Irish pub Harp and Fiddle prepares for increased business around St.Patrick's Day
With the Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday, many bars and restaurants in our area are sure to get huge crowds of people looking to celebrate.
It's the the time of year when business increases for an Irish pub like Harp and Fiddle in the Strip District.
"As a person who claims Irish nationality, I take a lot of pride in the holiday," said Dan Regan, a managing General Partner.
This is Regan's first St. Patrick's Day since buying the business in January.
"The preparation started in November" Regan said. "Booking the bands, and booking the tents, and all that stuff."
He knows how big of a deal it is in the city.
"We get in the neighborhood of a couple thousand people that come through the day," he said.
The work has started in order to welcome all the people that will come Saturday and Monday.
"Everything is cleared out of the inside pretty much," Regan said.
There are two stages, one inside and one outside.
"We'll be running both simultaneously," he said.
Outside, there are two tents and a big patio set up.
"The tent is gonna be packed."
Inside of the pub, some of the preparation has been going on for days.
"We started cooking food early in the week to get ready for this," Regan said. "We do about 300-400 pounds of Shepherd's Pie, a couple hundred pounds of lamb stew and then we'll sell about 1000 sandwiches probably over the weekend."
They'll also be selling a lot of Irish beer being that it's a holiday.
"People want Guinness when they come here," Regan said. "It's by far our number one seller on parade day and St. Patrick's Day."
Regan says he's increasing the staff by about 50 percent for this. The hours may be long, but he says it's all worth it.
"I'm looking forward to what we can do here, and seeing all the people come in and having a good time," Regan said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Fiserv buys out AIB Merchant Services
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Payments processing giant Fiserv has agreed to buy out the half of Dublin, Ireland-based AIB Merchant Services that it doesn't already own, a Fiserv news release said Friday. The move to purchase that 49.9% ownership stake is intended in part to increase the foothold for Fiserv's small business focused point-of-sale service Clover, in Europe, the release said. The transaction is "focused on driving continued growth in Ireland and the broader European market," the release said. AIB Merchant Services (AIBMS) was created in 2007 as part of a joint venture with the Irish financial services company AIB Group. Milwaukee-based Fiserv will now take full ownership of the unit. Analysts at the financial firm Robert W. Baird estimated the AIB joint venture's annual revenue at between $250 to $280 million, with profit of nearly $80 million, according to a Friday note to clients. AIB Merchant Services provides payment solutions and merchant acquiring services, the release said. The business has become one of the largest payments software providers in Ireland and one of the biggest e-commerce acquirers in Europe, the release asserted. AIB Group will continue to refer customers who require merchant acquiring services to Fiserv and AIBMS, according to the news release. "We are particularly excited for the opportunity to accelerate the local penetration and growth of Clover," Katia Karpova, head of the European region for Fiserv, said in the news release. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, according to the release. Recommended Reading Fiserv reaffirms Clover revenue goal Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Trump adds Ireland to trade ‘blacklist'
Donald Trump has added Ireland to the White House's official blacklist of countries for the nation's trade surplus with the US. Ireland joins fellow new entrant Switzerland in the US treasury's bad books, on a list that includes regular US targets including China, Japan, Germany, Vietnam and South Korea. Appearing on the watchlist puts Ireland, whose dominant industries are pharmaceuticals and technology, at the front of the queue of countries likely to attract Mr Trump's ire. If escalated, it can open the door to tariffs and other sanctions. The US president has previously singled out Ireland as a country whose trade surplus hurts the US economy. 'We do have a massive deficit with Ireland, because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away,' he told Micheál Martin, the Irish Taoiseach, in the Oval Office in March. He even considered putting a 200pc tariff on US pharmaceutical imports from Ireland. 'We don't want to do anything to hurt Ireland. We do want fairness,' he said. Ireland's goods exports to the US surged by 49pc in the first quarter of 2025 from the same period a year earlier, the country's statistics office reported this week, as exporters scrambled to get shipments off before any of Mr Trump's tariffs kicked in. The export surge fuelled a 9.7pc bounce in Ireland's GDP in the first quarter. Irish exports are under dire threat from Mr Trump's potential tariff of 50pc on goods imports from the EU. Dublin and other European capitals are now sweating on Brussels' negotiations with Washington to avoid this levy hitting the bloc in early July. On Friday, the German central bank warned that if the two sides did not strike a deal, Europe's biggest economy would remain mired in recession until 2027. German data issued on Friday showed a 1.4pc drop in factory output in April and a 10.3pc slump in German exports to the US from a month earlier, as pre-tariff, front-end loading of trans-Atlantic shipments came to a halt. The two sides' trade negotiators met in Paris this week. Maros Sefcovic, the EU trade commissioner, said afterwards that talks were 'advancing in the right direction at pace', while Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, declared himself 'pleased that negotiations are advancing quickly'. They have slightly more than four weeks until the expiry of a 90-day pause on Mr Trump's tariffs on July 9. The president has frequently expressed hostility towards the EU over its trade policies, but was peaceable towards a visiting Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, at a meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday. 'We'll end up hopefully with a trade deal,' he told reporters. 'I'm OK with the tariffs, or we make a deal with the trade.' The US treasury's report on Friday – a twice-yearly 'Monitoring List of major trading partners whose currency practices and macroeconomic policies merit close attention' – had some advice for both Germany and Ireland. Dublin was urged to focus on boosting activity in its domestic economy', to help Ireland 'address its over-reliance' on export-focused multinational companies. Berlin was told that Germany's unbalanced trade with the US was caused by German businesses and consumers failing to open their wallets and spend their savings. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Despite unlucky 'mistake' by lottery, two players still win $100K Mass Cash prizes
Two lottery players in Massachusetts won $100,000 playing 'Mass Cash' on Thursday night despite a delay in the daily game drawing. The 'Mass Cash' drawing, scheduled for 9 p.m. on Thursday, was postponed after several numbered balls fell out of the game machine, according to Massachusetts State Lottery officials. A door had been left open on the 'Mass Cash' machine's mixing chamber, and the balls fell out prior to the first number being drawn. This made the entire 9 p.m. drawing invalid, lottery officials said. The 'Mass Cash' drawing instead happened at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. The winning numbers for the June 5 drawing were 6, 15, 22, 28 and 30. Two winning tickets matched all five numbers drawn to win $100,000. They were sold at a Gulf gas station in Framingham and at a shop called One Stop Mart in West Springfield. 'Mass Cash' drawings usually happen at 9 p.m. every day, and tickets to play cost $1 each. Five numbers are drawn and if all five are matched on a ticket, the player wins $100,000. Four matched numbers are worth a $250 prize, and three matched numbers are worth a $10 prize. 'The Lottery is committed to ensuring the integrity of our games,' said Mark William Bracken, Executive Director of the Mass Lottery. ' ... while we strive for perfection, we're all human and mistakes can happen. We apologize to our players for the inconvenience and appreciated their patience as we worked diligently to resolve the situation,' Bracken said. Mass. State Lottery winner: $1M ticket sold at Springfield gas station Mass. lottery drawing postponed after numerous balls fell out of machine Mass. State Lottery winner: Mobil gas station sells $100,000 ticket Mass. State Lottery winner: Irish pub sells winning $120,000 ticket Read the original article on MassLive.
