St. Patrick’s Day is Braveheart Highland Pub’s busiest day of the year—even though the Hellertown restaurant serves up the food and culture of Scotland, not Ireland. Thank heaven you don’t have to be Irish in every sense of the word to take part in celebrating the wearin’-o’-the-green holiday. That Braveheart does triple its usual volume on that day is proof positive.
This Lehigh Valley outpost of Scottish heritage comes by its Celtic roots honestly. Owner Andy Lee’s parents moved to the United States while they were building their family: his two older brothers were born in Scotland, and Lee, a first-generation American with both US and British citizenship (Scotland is part of the United Kingdom), still visits cousins in his family’s homeland annually.
While Lee left a Scottish family behind, he’s built another family here. His daughter, Gabriella Haklar, works as a manager at Braveheart, and the restaurant’s staff has become like an extended family. Half of the employees have worked at the restaurant for more than a decade, says Erik Sheetz, general manager.
That family feel flows throughout Braveheart—a cross between a pub and a family restaurant, says Sheetz. Its pub sensibility translates to a restaurant that’s comfortable, accommodating and immediately welcoming. Often, conversations begun between strangers at the bar lead to friendships, Sheetz says…