Love it or hate it.

The other songs (while reading all four comments on the page) available for your listening pleasure are Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" (insert real puking, not gagging, but actual puking), Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" and Live's "Lightning Crashes" (1994 called and they want their rock-ballad back).

No Irish songs? Before I even step in this place I hate it.

And I used to like it. Well, a little, but only when it was Chappie's and Sketchy Wednesday Karaoke with DJ Cougar was revived. It didn't last long before Chappie's was sold to some guy who renamed it DV8 and "fixed it up" to look like a Designer Imposter club.

There may have been another purchase before Bill Shackley, who was quite a character and seemingly beloved by the regulars, bought the bar and named it Shack's Pub.

Like I said before, I wasn't impressed with Shack's before walking in. I was expecting to find more reasons not to like it. Walking in, the place looked pretty much like it always has - the bar's on the left, and on the right are dining tables, a pool table, darts and a dance floor.

Now, when reviewing I usually don't talk to the owner right away. I like to soak in the atmosphere first. Turned out, Bill was at the bar and looking to disappear so I attacked him right away with questions after a brief introduction.

"What's your phone number?" I ask.

With a very stoic and unchanging poker face he said, "We don't take calls."

"What are your hours?"

"11:30 to 1 every day."

A woman nearby interrupts to profess her friendship with Bill, whom she referred to as "Shack."

"Do you have any drink specials?"

"No."

I started to wonder if he was taking me seriously considering there was a sign on the wall reading "$1 PBR pints for every football game." Then another woman approached Bill to say hello.

By the time I got to the questions about music, I spotted a twinkle of facetiousness in his eyes when he told me I wasn't allowed to use the F-word (although I hadn't yet) and that trouble makers would be kicked out. He must've decided I wasn't an asshole and could therefore be teased. I suddenly understood why everyone liked him so much.

I ordered my Jameson and headed to a table with my companions. Tuesday nights are buy-one-dinner-get-one-free, so we took the bait and ordered a couple plates of steak tips - one medium rare, one Pittsburgh rare.

My lovely companion asked, "Do you know what Pittsburgh rare is?"

Bill's reply was quick, "It's charred on the outside and rare inside. Believe it or not we're a real restaurant." And off he went, probably to make sure his cook had those grills fired up hot enough to melt iron.

It wasn't until the bartender, who at first couldn't be bothered with us, came over to apologize for the rowdy Tuesday crowd that I found out Shack's Pub has Trivia Mondays and Karaoke Wednesdays (not with DJ Cougar). She seemed to warm up to us and also must've decided we weren't assholes.

"What's worth mentioning about this place?" I asked her.

She mentioned something like "you wouldn't know it, but it has really good food like steak and lobster stew."

The food is no four-star restaurant, but it's decent and inexpensive. The menu includes dinners (Fish & Chips, Haddock, Chicken Parmesan, Rib-eye Steak, Sirloin Steak and Linguini with meatballs) ranging from $9.99-13.99, sandwiches $5-7 (Philly steak, Chicken Philly, Rueben, Grilled Chicken, Meatball, Sausage Sub and more), appetizers $2.99-12.99 (Buffalo shrimp or chicken tenders, fried mushrooms, Jalapeno poppers, onions rings, Irish nachos and more), soups $4.99 (chili, Italian wedding soup and a regular special) and salads $3.99-8.99 (Caeser with chicken or steak, Buffalo chicken, Cobb, garden and chef). The menu is a mix of Irish and Italian food, because Bill is both Irish and Italian.

Beers are pretty cheap. The cheapest is a pint of PBR is $1.50. Drafts include Miller Lite, PBR, Guinness, Shipyard Export and Prelude, Allagash White, Geary's, Bass and Stella - domestics are $2 and imports are $4-4.50. Bottled beers vary in price and include Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Coors Lite, MGD 64, Molsen Golden, Amstel Light, Sierra Nevada, Corona, Rolling Rock, Mich Light and Ultra, Bud, Bud Light, Bud Select and all those stupid Twisted Teas and Ciders.

By the looks of the Tuesday crowd, I'd bet a few of those girls ordered a few Twisted Teas. They were carrying on and freaking out about the craptastic songs they played on the jukebox. One of 'em might have been a Hoobastank song - all that pop-rock sounds the same to me. There was an unrecognizable and twangy country song played and, you can't get through a night without Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" played. Those girls got so drunk they attempted some sort of piggy-back stunt that resulted in the two of them on the floor and possibly a concussion.

While I was annoyed by their doltish antics, I decided the place did have some Irish in it - if you can get rowdy and fall down without getting kicked out, it's somewhere I like.