This St. Patrick’s Day is poised to be one of Kyle Schubert’s most successful events since he opened Pitch and Fiddle 10 years ago along La Riviera Drive.
That’s because the celebration lands on a Monday this year, which he said means big business for Irish pubs like his.
“In the Irish pub business, you always say, ‘When St. Patty’s Day falls on a Monday, it’s basically the Super Bowl of St. Patty’s Day,’ because you get essentially five good days of celebration out of it,” he said, expecting folks to turn out for the holiday Thursday through Monday. “Everyone’s Irish for five days, we like to say.”
Schubert said his two locations — one along La Riviera Drive and another in Fair Oaks — will both have bagpipers, a youth Irish dancing team, drink and food specials, an extended outside area with a beer garden and a full menu “close to the size of Cheesecake Factory’s.”
“We’re excited to see everybody,” he added, noting that the Fair Oaks location will be kid-friendly until 10 p.m. on Monday.
Schubert said this year’s celebration is important because “the economic climate for restaurants is falling apart.”
“We’ve seen restaurants closing around all the time,” he said. “Everything’s really expensive right now whether it’s products, spirits, wages. We want to provide a place where the prices are fair but the place is clean and the employees have great attitudes and attention to detail.”
If you’re looking for places to visit this year, consider visiting local Irish pubs, like Pitch and Fiddle, or local events occurring throughout the city this weekend that bolster the local economy.
Sacramento region St. Patrick’s Day events
Madelyn Bussola is the communications and outreach director for Sacramento’s Downtown Partnership. She acknowledged that businesses like Schubert’s have had a hard time since 2020.
“Anything that we can do that supports our downtown business community, especially as it relates to getting people to these different businesses and having everyone support their neighbors is always going to be very important,” she said.
Her district has three separate St. Patrick’s Day-related activities going on throughout the month that will support local businesses.
One of these is the annual Leprechaun Hunt at the Old Sacramento Waterfront, which started earlier this month and ends on March 18. Bussola explained that participants in the free event are given an activity book filled with riddles that lead them to leprechauns.
“Families love it, especially families with smaller children,” she said. “And it encourages everybody to experience the historic district.”
Bussola also highlighted the 27th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade that will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. this Saturday in Old Sacramento.
“It’s very fun because we have people who’ve experienced it across generations because it’s been going on for so long,” she said. “There are marchers with Irish and highland dancers, pipe and drum bands and cultural organizations.”
Lastly, Bussola highlighted the Taste of Ireland event going on all month, which includes over a dozen participating Old Sacramento Waterfront coffee shops, restaurants and bars that “offer a taste of Ireland with Irish-inspired food and drinks.”
“It’s an array of corned beef offerings, Guinness drinks and Sacramento’s best Irish coffee,” she added.
This is important, Bussola argued, because “downtowns were built to be for the people.”
“That’s always been important for Downtown Sacramento Partnership to make sure that everyone feels supported and welcome here,” she said. “And that includes having special events and activities that support individual communities as well because we do want everyone to feel like downtown is a place for them.”
Murphys ‘Irish Day’ festival
If you’re looking to brave the storm and get out of town this weekend, consider visiting the annual Irish Day festival in Murphys. Michelle Plotnik and Scott Klann with the Murphys Business Association joined Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez yesterday to give people a taste of what to expect from this little town about two hours away in Calaveras County.
Plotnik explained that the festival started roughly 35 years ago with a small “Wee Ones Parade” organized by local businesses.
“It was really just a very small, charming hometown little event,” she said.
Klann noted that it has now become “a giant small hometown event.”
“We generally expect, on good weather Irish Days, to have somewhere between 12,000 and 16,000 people in town,” he said. “What once started as a really small friendly parade of kids walking up and down Main Street is now about a 45 to 50-minute long parade.”
He said the parade is still “very small town and family-oriented” though with floats of “varying levels of complications.”
“It’s basically a super long, fun, simple family parade of a bunch of locals and visitors,” he said.
Plotnik recommended getting there early.
“Take a drive out to Ironstone Vineyards and park in their humongous parking lot and take our free shuttle into town and make sure that you get here early enough so that you’re in town by 10:30 a.m. to get a spot to watch the parade.” she said.
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