enlarge Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Bartender Mike Perrone mixes a drink at the Griffin Club, which opened in 1969 in South Portland.

THE GRIFFIN CLUB

WHERE: 60 Ocean St., South Portland; 799-9713 or www.eddiegriffins.com

HOURS: You can count on a place to hang. Open daily to the public, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.

DRINK SPECIALS: Solid daily beer specials: Sunday, $2 domestic drafts; Monday, $2.25 16-ounce Bud bottles; Tuesday, $3 16-ounce Newcastle drafts; Wednesday, $2.50 Beck’s bottles; Thursday, $2.50 Heineken bottles; Friday, $2.50 Amstel Light bottles; Saturday, $1.75 Busch drafts.

BEERS ON TAP: Sebago IPA, Gritty’s Halloween, Geary’s HAS, Newcastle, Guinness, Bud, Bud Lite, Miller Lite, Busch, Michelob Ultra

CLIENTELE: Largely locals and regulars; very nondescript on the outside, so you have to know what’s inside.

FOOD: Snack of some kind in the early evening. No menu.

GAMES/AMENITIES: Two pool tables, video poker, jukebox (massive Bose speakers!), karaoke Friday nights, various pinball and video games

PAYMENT: Cash only

Eddie Griffin, legendary Maine personality and philanthropist, opened the doors of the Griffin Club, his new cast-Ireland pub, in 1969.

Humbly, it has sat on a beautiful South Portland peninsula, right there on Ocean Street, for 40 years. It has played host to famous Boston ballplayers of the '70s and '80s, and plenty of Eddie's favorites -- the prizefighters of the day. Today, it stays afloat through a mutual labor of love between ownership and long-time patronage.

"The characters make the place," offered the bartender, also named Eddie. "People been coming here for 40 years like clockwork. Stop by on a Friday, when the sponsor girls come in, and they try to get people to drink, y'know, something different. It just isn't happening."

Glancing around, it's no wonder the locals don't budge. Laminated into the bar is a vintage 1960s colored wide-shot of the South Ireland coastline. The photo is just one piece of the paean. There are laminated leprechauns, bits from Yeats and Joyce, clovers, you name it; Eddie literally brought the idea to the table.

But the Griffin Club celebrates a lot more than just the ol' emerald glens. For one thing, emblems of Christmas, Halloween and St. Patrick's Day all hang about at once. Why not look forward or backward to all the holidays all the time?

I order a Newcastle, an ale of the dreaded Brits, but on sale today for $3 a pint.

As far as food, there's no menu, but there's always something around to snack on. Today, it's complimentary little bags of Doritos, as well as a plastic pumpkin pail full of mints and matches. Around the holidays last year, the Griffin Club had put out little bowls of a regular's homemade Chex mix. It was fantastic, but that's beside the point. Griffin's is the type of local fixture where the neighborhood residents bring in their famous Christmas Chex mix to be sampled by all.

There are two pool tables with plenty of room to gather around, as well as weekly karaoke on Friday nights. This is a hilarious image somehow. Such a close community, bound tight through hurricanes and snowstorms, deaths and births, for 40 years, have belly laughs at each other singing Kenny Rogers through Bud-goggles every week.

In one lonely-looking corner, bartender Eddie hesitantly shows me founder Eddie's carefully curated photo collection, wary that damage will come to it somehow: A giant, stoic Ted Williams, Eddie with his arm around Jim Rice, all autographed, all in pristine condition.

In the '70s, the Griffin Club was hip, a hot spot in all of Maine. Now, with the news of health care reform cranked up on the lone large TV and dozens of breast cancer posters lining the opposite wall, the pub serves a more time-honored human need. The bar is arranged in a rectangle, so everyone can see across and holler at everyone else. Trusting in fellowship, and cold Guinness, the Griffin Club is the meeting place, without pretense, where real-life community conversations happen.

Mike Olcott is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.