At the end of the interview I go to pay for our drinks - a coffee for me and a pint of Guinness for him - and the woman behind the bar says sotto voce, "Who is it that he is again?" When I tell her that Glen Quinn played Becky's layabout husband in Roseanne, her face clears and she agrees that's who he is alright. It's hardly surprising that she didn't know him immediately - although his face is familiar after seven years on the highly popular sit-com, there is no reason why he should be sitting in an Irish bar. Apart from the fact that Quinn, who plays a typical American mid-west trailer trash guy in Roseanne, was born and reared in Ireland. Now it seems unlikely that he will remain anonymous - he has a key role in Angel, the much-hyped US TV spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the teen series with the ridiculous name and the huge ratings.
"I've a few weeks off before I start my new job - and where else would I come to have a pint? I still have dreams about pints of Guinness," he says appreciatively. Despite 10 years in Hollywood, Quinn's accent is still distinctively Irish even if there are a few LAisms.
His position in the Hollywood industry is curious - he auditioned for Roseanne using an American accent and his Irishness was never publicised, so most of the American public have no idea that he is Irish at all.
Yet, Quinn was raised in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, and attended Clonkeen College. "I was crap at school but I have to be careful what I say - my mum will be reading this." After the Leaving Cert, his mother took him and his two sisters to join the rest of the family in the Long Beach area of Los Angeles. "A few years later, we came back and grabbed my granny. Having my family there is great for me. It means I can go back for Sunday lunch and grab some scoff."
He says he fell into acting after a couple of years spent doing McJobs - in a power plant, as a waiter and so on. "People used to say to me `You're a bit of an eejit, you should give acting a shot' and my girlfriend at the time who was in a TV show told me to give it a whirl."
But his mother wasn't too keen on her son becoming an actor and it wasn't until he came home with the news that he was in a movie with John Travolta that she accepted his new career. That film, Shout, is not one many people will have seen but it featured Quinn's first on-screen snog - with Gwyneth Paltrow. "Oh, she's a great snog. I wish she was sitting right there and I'd smack one on right now," he grins.
His real break though came when he did a one-off guest appearance on Roseanne which turned into a seven-year run until the series ended in 1997. He misses it like a security blanket and is full of praise for John Goodman, whom he describes as a father figure.
And Roseanne Barr? He is more cautious: "You never bite the hand that feeds. She was nice enough - sure, she had her days but looking back you can see that she was under huge pressure. There were ugly days though."
Shortly before ending the series, three years ago, he opened a bar called Goldfingers in LA with an Irish friend, Mark Leddy. Decked out in gold and black like the plane in the James Bond film of that name, it also features Pussy Galore's Patio and is obviously a source of great pride to Quinn. "I might be in there only once a week but, like, the other week I got a call saying that Robert de Niro was in if I wanted to go down. And this bar isn't in the greatest area, it hasn't got that kind of Sunset chic. But the magazine on Virgin flights recommends only Goldfingers and the Viper Room, Johnny Depp's place, as cool bars to go to, so it's getting that kind of reputation."
As it turned out, he didn't spend too long sitting on bar stools. The producers of Angel sifted through about 3,000 actors before they heard Quinn read for the part of the guardian angel who advises Angel, the vampire from Buffy the Vampire Slayer played by David Boreanaz. Originally the character was American, but they liked both Quinn and his Irish accent so much they decided to make the character Irish, and Doyle was born.
"He's Angel's spiritual mentor but then he's half-dead himself. I guess he's a bit like Yoda with a cocktail," laughs Quinn, pleased with the line. He speaks glowingly of working with Boreanaz who has come with him to Ireland and whose wife is Irish.
The other plus point of Angel is that he gets the chance to use his natural accent: "I've been hiding it for so long that it's amazing to have some freedom. It was like putting on an old pair of shoes - it's bringing my soul back to life".
Quinn is clearly ambiguous about his Irishness. He claims it is a definite advantage to him as an actor and yet admits that he usually reads for auditions using an American accent. Although he says he is not bitter, he has attempted to play Irish in films several times only to be knocked out of the final two by an American actor with a higher profile - and a dodgy Irish accent.
"Irish films are where I want to be and something like this will hopefully be the vehicle that will launch me way out there. If it does I'll be raring right after it . . . I'd love to do a Northern picture or something like that. Ideally, I would follow in the steps of Day Lewis who is such a great actor." He is clearly looking forward to the impact of Angel - having avoided all publicity in the US while doing Roseanne he says he is "whoring" himself for this one. "Everyone knows me as Mark from Roseanne, well that mid-west kind of audience did, so when they see me as this Irish character they're going to be blown away." Until then he is enjoying his time in Ireland, hanging out with David, drinking in Temple Bar, re-visiting the friends on the road where he lived and "looking for an Irish wife. Irish girls just get it - they've got a great sense of humour. Girls in LA are kind of lost."