Irish pubs prepare to pour
St. Patrick’s Day may fall in March, but for many of Atlanta’s Irish pubs known for over-the-top parties, preparation begins in October.
That’s when places such as Buckhead’s Fado Irish Pub and Virginia-Highland’s Limerick Junction typically seek permits for their block parties that draw thousands to guzzle Guinness, wear green, dance to bagpipes and — oh, yeah — remember their real or debatable Irish roots.
“It is sort of the kickoff to spring,” said Limerick Junction’s owner, Gordon Kerr, an Irishman who moved to Atlanta more than two decades ago. “It’s the biggest day of the year for us. It sets the tone for the rest of the year.”
The secret to a successful St. Patty’s Day party is simple, he said: good staff, good product and good weather.
“But the weather I can’t control,” he said, joking.
Brian Russell, general manager of megapub Fado, heads into work at 4 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day to prepare for its 6 a.m. opening.
The bar draws from 4,000 to 7,000 people for the event and serves upward of 20,000 pints of beer and 5,000 platters of fish and chips.
But despite its scale and sardinelike crowds, don’t look for cheap and cheesy gimmicks, he said.
“We don’t do green beer or shamrocks on top of their Guinness,” said a joking Russell, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland. “But here you’ll have a bit of ‘craic’ — a bit of fun.”
David Kelly, owner of Rí Rá Irish Pub, which opened in Midtown last year, recalls his surprise at how vigorously Americans celebrate the traditionally somber Irish holiday.
His first American St. Patrick’s Day was 15 years ago in New York City.
“It’s very humbling in some ways as an Irish person to see how America embraces this holiday and celebrates Irishness,” he said. “I suppose the fact that Ireland is associated with letting your hair down isn’t a bad thing.”
In a departure from the high-spirited debauchery that many have come to know as St. Patrick’s Day, Johnnie MacCracken’s Celtic Pub in Marietta is using the traditionally religious holiday to remember a former Atlanta police officer who was killed in Afghanistan in December.
Gary Leake, the owner of MacCracken’s, said the bar will have a bagpipe player and flutist on hand to play traditional hymns as they recall 39-year-old CIA police Officer Scott Roberson.
Roberson was one of eight people — seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer — who died in a suicide bombing at a remote U.S. base near Khost, Afghanistan.
The bomber was identified as a 36-year-old doctor recruited by Jordanian intelligence to support U.S. efforts against al-Qaida.
“Our hope every year is to make people remember why they celebrate,” Leake said. “There won’t be a dry eye in the place, and that’s what it is all about.”
