in spices. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s a spice bag? It\u2019s the Irish cure for pint-fueled late-night cravings and morning nausea. The dish combines tender bits of white-breast chicken, crispy fries (or chips, if you want to be authentic) and peppers inside the bag to create a greasy, unexpectedly sweet-and-savory jumble served with curry that\u2019s ripe for a 1 a.m. Uber Eats order. The spice bag is believed to have originated as a staff meal<\/a> at a Chinese takeaway in Dublin in the 2000s and has since become a viral staple.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s meant to be like after you leave the pub, after you\u2019ve had a few pints with your friends, that\u2019s like the comfort food that kind of fills you up, so you don\u2019t get hungover the next morning,\u201d the group\u2019s marketing manager, Ben Albrect, says.<\/p>\n

The dish has made its way to U.S. cities like New York, where Eater has published a list of 18 spots<\/a> to grab spice bags. But Kearney\u2019s rendition, which debuted a few weeks ago, is, as far as we can tell, the first to hit the Dallas market.<\/p>\n

The recipe and research<\/p>\n

While developing the dish, Kearney and his team spent weeks researching to ensure it would mirror those found in Ireland. They have a specially designed wax-paper bag, which, by the way, is necessary to keep the fries from getting soggy from the dish\u2019s grease. The spice in the spice bag comes from a Chinese-inspired blend of allspice, star anise and other undisclosed seasonings, all tossed with the fries, vegetables and chicken.<\/p>\n

Buttermilk-marinated chicken breast, cut in-house into small nuggets with a house-made batter, serves as the protein. The chicken is fried separately from the bell peppers and onions, which are cooked together with the potatoes. After tearing the bag open, the resulting mix can be either dipped or smothered in Kearney\u2019s creamy tomato-based yellow curry sauce, which incorporates coconut milk for a hint of smooth sweetness. A side of sweet-and-sour sauce, also common in Ireland, might be added later.<\/p>\n

The chicken spice bags ($18) are available at all six pubs, and Albrect said the group will look to add more regional Irish staples in the future.<\/p>\n

How to eat a spice bag<\/p>\n

Lay the bag flat
\nTear open
\nUsing your hands (no utensils required), grab a piece of chicken, some vegetables and a fry
\nDip in curry, eat altogether
\nRepeat<\/p>\n

Where to find a spice bag<\/p>\n

Crafty Irishman: downtown at 1800 Main St. and another in Victory Park at 2401 Victory Park Lane.<\/p>\n

Patrick Kennedy\u2019s: downtown at 1201 Main St.<\/p>\n

The Playwright Irish Pub: The Arts District at 1722 Routh St. <\/p>\n

Cannon\u2019s Corner: in Oak Cliff at 1314 W. Davis St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spice bags are served with a side of curry. Photo by Austin Wood Alan Kearney\u2019s pub group has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,5440,4568],"class_list":["post-311397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-first-look","tag-recommended"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}