Hash Over

Though Tipperary Inn general manager Mark Daniel swears he isn't simply duplicating O'Dowd's Little Dublin on McKinney Avenue (which had its Irish-pub innards wrought in Ireland and shipped to Dallas for assembly), Tipperary Inn will shut down for 10 weeks just after St. Patrick's Day and embark on its own Irish transplant -- in honor of the pub's 10th anniversary on Skillman Avenue. Daniel says they'll be working with a 100-plus-year-old authentic Irish-pub manufacturer that will deliver a complete pub -- including two fireplaces and a potbelly stove -- to Dallas for retrofitting. But that's not all this refurbished watering hole will hold. Daniel says it will have wood floors made of lumber pulled from a 200-year-old Amish barn in Pennsylvania.

---

Ketama founder and Café Madrid alumnus Idefonso Jimenez says the opening of his tiny Spanish tapas bar ¡Hola!, parked in a circa-1903 building purported to be the first gas station in Dallas, is roughly three weeks away. Jimenez's rustic 25-30 seat tapas bar on the corner of McKinney and Monticello with a filling-station drive-through port will be fashioned to resemble an old house from Castile...Sipango managing partner Ron Corcoran says Cole Kelley, the former Breadwinners night chef who replaced Sipango chef Marc Haines, has bounced from the kitchen after little more than a month at the Travis Walk nightspot. Haines, by the way, says his Frisco "AmerItalian" restaurant Soprano's on Preston Road and Highway 121 should be open by February 4. No word on any paunchy New Jersey mobster viewing parties.

---

Crafted from the tempranillo grape in Spain's Ribera del Duero district, the 1996 Tinto Pesquera is a rich, robustly satisfying wine. Its deep ruby-blue hues are reminiscent of transmission fluid, though thankfully the dark berry fruit aromas aren't. It's silky in the mouth with an endearing grip that delivers smoke, tobacco, and spice that tumble into a modest finish. Find it on lists at Café Madrid, de Tapas, and Ketama...According to The Wall Street Journal, the liberalized Catholic Church, which offers wine to parishioners at Holy Communion, is causing Holy laundry hell, and not ring-around-the-collar, either. Permanent red wine stains in altar linens and chalice cloths have created a crisis so acute that Holy Family Church in Irving recently got permission to switch to paper towels.

— Mark StuertzE-mail Dish at markstz@flash.net.