The store front of Bards is very inconspicuous. To the casual passerby, the place could be mistaken for a bookstore or coffee shop. You enter Bards up a small ramp and directly to your right is an area filled with about 10 tables that provide a great view of the sidewalk and street. At the top of the ramp, off to the right, is a bar that accommodates about 15 patrons. 

Up the left hand wall running the length of the place is a bench. In front of this bench are tables, which are spaced just the right distance from one another, not to appear too cramped. At the back end of the establishment is a fireplace;  oh this place is too good to be true! I can't wait for winter to arrive. 

I especially like the decor of the place. Sure they have the prerequisite Guinness mirror behind the bar and the wall behind the bar is filled with hard liquor bottles, about 3 shelves high.  The remaining walls of the Bards are painted in a nice off-white, cream color, with only the occasional picture or painting filling in the open spaces. Unlike other Irish themed bars in the city, the Bards uses the kitschy decorations sparingly. 

The tables in the Bards are nice thick butcher-block type with casual wooden chairs providing rest for your weary bones after a long hard day of working for "the man." 

I would be remise if I didn't mention the fact that the Bards' bar has 20 beers on tap. The tabletop of bar isn't really that big, so to see 20 taps (in groups of 4) sprouting out of the bar, makes you wonder how they managed to fit all of those tubes and pipes through the woodwork. Needless to say, at a fine establishment like this one, the bees on tap are not the mamby-pamby generic brews, we're talking Guinness, Bass, Harp, McCaffries and 16 others to whet your appetite. 

I strongly advise that you put Bards on your short list the next time you are pub crawling in the 20th and Walnut area, you will not be disappointed.