St. Patrick's Day 2013

Today I wanted to do something a little different. This upcoming Sunday, March, 17, is St. Paddy's Day, one of the most infamous beer-drinking days of the year. Let me tell you a secret, the Irish do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day the way we Americans do. It is known as a holy day over in the old country and a way to rake in money from touristy Americans. But on to the blog post, today I will be, as you can guess, writing a post about the best drinking places on St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.


Cork and Kerry
This bar is in the south side of Chicago with a wide variety of brews for your choosing. Why wouldn't you want to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at a bar named after the two biggest counties in Ireland? They also serve Irish pub food with a twist such as Irish egg rolls, corn beef, cabbage, and Irish cheddar.
CorkandKerryChicago.com give a list of their beers to get you in the spirit!
Some famous Irish beers served:

• Guinness
• Smithwicks
• Harp

Other beers they offer on tap include, Blue Moon, Crispin, Bass, Leinenkugels (seasonal), Sam Adams (seasonal), Bud Light, and home to Chicago - Goose Island!

 The Curragh
The Curragh opened their doors originally in Schamburg of June 1999, and with great success moved to Edison Park of Chicago in 2006. The Curragh is widely known for their annual St. Patrick's Day festival, bringing customers in from all over the area. For St. Patrick's Day the Curragh holds live music featuring bands that have the traditional Irish sound starting at noon until 1:30 am! They also will be serving green beer all day for just $2!
The Curragh serves all traditional Irish foods such as shepherd's pie, Guinness fish and chips, corned beef and cabbage, and bangers and mash.
Now for the beer, the Curragh serves many different kinds of traditional Irish beers as well as famous domestic American beers such as Bud light, Miller light, and Coors light.
Irish beers that the Curragh serves on tap are:

• Guinness
• Harp
• Smithwicks
• Murphys

A classic Irish drink that the Curragh will serve you is a Guinness & Black (one of my favorites), it is Guinness on draft with black current flavoring mixed in. It satisfies your sweet tooth and beer tooth.
Stop by the Curragh for traditional food and drink and a memorable (or not) St. Patrick's Day.


Timothy O'Toole's Pub
 For over twenty years, Timothy O'Toole's has been known as one of the best places to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Chicago. The celebration begins March 14 till the 17 with as much green beer and Irish food that you would like!

• March 14th kicks off the holiday, O'Toole's opens at 10 am and serves green beer all day and Irish specialties until 3 am. 
• March 15 enjoy more green beer but also, Joe the Leprechaun will be making appearances. 
• Saturday, March 16, enjoy $5 20oz Jumbo Green Beers, $6 Joe the Leprechaun, body paint, beads, and Chicago Bag Pipers on Saturday and Sunday. They are even open till 4 am! 
• Expect the best for Sunday, with all four days combined into one.

For the beer, O'Toole's has a menu full of Guinness specialty drinks called the Guinness Black List featuring, Fat Molly (Guinness and Fat Tire), Chicago Irish (Guinness and 312), and the classic Black and Tan (Guinness and Smithwicks).
O'Toole's serves Guinness, Harp, Smithwicks, tons of domestic beers on tap such as, Coors and Miller lite. They also serve Goose Island, Sam Adams, Two Brothers, and many many more.





Consider spending your St. Patrick's Day 2013 in Ireland with some green beer...and a little more classy beer. Be sure to see the river being dyed green if you get the chance! Let me know your plans for St. Patrick's Day how it went!