Tuesday was a day of favorites for Josh Stratton.
"I'm 100 percent Irish," he said between sips of his beer of choice - green Miller High Life.
Mother's Pub & Grill, an Irish pub on West University Avenue, was the only bar in town that had ordered the special beer, he said. The beer got its distinctive color at the brewery and flowed green from the tap.
Stratton, decked in a green baseball cap which read "Mother's drinking team," began his day in good Irish spirit by eating soda bread, a traditional Irish bread which is made with baking soda in place of yeast.
He said St. Patrick's Day is his favorite holiday, and he arrived at noon hungry for corned beef and cabbage.
It was an hour later before the $3 dish was ready, but he said it was worth the wait.
"I'm a happy camper," he said, while scarfing down potatoes, cabbage and beef.
Stratton goes to Mother's regularly, and praised the bar over others in Gainesville.
"If everything goes as planned, I should be right here for the next 12 hours," he said as the Irish band Flogging Molly played over the sound system.
As night fell, a line of about 25 people stretched out the door, and people stood elbow to elbow, dancing and toasting each other.
