Danielle Gould and her husband wanted to get a head start in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
That meant waiting outside Mother’s Pub and Grill at 7 a.m. Sunday.
“We’re just ready to get our drink on,” Gould, 42, said.
Once the gate opened, the couple walked in, sat at the bar and order their first drink of the day — a whiskey ginger.
By 9 a.m., about 20 more people were in the bar. But to owner Patrick Schaller, it was fewer people than he expected to come in to celebrate.
Last year, Mother’s saw nearly 50 people flood the bar about half an hour after it opened, Schaller said. He attributed the lower numbers to the holiday falling on a Sunday.
“People are still waking up slower,” he said. “Plus, it doesn’t help that it’s a nice day, too, so a lot of people go to the pool and come out later.”
As Schaller juggled drink and breakfast orders such as green eggs and ham, Michael Wallsh, a 24-year-old UF accounting second-year graduate student; Matt Friedman, a 24-year-old law student; and Richard B., a 23-year-old law student; started off their day with a four-year-old tradition: drinking Irish Car Bombs.
“We slowly pace ourselves, so we can drink all day and all night,” Wallsh said.
Meanwhile, at Durty Nelly’s Irish Pub, co-owner Shauna Dixon and her staff opened the bar at 10 a.m., six hours earlier than usual, for the holiday.
“It feels good seeing people celebrating the Irish heritage and having a good time,” she said.
Regardless of heritage, Wallsh has his own perspective on the holiday.
“Let’s be honest: It’s St. Patrick’s Day,” he said. “We’re all Irish.”
