St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
By Dawn Bradbury
Here’s your March 17 forecast: A flurry of Irish stew and boiled dinners, with Guinness heavily
flowing at the area’s Irish-themed pubs.
Yes, there also will be green beer and fish and chips, Irish music and the wearing of the green
… lots of it. This year could be the closest to normal St. Patrick’s Day in two years.
“It will be a really fun, festive atmosphere, with staff and customers, Irish music in the
background … it’s going to be just what we need,” said Megan Page, general manager at
Patrick’s Pub & Eatery in Gilford.
The COVID-19 pandemic exploded on the scene right around St. Patrick’s Day in 2020,
changing not only that holiday but daily life for the next two years. While cases are dropping, the pandemic is by no means over, but between vaccinations and. booster shots, this is the closest things have come to returning to normal.
Irish-themed pubs around the area will be rolling out live entertainment and Guinness will flow. Many local breweries are brewing up special beers for the holiday: Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Company in North Conway and Twin Barns Brewing Company in Meredith.
At Patrick’s, 18 Weirs Road in Gilford, owned by Jeff and Allan Beetle, the day will get started a little earlier than usual: The pub opens at noon instead of its usual 4 p.m. Dinner will be served until 8 p.m., while the bar will remain open a little later for revelers. Live entertainment starts at noon with The O'Brien Clan Trio, and Matt Langley takes the stage from 4-7 p.m.
“It’s very, very festive,” Page said. “Our staff really gets into it; they go all out with their outfits. We have some regulars who come in every St. Paddy’s, and they count down the days.” In addition to the music, there will of course be food: a traditional boiled dinner with housemade corned beef, bangers and mash featuring local Irish sausage from Claremont’s North Country Smokehouse, and soda bread made locally by Phyllis Shoemaker.
“We’ll also have our traditional Irish sticky toffee pudding,” Page said. “The recipe came directly from Ireland on a trip Allan and his wife, Jennifer, took.”
The regular menu includes some nontraditional Irish food as well — shepherd’s pie made with beef instead of lamb; a Reuben sandwich featuring the housemade corned beef and “Irish nachos,” as well as the popular Drunken Leprechaun fried chicken dish, served with housemade whiskey barbecue sauce.
Patrons won’t go thirsty: Representatives from Baileys will be on hand to promote the new Baileys Deliciously Light Irish cream. Patrick’s staff will pour green beer all day, along with an Irish red ale, Slainte, brewed by Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing in North Conway. There’s an Irish twist on an old-fashioned (made with Irish whiskey) and Irish coffee. And of course, there will be Guinness.
“We pride ourselves on pouring the perfect pint,” Page said, adding that their bartenders have
received training from Guinness on this very subject.
Page expects this year to be a far cry from March 2020, when the country shut down right before St. Patrick’s Day because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had already prepared everything for our boiled dinners and on our big day, we had quite the takeout crowd, it was awesome,” Page remembers. They were able to pivot immediately because they already had a thriving takeout business. Now, takeout has grown so much they have a dedicated takeout person daily, sometimes two.
Patrick’s, which opened in 1987, is named after the original owner's (Walter Kelleher) father from Macroom, County Cork, Ireland. Patrick's was purchased from Walter Kelleher in 1994 by Jeff and Allan Beetle.
No reservations will be taken; it will be first-come, first-served with a steady stream of customers expected. Prime time will be 5-6 p.m. as people are getting out of work, Page said.
In Wolfeboro, the celebration has already started at Morrisseys’ Porch & Pub, 286 S. Main
Street. The pub had “perfect pint training” from Guinness earlier this month so staff is ready to
pour for the crowds. The eatery kicked off “our favorite month” on Feb. 17, said owner Aaron
Morrissey, with Irish fare on Thursday nights, and Irish dancers scheduled that weekend.
In the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, Morrisseys’ hopes to offer a four-course Irish dinner and beer
tasting on March 16.
Featured food items for St. Patrick’s week will be house cured corned beef and cabbage,
homemade Irish bangers and mash, Guinness beef stew, beer battered fish and chips,
shepherd’s pie made with lamb, and the popular Pub Pie, made with beef, corn and mashed
potatoes. All Irish fare is served with soda muffins.
“Myself and the staff are really excited for festive March happenings,” Morrissey said. “We will
be super busy on the 17th and reservations for tables with a 1.5-hour limit will be strongly recommended. Guinness and Tullamore Dew will be furnishing some great give-a-ways throughout the week and we hope to have some nice, personalized Guinness pints and Morrisseys’ shirts available for purchase.”
Morrissey’s regular menu also carries an Irish spice bag (fried shrimp and chicken fingers with hot peppers, steak fries, onions and 10 spice blend), which the restaurant points out on a Facebook post pairs well with that perfectly poured pint of Guinness.
At May Kelly’s Cottage, 3002 White Mountain Highway in North Conway, the Irish theme is year-round. Owners Marie and Patsy McArdle are from County Louth in Ireland. They opened the family-friendly Irish pub offering authentic Irish country cooking in 2004, naming it in honor of Patsy’s grandmother, May Kelly.
The pub features a Seisún, Gaelic for “session,” every Sunday afternoon. Seisiún are informal gatherings of Irish traditional musicians that happen mostly in pubs, the restaurant’s website says.
The regular menu includes twists on traditional dishes like Irish nachos and Gaelic pizza (topped with mashed potatoes, bacon and scallions), as well as traditional dishes like shepherd’s pie made with lamb, beef stew, Gaelic chicken, Irish mixed grill of Irish bacon, Irish sausage, black and white pudding, house steak tips, tomato, baked beans and french fries, and corned beef and cabbage. Guinness is on tap, as are other Irish beers and May Kelly’s Irish Red Ale, brewed by neighboring Moat Mountain brewery.