15-03-2025
Downtown businesses prepare for St. Patrick's Day
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Youngstown bars and restaurants were gearing up Friday afternoon for St. Patrick's Day weekend, hoping the warm weather and a little luck will draw in a big crowd.
It's the first St. Paddy's with the city's Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area in use. Inside the Federal, employees were decked out in green and getting ready to open for the afternoon. The bar is decked out too — all for an Irish pop-up running until the 23rd.
'We have Irish specials, especially cocktails, food specials and a really fun environment. We're really excited for this weekend. Downtown Youngstown's back and better than ever,' said Sophia Martini.
It's the first St. Patrick's day where the city's DORA — designated outdoor refreshment area — is operational and businesses are looking forward to sharing the wealth as people can more freely move from bar to bar.
'People can come down here, go from bar to bar, restaurant to restaurant and participating restaurants have a special cup that you can bring in and go in and out of other businesses,' said Youngstown Events Coordinator Melanie Clarke-Panella.
Clarke-Panella says there will be public parking and extra security to make sure everyone can enjoy the weekend.
The city's newest bar and restaurant, The Varsity Club, will have an outdoor tent and live music starting at noon Saturday.
'It's our first time. We don't know what to expect but we're going to try to bring a big party downtown and see what we can do,' said John Rudy with the Varsity Club.
Over on the east end of the city, Penguin City has something for everyone. They're hosting St. Baldrick's Saturday morning, will have live music in the evening and host Irish dancers and traditional music on Monday.
'I love that we geared our St. Patrick's Day to try to fit something like Saturdays geared towards family, you know, Friday's more the college crowd. You know, Monday we do traditional Irish so it's just we really wanted something for everybody,' said Penguin City co-owner Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki.
Clarke-Panella hopes the DORA and public parking bring people together for a successful weekend in the city.
'It's a community in our downtown restaurant district, bar and restaurant district. We want to be able to go and do more than one thing when you're downtown Youngstown this season,' she said.
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