The Luck of the Irish, Locals Celebrate at Restaurants and Pubs Around St. Louis

 St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated Saturday by thousands far and wide throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Two city parades, Dogtown and Downtown, were sure to be fun, but Patch took the road less traveled and stopped at places a little removed from the very large crowds at the bigger celebrations.

Patch started in Ladue with the lunch crowd at Sportsman’s Park where some mighty fine chicken strips and potato skins were had and two adorable little girls sporting their green, Lydia Wiley and Molly Ryan Wiley were having lunch with their parents, Kate and Brent Wiley. Lydia and Molly Ryan were excited to ham it up for the camera and went into model mode with big smiles that could melt the coldest heart in less than a minute.

“We were going to go the parade downtown, but we were too late. We tried to go to the Dogtown parade, but it was too crowded. So we made the circle and ended up here. You have to get there an hour early and with a two year old it is hard to do that,” said Kate Wiley. “Two year olds don’t have that long of an attention span to wait,” she said.

Next, Patch went to Lester’s Sports Bar and Grill where the crowd was mild and low-key; patron’s eyes were glued to the big screen TV’s where the basketball tournament was playing.  Some were drinking Irish whiskey and Bud and Bud Light served in green metal bottles covered in shamrocks – all in celebration of the Irish, of course.

Diane Lammers was at Lester’s with four others, “We were at the Dogtown parade when the weather came in. We stopped here for some lunch, because we thought it would be less crowded than places in Dogtown. We will continue the day and maybe go to some Irish bars later,” said Lammers.

Next for Patch, an early evening stop, Kilkenny’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Clayton, where cold beer was flowing and patrons were also dual celebrating March Madness and St. Patty’s Day.  

The night ended for Patch at Helen Fitzgerald’s Irish Grill where the crowd was shoulder-to-shoulder and ready to throw down a party. The cover band, Extremely Pointless, played head-banging, grunge music. Between sets, spinning some current tunes was DJ Frizzy. Hundreds moved and grooved to the music.

“The band is really good,” said Ilene Sanders. Kim Yim agreed.

The night was young, only 11:00 p.m., when Patch headed out. The city however, celebrated St. Patty’s Day into the wee hours of the night.