Halifax Pubs Brace for St. Patrick’s Day
HALIFAX – The city is gearing up for one of the biggest drinking events of the year. Boasting one of Canada’s highest populations of Irish descendants, industry professionals know that St. Patrick’s Day can take over Halifax in a massive way.
Bars across the city will be packed from sunrise to the wee hours of Saturday morning. Niall McGuinness is the general manager for Durty Nelly’s, one of Halifax’s premier Irish watering holes. He’s been preparing for over two months to accommodate the crowds that are coming his way tomorrow.
“It’s basically just like a Saturday night for the entire day,” said McGuinness. “We’ve been stockpiling Guinness kegs for probably about a month now.”
Getting your ducks in a row
Beverley Ware, a representative the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, said that they notice a bump in sales in the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Partly due to people wanting to have their own stock of drinks for the occasion, as well as restaurants and bars preparing for increased demand of Irish products.
McGuinness said that he has over 100 kegs sitting in the pub’s basement in preparation of tomorrow’s festivities. He expects to sell well over 1000 pints of Guinness alone, and 200-300 orders of Irish coffee.
Having such a busy day in the middle of a slower season for the hospitality industry is a welcome boon for business. Gordon Stewart, the executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia, said that it’s a good bump in profits for restaurants. Although he noted that there’s still a bigger holiday to come.
“It’s not as good as Mother’s Day, but still good,” said Stewart.
Back in the swing of things
This year marks the first year that pubs will be able to operate without restrictions on St. Patrick’s Day since the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, Durty Nelly’s actually had to shut down on the holiday. McGuinness has been preparing his staff who may not have experienced the increased traffic before.
“Specifically, this one where it’s been so long, since people have got to properly celebrate it, it’s just making sure we’re abiding by all the provincial rules, regulations, keeping all of our ducks in a row,” said McGuinness.
Staff are told to be extra vigilant about customers being overserved, bouncers are hyper aware of rowdiness in lines and keeping the capacity within limits. McGuinness says that it can be organized chaos, but that it’s nothing his staff can’t handle.
Despite the craziness that the day may bring, McGuinness said it’s still a fun day to be working.
“It’s a fun day for the staff. They get to dress up and wear what they want. We’ll have one of our doormen dressed up as St. Patrick tomorrow, so that’s a fun one,” said McGuinness. “It’s just kind of good crackin’ here. It’s a good time everyone’s enjoying themselves.”