How McGonagle’s, Dubliner in Boston Prepare for St. Patrick’s Day
As the days draw closer to March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, two Boston pubs are preparing now for one of the busiest days of the year for the businesses. Food…
Photo: The Dubliner Pub/Facebook
As the days draw closer to March 17, St. Patrick's Day, two Boston pubs are preparing now for one of the busiest days of the year for the businesses.
Food & Wine spoke with chef-owner Aidan McGee of McGonagle's and the Dubliner about the monthlong prep work that requires coordinating deliveries of hundreds of pounds of fish, meat, and potatoes, along with trailers stacked with kegs of Guinness.
“McGee fields office catering requests of up to 100 people for Friday lunches around St. Patrick's Day, when workers want to celebrate with Irish stews, shepherd's pie, and spice bags,” wrote Erika Adams of Food & Wine. “The pubs don't usually sell corned beef and cabbage, but the chef adds it to the menu for the entire month of March. He also plans to host Irish government officials who visit Boston during the holiday and plots celebratory events for the week.”
Across the two pubs, the menu is dramatically scaled for the holiday. McGee estimated he'll use hundreds of pounds of staples, such as 800 pounds of potatoes, 400 pounds of diced beef for Irish stew, and 300 pounds of lamb mince for shepherd's pie.
Bar operations are likewise scaled with two dedicated Guinness bartenders and two trailers storing 250 kegs to ensure continuous service through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 13-15. He'll reorder for the following week.
“The Guinness will even get better with the volume,” McGee told Food & Wine. “That flow and that change — the kegs are not sitting there; they're fresh, and they're flying out.”
At this point, you shouldn't expect to get a reservation at either establishment. Reservations sold out at both restaurants by mid-February.
McGee said he looks forward to prepping for and delivering the highest-quality service on St. Patrick's Day each year at the restaurants. “It's a very unique thing for a nationality to have a very positive impact globally on one day out of the year,” McGee said. “It's very unique.”
