A riverside pub with an emphasis on sports and good food also claims significant coffee house status, according to Chris Hayward, a managing partner in Paddy Rice’s.
An open air riverside pub and restaurant with a hotel above at the corner of Street 136, Paddy Rice’s has Irish coffee for $3.75, Bailey’s and coffee and Bailey’s with hot chocolate.
“A lot people don’t realize we have good coffee,” Hayward said. “A lot of expats and locals come here for meetings, and they find out we do good coffee and tea and hot chocolate.”
Unlike other coffee houses, Paddy Rice’s is open 24 hours a day, with illy coffee and French press style for $2 a pot.
“People can come in for a hot breakfast and get free coffee and tea, WiFi, and we have seven screens where people watch a lot of sports,” Hayward said.
“We have satellite feeds, cable TV, and we can find the majority of the sports our customers want to watch,” Hayward said. “We have the very popular premiership football, European soccer, and we have baseball, basketball, American football, rugby from all over the world, and even the minor sports like kayaking events, canoeing or sailing. Our customers can just buy drinks or a meal, and then they can ask to watch whatever sport they want.”
The American football Super bowl, for example, started at 6:30 am with breakfast and drinks specials, but this year came at the same time as the late King Norodom Sihanouk’s funeral.
“We respected King Sihanouk’s funeral and did a replay of the Super bowl at 7:30 pm,” Hayward said.
The Paddy Rice menu includes “very good pub food” according to Hayward, including fish & chips, a full Sunday roast for $9, as well as a selection of Khmer and Asian dishes.
“We do gourmet hamburgers; we make our own sausages here; we make our own bread here, homemade pies, minced beef and onion, chicken leek, and mushroom and vegetable pie, each for $4.”
Hayward also recommends the Cornish pasties for $3.50.
Paddy Rice’s employs 29 people on three shifts around the clock.
“We tend to be one of the busiest places on the riverfront and this is a very good spot,” Hayward said.
In addition to coffee, Paddy Rice’s offers pots of tea, Lipton yellow, earl gray and green tea, either hot or cold.
Hayward says local businessmen often have meetings at Paddy Rice’s
“I like to see local people coming here,” he said.
Every year, Paddy Rice’s helps Jimmy Campbell (see Coffee website story on page 7) with the “Homeless World Cup.”
The 11thHomeless World Cup will take place in Poznan, Poland from 10-18 August, 2013 and is designed to make teams of homeless people to energize and improve their own lives.
“We have a charity auct-ion every year, and our team from Paddy Rice will play at Beeline Arena,” Hayward said. “Everyone is welcome, and we are having a charity auction this year in June. Hotels don-ate, restaurants donate, beer suppliers donate and we donate Paddy Rice’s rooms and food. We do a proper auction. I try to help a good cause, and seeing as we are a sports bar, it is a good charity to promote,” he said.
