Drinking season is here! St. Patrick’s Day marks the beginning of spring, and as such, the drinking season. Nice weather is upon us, spring flings are set to bloom, and everyone decides to drink while enjoying the sun…and well after it goes down. This is a pivotal time of the year, so I did what any self respecting San Franciscan should do, and that’s celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by getting hammered!
San Francisco has a lot of Irish people. Though you won’t find any of them in or around North Beach mingling with the Italians, you will find them all over the city as evidenced by the many Irish pubs dotting every neighborhood.
I decided to celebrate at none other than restaurant & bar Irish Bank, just off Union Square. One of, if not the, most popular St. Patrick’s Day venues, people come to Irish Bank as early as 6am to enjoy good food, drink more than they should on a Tuesday, and enjoy live entertainment. Around 4pm, they brought out the DJ and people came from all over to line up down the block to party the night away. Luckily for me, the line moved pretty fast and I only waited in line for about 20 minutes, a milisecond in club time. As soon as I paid my $5 cover charge, I went straight to the bar and ordered up some Car Bombs, Jameson, and Guinness. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the night.
Quick Lesson: when ordering Car Bombs, do not call them “Irish Car Bombs” please. You don’t order a “Chinese Tsing Tao” or a “German Jager Bomb.” The pretentious Irish bartender had to correct my friend and I pretended not to know her. Until the drinks came across the bar, anyway.
The interior is made up of two separate rooms, each with their own bar. The place was packed and the wait at the bar sometimes stretched over 15 minutes. Easy fix: order 2-3 rounds every time. I’ve never eaten here, so I can’t vouch for the quality of their food, but if their selection of Irish whiskey is any testament to their quality of food, I would expect some genuine Irish eats here.
The real party was outside. Situated between two buildings in an alleyway, they blocked off the entire alley and the DJ was outside on a stage spinning hip hop and house. Hundreds of people drunk and dancing, it doesn’t get much better than that. Oh wait, it does! For some reason, drunken Irish people (and people who think they’re Irish that day – like myself) are the nicest and most social people around! Everyone is laughing and toasting with each other, as well as helping each other stand upright so as not to spill their Guinness. Half naked drunk women are even nicer.
It was a great night out on the town, and St. Patrick’s Day is definitely one of the major holidays of the drinking season, joining the ranks of Halloween, Bay to Breakers, my birthday, Sunday through Saturday, Halloween, and Octoberfest.
Til next year, cheers!
The Irish Bank
10 Mark Lane (off Bush St.)
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 788-7152
http://www.theirishbank.com
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Hey,
Thanks for such a great report. I am the DJ at the Irish Bank for St Patrick’s Day. It’d be great if you can swing by again and say hi,
Peace,
Pat