Longtime McLean Pub to Close After 40 Years

Lori McKeever will be saying goodbye soon to her pub and restaurant, McKeever’s Pub, in McLean.

McKeever’s Pub first opened in 1974, as George’s Publick House. The pub is located at 6625 Old Dominion Drive.

“I worked for George Karydes, beginning in 1976, and purchased the business from him in 1984,” McKeever said Tuesday.

“Thanks to the support of the McLean community, we have been a popular gathering place for all ages and groups,” she noted, and hinted that the neighborhood eatery has attracted some of McLean’s high-profile residents: “Being so close to the international community, you never know who might stop in for a burger and a beverage.”

McKeever’s went non-smoking in 2006, when Lori and her husband Jeffrey Judge became grandparents. “This was long before Virginia made it a law,” McKeever said. “Both of these changes made us focus even more on the restaurant side of the business.”

When the pub closes in June, the husband-wife team will be opening a winery/cafe where Judge will continue chef duties. The new business will be located near Leesburg, on the family’s “u-pick it” blueberry farm.

If you haven’t been to McKeever’s lately, you still have time. St. Patrick’s Day will be celebrated at the pub on March 17. It will be the 40th and final St. Patrick’s Day for the pub.

“We will be open for business as usual until sometime in June,” McKeever said. Although it’s slated to close, “there is always the possibility that someone else will purchase the business as I did.”

“The pub has meant so much to many people,” she said. “I will take with me many friends and a great education! I wouldn’t change a thing.”