Restaurants See Extra Green on St. Patrick’s Day
Technically speaking, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t an official holiday. But for the folks at Malone’s Bar & Grill in Maple Grove, this so-called “drinking holiday” has become one of the busiest weekends of the year.
“It’s a good holiday where people like to come in big groups,” said Nastar Motlagh, the general manager. “So we always expect to be fully-staffed. We know we’ve got a ton of servers on, bartenders, ’cause everyone’s just kinda here to hang out.”
That includes folks like Rod Saline, who got all dressed up to celebrate his Irish heritage.
“It’s important to me because it was important to my mother, and I’m a 16th Irish,” said Saline.
It’s a day when everyone claims to be at least a little Irish, and Malone’s rolls out the proverbial green carpet in the form of decorations and special menu items.
“On St. Patrick’s Day, we always run corned beef and cabbage,” Motlagh said. “My chef came in at 4 a.m. today to put four loins in the oven, just to make sure they’re perfect.”
The corned beef and cabbage plate is only sold on St. Patrick’s Day at Malone’s Bar & Grill in Maple Grove.
All told, Malone’s expect to sell about 120 corned beef and cabbage plates. After all, it’s tradition.
Although not everyone agrees with that logic.
“I probably am not ordering the corned beef and cabbage, I’ll probably have a ham and cheese though,” said Saline.
For other folks, beverages colored in green are more their speed. But as far as Malone’s is concerned, the important thing is that this non-holiday brings people together.
“St. Patrick’s Day falling on a Monday is actually pretty good for us,” said Motlagh. “Monday is the slower day of the week, but it’s gonna be like a Friday today.”
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