“This Brass Door will be six years old on the 16th of August, but we are closed for a month right now to do some refinishing. I was a soccer coach before that. I am from Ireland but have been in America for 25 years. I was playing soccer in Australia and the lad I was playing with was coaching in Louisiana. I got a green card to come work for him. When we opened this pub, there was nothing here and in the last few years the rest of the area is coming back to life. I opened this. It was a bank before and the building was built in 1912. My family crest is on the wall that means loyal to the death. I never thought I would have a pub. You should see this pub on a soccer night when it is packed. It is so gratifying. We started the business for the wrong reasons, out of romance and love of Memphis and wanting to be a part of bringing Memphis back. There have been amazing nights where the pub is full and the vibe is just right and everything is worth it. We do a charity event called Wassailing for Water with the whole pub singing Christmas carols. Then there are nights it is empty and you aren’t so happy. The group that comes here are progressive and focused on the development of the city. The park across the street was a derelict Burger King and homeless guys were living there. We put a group together to buy the building and we knocked it down and put a park and we are going to show movies there on Friday nights. It has been a hard road and takes a tremendous amount of time. There are other ways to spend your time that are more profitable but probably not as rewarding. I want this to be a legacy place where kids come back with their fathers or they come back to Memphis they come here. I want it to be completely relevant because joy is tied to it. You need the money but if there is no joy in the money, there is no joy. It is a tight margin business, but it is getting there. You can’t let the joy carry you away so I try to stay in the middle. People from all over the world come here because they have met people around the world who have been here. It is shocking. This city has a fantastic waterfront and incredible art and dining and we are finally getting Memphians to believe in Memphis again. The building next door is about to become a nine-story hotel. That won’t hurt this pub and I am okay with that. There are so may great things going on. We are dreamers and took a risk, but if there are no dreamers what do you do? Someone has to take a chance. We are doing this for the right reasons. I hope we get out alive.