EGG HARBOR CITY – Alex McKee is feeling the luck of the Irish lately, as he says he is living every Irishman’s dream.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to open up a pub,” said McKee, who owns McKees Irish Pub on St. Louis Avenue with his wife, Lorraine.

“It popped up, I grabbed it, and I ran with it. … I guess it’s just every Irishman’s dream to have a pub.”

The restaurant and pub, which he opened in 2006, is located in perhaps one of the unlikeliest places: in a residential neighborhood and a block away from St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church.

The 120-year-old building once served as the Inn of Egg Harbor and before that as a German hotel, McKee said.  

“The location is very unique, being right in front of a residential area,” his wife said.   

However, the owners, who live in Margate, said city residents welcomed the establishment open arms and that they have not had any disputes with their neighbors.

Lorraine McKee noted that one of the neighbors even went as far as baking them a cake.

“The people of Egg Harbor City have been so great to us,” she said.

True to an Irish pub, nearly everything inside is made of wood. Recent renovations are in keeping with the building’s age, and some of the antique features were preserved.

The wood paneling on the front porch came from the original Atlantic City High School, and they were able to keep the original 19th century ceiling, Alex McKee said. 

One can get a brief history lesson on Ireland just by examining the walls, which serve as a backdrop for everything from Irish editorial cartoons to an original blueprint of the Harlan and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built. 

Toward the back of the establishment, there is banquet room set aside for special occasions, and a room next to it houses a few coin-operated video arcade games.

“We tried to make ‘pubby’ and kid-friendly,” he said.

And in two months or so, patrons will be able to enjoy their food and drink outside when the beer garden is finished. McKee said that the beer garden, located out back, will be used mainly Saturday afternoons and evenings and Sunday afternoons.

The bar at McKees is stocked with a variety of tap and bottled beers and hard liquors. Tap beers include Harp, Smithwick’s and Guinness, and the pub also specializes in Irish coffee and other coffee drinks.

Of all the drinks served, McKee said the customer favorite would have to be the Weepipers, a drink consisting of Jameson’s Irish whiskey and Bailey’s Irish cream.

“It’s served on the rocks and it’s shaken, not stirred,” he said.

The menu features Irish dishes such as Shepard’s Pie and Guinness Beef Stew as well as chicken wings, which they will prepare buffalo-style, with barbecue sauce or any way the customer wants.

The menu also includes a variety of “pub grub munchies,” pub-style sandwiches, pizza, steamed clams and other items.

“We have a lot of everything,” McKee’s 18-year-old daughter, Niamh, said. “We have the best wings around.”