TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson is getting ready for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. It’s the biggest day of the year for bars all around Tucson.
“St. Patrick's Day is a big bar night for any bar that you go to, but especially for an Irish pub, this is our Christmas,” said Matthew Knaggs, bartender at Murphy's Public House.
But in 2020, St. Patrick's also marks the first day Tucson bars had to shut down because of COVID. Murphy's Public House off Broadway remained closed until this year.
“We used the closure in a positive way, we did a full remodel on the place,” Knaggs said.
This year’s celebration is a major comeback for the Irish pub. It’ll have the staples: corn beef, cabbage, Guinness beer, and live Irish music. But there wont be bouncy houses like previous years.
"This is kind of our relaunch as a business," Knaggs said. "We’re just kind of welcoming everyone back and focusing more on our establishment itself. Not all the bells and whistles, but helping people fall in love with Murphy’s.”
Canyon’s Crown just a few miles north of Murphy’s is also scaling down on Thursday. General Manager Erin Stockellburg says they learned their lesson from the year before.
“Last year was probably the hardest one we’ve had thus far, just in that we had such a huge increase in take-out business," Stockellburg said. "Over a quarter of our sales last year were to-go food.”
This year, Canyon’s Crown is dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic with shortages in staffing and supplies. To keep up with the high demand, the pub is limiting take-out orders to corn beef and cabbage. The in-house options will also look a little different.
“We’ll have a lot of our pub fair, of course we’ll have corn beef and cabbage coming out of our ears," Stockellburg said. "We’re also going to be doing shepherds pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash.”
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