It was decreed by St. Patrick himself (I think), if you\u2019re going out on St. Paddy\u2019s Day you must party in an Irish pub.<\/p>\n
So every year I anticipate St. Patrick\u2019s Day with the same boorish groan: same green beer, same Irish pubs. Is it just me or do these bars never change? (I\u2019m sorry, someone had to say it!)<\/p>\n
Lo and behold: Change has come to the Twin Cities Irish bar scene. New pubs have opened. Old pubs have new looks. And a certain pub boss is busy doing something else. Follow me as I survey this changing landscape.<\/p>\n
The Twin Cities\u2019 oldest Irish bar, O\u2019Gara\u2019s (est. 1941), has something new for St. Paddy\u2019s Day partiers. The St. Paul pub recently nixed its longtime music venue, the Garage. Gone are live bands (except on Fridays) and in comes the Shanty.<\/p>\n
This pub within a pub is the place for craft beers, video games, flat-screen TVs and shuffleboard. Owner Dan O\u2019Gara said his new Irish party palace is more DJ-centric and is serving food for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you stay the same, you\u2019re going to fade away,\u201d said O\u2019Gara, who took over the family business in 2003. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the more important things I learned from my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s up with the name? When O\u2019Gara\u2019s father, Tim, built the Garage in 1985, he was going to call it the Shanty. But the construction guys kept calling it \u201cthe garage\u201d because the building was a former mechanics shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of cool to come full circle,\u201d O\u2019Gara said. \u201cIt felt like my dad was still a part of it, even though he\u2019s been gone for eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over at Patrick McGovern\u2019s, one of St. Paul\u2019s best patios just got better. Last week, it debuted a new retractable roof. And this is no rinky-dink roof, either.<\/p>\n
The stone patio is now fully enclosed \u2014 like a shimmering glass house erected with wide steel beams. Here\u2019s the cool part: The mechanized roof retracts like a mini football stadium. (Are you taking notes, Zygi?) Owner Pat Boemer thinks this expensive addition \u2014 built by a Wisconsin company called Cabrio \u2014 will add another six months to his outdoor business. The 20-foot-long heat lamps should keep things toasty, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s cold or rainy,\u201d he said. \u201cUnless it\u2019s below zero, there probably won\u2019t be a reason to shut the patio down.\u201d<\/p>\n
If first you don\u2019t succeed, build an Irish pub. That\u2019s the motto for Dermot Cowley\u2019s new bar in Blaine. He opened JJ Murphy\u2019s this week, just in time for St. Patrick\u2019s Day. The pub owner is best known as the Irishman behind O\u2019Donovan\u2019s in downtown Minneapolis (he also owns Jake O\u2019Connor\u2019s in Excelsior).<\/p>\n
Last summer, Cowley took over the old Time Out sports bar in Blaine, turning it into The Club (another sports bar). Business was slower than expected, so he closed the joint and has been busy remodeling it as JJ Murphy\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to bringing the Irish back to Blaine after 150 years,\u201d Cowley told me.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, the first settler in Blaine was an Irishman way back in the 1860s. \u201cIt was a guy named Phillip Laddy,\u201d Cowley said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t even a story I made up!\u201d<\/p>\n
To give JJ\u2019s that Old World feel, Cowley outfitted the interior with salvaged pub decor he brought back from Ireland. The pub has a copper bar, a new stage and snugs (gotta have snugs).<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the \u2018burbs, the former owner of McMahon\u2019s and Paddy Wagon\u2019s has opened a pub in White Bear Lake called Jameson\u2019s. In Falcon Heights, there\u2019s the Irish-friendly Stout\u2019s Pub, which has an array of St. Paddy\u2019s Day deals (including $6 flights of Guinness, Smithwick\u2019s and Harp).<\/p>\n
There can be no talk of change in the Irish bar scene without mentioning Kieran Folliard, who at this time last year was in charge of the Twin Cities\u2019 largest pub empire (the Local, Kieran\u2019s, Cooper and the Liffey).<\/p>\n
Today, he owns not a one, having left the bars behind for the Irish whiskey business. (Maybe you\u2019ve heard about his ubiquitous 2 Gingers?)<\/p>\n
Replacing Folliard as head honcho at the pubs was his close friend and longtime business partner, Peter Killen. In truth, Killen (also an Irishman) had been running the day-to-day operations for quite some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest difference, I\u2019d say, is I just miss him,\u201d Killen said. \u201cI had lunch with Kieran every day for 13 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
After becoming CEO, Killen spruced up the Liffey last summer with a colorful paint job, new booths and a better menu. He\u2019s expecting the St. Paul parade to pack the pub, which sits across from the Xcel Energy Center.<\/p>\n
Other than that, the four bars really do run like clockwork, Killen said. St. Paddy\u2019s Day will be no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been no revolt since Kieran left \u2014 it\u2019s been business as usual,\u201d he said with a snicker. \u201cI said to someone the other day: \u2018We should have kicked him out years ago!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow Horgen on Twitter: @tomhorgen<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/printarticle\/?id=142798195<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Article by: TOM HORGEN Star Tribune | March 16, 2012 \u2013 11:30 AM It was decreed by St. Patrick himself (I think), if you\u2019re going out on St. Paddy\u2019s Day you must party in an Irish pub. So every year I anticipate St. Patrick\u2019s Day with the same boorish groan: same green beer, same Irish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-news","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cabriostructures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}