Suburban restaurants in the Chicago area prepared Friday for upcoming St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities amid severe weather warnings.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (WLS) — There’s plenty of St. Patrick’s Day fun to be had, even for those who don’t make it into the city this weekend.
The celebrating is already underway at many bars and restaurants in the northwest suburbs.
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They brought the entire bar, along with some of the chandeliers and street signs from a church in Dublin, to Finn McCool’s in Schaumburg. They were aiming to build an authentic Irish pub, and there’s no better time to celebrate than St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
This is the 20th anniversary of Finn’s Fest.
“The green beer will be flowing, the Guinness will be flowing, and they will be slinging lost of Jameson cocktails,” said Mark Hoffman, Finn McCool’s partner.
There is an art to pouring a Guinness. It’s a two stage process: let it settle, then top it off.
They have a lot of practice at Peggy Kinnane’s Irish bar in Arlington Heights. Virtually every bit of material in the place, including the wood paneling, comes straight from Ireland. And this weekend will be crazy leading into St. Patrick’s Day on Monday.
“This is our biggest weekend of the year by far,” said Tim Grodek, Peggy Kinnane’s owner. “It’s our Super Bowl 100%.”
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In Elmhurst, they had their giant St. Patrick’s parade last weekend, and with the actual holiday on Monday, they get two full weekends of celebrations.
It’s a great time of year for Brendan Fitzharris with Fitz’s Pub, whose family came there from Ireland.
“We got some good festivities and a lot of corned beef and cabbage and a lot of Guinness,” Fitzharris said.
They are cooking up the sandwiches in the kitchen, and serving the Guinness. And everyone is Irish this weekend, including Elmhurst Mayor Scott Levin.
“Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” Levin said.
At Finn McCool’s, they are serving plenty of Irish specialties as well including traditional corned beef and cabbage, and even corned beef egg rolls.
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They’ve also got a tent set up to handle the overflow crowd, though with the high winds, many customers are likely to stay inside.
“Fortunately, Irish eyes are smiling down on us this weekend, and we’re gonna have one of the nicest St Patrick’s Day weekends in ten years.”
