Hillsboro Pub Opening Soon

Terrell McSweeny, assisted by Blair Campbell, are opening a new restaurant in Hillsboro – “The Hillsboro Public House” or simply the Hillsboro Pub. The new restaurant will be located in the same building as the former Pretty Penny Cafe; however, the building has been renovated.

We interviewed McSweeny and Campbell prior to their open house at the pub, which was held on June 15^th. The Hillsboro Pub is scheduled to open fully on Thursday, June 22^nd, and be open every Thursday through Saturday from 11 am to 9 pm thereafter.

“I am Terrell McSweeny, and I live in Hillsboro with my kids, Warren and Madeline Burns, who are in Marlinton Middle and Pocahontas County High School,” said McSweeny. “I am the owner of the Hillsboro Pub, which is the old Moore’s Store, which we are delighted to be reopening. And I am with Blair Campbell -Blair you can say something too (laughter)”

“Yeah, I’m Blair Campbell, and I am working with Terrell to get the restaurant back open,” said Campbell.

Terrell, what are your plans for opening?

“I acquired it from Blair in November of 2020,” McSweeny replied. “I’ve been working on a renovation and restoration of it since then. So, we are delighted to be finally opening it back up. On Thursday the 15^th, we are going to have an open house from 1 to 6. And then, we are hoping to open for our regular hours on Thursday, the 22^nd, and we will be open from 11 to 9 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.”

Will it be similar to the other restaurants that have been in that building in the past?

“Well, it’s different and similar,” McSweeny said. “The Hillsboro Pub is located on U.S, 219 in what is known in Hillsboro as the Morris Store. The store was originally built in the turn of the last century. It was a general store, and operated as a general store until the 80’s, and then it was converted into a restaurant. Some folks might know it as the Rosewood; it operated as the Pretty Penny Café for a long time. And now it is going to be the Hillsboro Pub.”

“So, we are really doing a lot of similar things. It’s kind of bar and grill style food. We are delighted that we will be sourcing a lot of our meat and other products locally. (We) are going to be serving beef that comes from right here in the Little Levels, and hamburgers -casual American dining. We are also hoping to add some live events and have some fun things going on as well. So, we’re really excited about that. But it is really a locally owned, locally managed, locally sourced restaurant that we are delighted to welcome the community to.”

Will there be a bar?

“There is a bar.” McSweeny answered. “We are opening first without our liquor license, because we have applied for that, so at the moment it will be a ‘bring your own’ situation, but once we get the liquor license, we will be serving at the bar.” Right now, we are also offering ice cream, coffee drinks, smoothies, as well as fountain drinks. -family friendly.”

“But the idea of calling it the pub, or the public house, really comes from the role of pubs in England and Scotland and Ireland particularly, where they are community establishments where people can come in, and they can count on the food that they enjoy eating, good company and a welcoming atmosphere. We really wanted to bring that to the restaurant.”

Blair, is there anything that you would like to add?

“We are looking forward to opening on the 22^nd, Thursday through Saturday, 11am to 9 pm.”

Terrell, anything else?

“One of the things I am most excited about too, is everyone who is working on the pub right now, and will be serving in the front of the house, and in the back of the house, are all people that live in Hillsboro,” McSweeny said. “So, we really are delighted, Hillsboro has so much to offer. We will also be serving coffee that is locally roasted – Lori Doolittle’s coffee. So, that’s exciting. And we are excited to also welcome some of our local artists and other folks that are making wonderful products, providing them there as well. So, we’ll be adding different things. We have all the beautiful shelves from when it was a store, so it will really be featuring a lot of local work in a wonderful way.”

Thank you.

We showed up the open house on the 15^th, where samples of the various meals which will be served were provided. We took a peek at one of the future menus. Besides Salads, Wraps, Sandwiches, Burgers and deserts, four exotic dinners will be offered. They are:

1. The “Jamaican Me Crazy” -which is a jerk chicken. Rice and peas served with slaw and plantains
2. The “Pennychanga” – which is wrapped, deep fried pulled pork served with cheese sauce, pico and ramp guac.
3. The “Lobelia” -which is curried cauliflower with rice, peas, slaw and plantain, with chicken and/or salmon as available additions.
4. And the “Boro Balls” -which are cheese-stuffed meatballs with marinara and garlic bread.

Perhaps we will see you there one evening.