Cape Girardeau, MO downtown businesses prep for St. Patty's Day Pub Crawl

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - Get ready for shamrocks, green beer, and a lot of celebrating on Saturday, March 17.

It's St. Patrick's Day and businesses in downtown Cape Girardeau are hoping to bring a pot of gold.

Ten bars with make up the St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl including The Library, The Bar, Minglewood, Pour House, Rude Dog, Ragsdales, Port Cape, Coin-Op Cantina, Blue Diamond, and Hotshots.

"Crazy, it's fun, hectic," Richard Deleon said, Chef de cuisine at Minglewood Brewery.

"It's one of the biggest nights of the year, if not the biggest," Derrick Vaughn said, Manager at Ragsdale's Pub & Lounge.

And the green beer will be flowing.

"Lots of beer sales, lots of shots, so people will be drinking pretty heavily," said Vaughn.

St. Patty's Day seems to be a holiday associated with drinking, and that will likely reflect in alcohol sales in downtown Cape Girardeau, Mo.

"Probably at least triple," Vaughn said. "We're expecting about 1,000 to 2,000 people to be downtown. So we've been getting ready for about a few weeks. We're going to make some jello-shots tonight and get us some green beer going."

And with the holiday falling on a Saturday, the National Retail Federation expects Americans to spend a record $5.9 billion this St. Patrick's Day, topping last year's record.

Deleon expects people to start celebrating early.

"I can see people coming left and right," Deleon said. "The patio is probably going to be full if it's going to be a nice day. I can just see it being absolutely crazy."

But if you plan to partake in the festivities, don't test your Irish luck behind the wheel because you'll likely get pinched.

"You know we'll tell people there's carGO, we'll tell them that there's taxi's, we'll be more than happy to call for them if they get too intoxicated," Deleon said.

Transportation network company carGO will have extra drivers out and about Saturday night.

Cape Girardeau Police will also be present. Sgt. Rick Schmidt said they will have with increased patrols downtown with officers on foot and in patrol cars.

Patrols will also be saturated around the area specifically looking for impaired drivers.

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