Revamped historic Hotel Donaldson and new Irish pub drawing visitors and diners to downtown Fargo

(Fargo, ND) -- The new Blarney Stone Pub and restaurant is now open on the ground floor of the historic Hotel Donaldson in Downtown Fargo. 

"The review that we're getting are really good. There were a few HoDo purists out there and I totally understand that, that were worried about change and what we were going to do and I think they have found that we have preserved quite a bit of what was there," said Jim Poolman, one of the investors in the property. 

Poolman says the pub opened last Thursday and says business has been strong. The new owners of the property also say they've re-vamped rooms at the hotel.

"We refinished them. In other words, we have all new bathrooms, carpet, furniture, mattresses, all of those types of things, all freshly painted. But we kept all of the art and we kept what made the Hotel Donaldson special, said Poolman.