Calgary turns green for St Patrick’s Day parties
Posted Mar 17, 2016 7:30 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Time to put on your kilts and tartans and head to the pub.
No matter where someone is in the world, St. Patrick’s Day is one big party and Calgary is no exception.
Bars and pubs will be packed and it may take the luck of the Irish to find a seat. Most open at 10 a.m. for a traditional Irish breakfast and expect to be full early afternoon.
Meighen Anderson with Donegal Pub says they always expect to see some familiar faces.
“We have a seniors’ retirement home that comes in, there’s about 18 to 20 of them, and they come in and have some lunch and green beer,” she said. “We wear our traditional kilts; we’ve got lots of Guinness decorations, St. Paddy’s decorations, leprechauns and green beer, of course.”
Even though some bars refuse to taint their suds, green beer is something a lot of people look forward to and Heidi Drewett with Jamesons Irish Pubs says it’s not exactly a leprechaun’s secret how they do it.
“It’s basically green food dye, so any beer that’s light enough to be able to that in, we just ask the customers if they’d like green beer and just put a few drops in,” she explained.
But not everyone is on board with dying beer. Jeff Beddos with St. James Corner Restaurant & Irish Pub says they’re beer snobs and wouldn’t dream of it.
“People pay too much for beer as it is so we don’t like to add anything to ruin it,” he said. “We’re purists and we have the best Guinness in town.”
Guinness fans, fear not. Even though the beer is too dark to be turned green someone will usually draw a shamrock on top.
