Photo by Austin Wood
Audio By Carbonatix
Alan Kearney’s pub group has ripped open the bag on a beloved Irish street food and post-bar snack for Dallasites.
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. have surged on U.S. charts. And there aren’t many more widely understood symbols of the Irish than Guinness, which is enjoying record popularity in the U.S. as younger generations try to “split the G.” In fact, from 2022 to 2023, Guinness sales increased by 20% in North America.
The so-called ‘Green Wave’ has also hit Dallas, with more and more pubs popping up while Guinness becomes near mandatory for even the most American-style sports bars filled with TVs. Its latest splash? The spice bag.
Is a spice bag like a dime bag?
Kearney owns five pubs in Dallas and opened up a sixth, Henry McCarty’s Irish Pub, in Fort Worth in January. Like most pubs in the U.S., his group’s 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’t feel out of place in his native Dublin, where he operated several pubs before coming to the U.S.
Photo by Austin Wood
What’s a spice bag? It’s 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’s ripe for a 1 a.m. Uber Eats order. The spice bag is believed to have originated as a staff meal at a Chinese takeaway in Dublin in the 2000s and has since become a viral staple.
“It’s meant to be like after you leave the pub, after you’ve had a few pints with your friends, that’s like the comfort food that kind of fills you up, so you don’t get hungover the next morning,” the group’s marketing manager, Ben Albrect, says.
The dish has made its way to U.S. cities like New York, where Eater has published a list of 18 spots to grab spice bags. But Kearney’s rendition, which debuted a few weeks ago, is, as far as we can tell, the first to hit the Dallas market.
The recipe and research
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’s 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.
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’s 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.
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.
How to eat a spice bag
- Lay the bag flat
- Tear open
- Using your hands (no utensils required), grab a piece of chicken, some vegetables and a fry
- Dip in curry, eat altogether
- Repeat
Where to find a spice bag
Crafty Irishman: downtown at 1800 Main St. and another in Victory Park at 2401 Victory Park Lane.
Patrick Kennedy’s: downtown at 1201 Main St.
The Playwright Irish Pub: The Arts District at 1722 Routh St.
Cannon’s Corner: in Oak Cliff at 1314 W. Davis St.
