Area bars and beer wholesalers prepare for St. Patrick's Day in St. Joseph County

As the home city of the Fighting Irish, South Bend area residents take St. Patrick’s Day very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that across other northern Indiana counties, St. Joseph County drinks the others under the table, so to speak.

“There is no doubt that this is (St. Joseph County’s) holiday,” said Keith Carlson, district manager with Indiana Beverage. “We are definitely holding up our end.”

Indiana Beverage is a beer wholesaler that distributes more than 1,100 brands of beers to restaurants, bars, grocery stores, hotels and liquor stores throughout Northwest Indiana, according to its website. Sales representatives visit clients on a consistent basis, making sure the kegs are filled and there is enough to go around. For this particular holiday in this particular area, it’s go time.

Falling on Sunday this year, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations kick off on Friday and are expected to continue through the weekend. Downtown South Bend will hold its ticketed Paddy Party event from 5 to 11:30 p.m. Friday at Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium, a different location than previous years. There will also be a Pub Tour that night, where ticket holders can visit 20 downtown bars and restaurants, with a free Transpo shuttle to and from the participating pubs.

“This is the seventh biggest holiday of the year for us,” Carlson said. “(It’s) bigger than the Super Bowl and Halloween. It comes in about 4 percent (of sales) for the year and that is all happening this week.”

Irish beer staples Smithwick’s, Harp and Killian’s are all in demand, but the real stars in terms of what customers will be ordering this weekend are Guinness and green-dyed light beer.

Three 160-pound kegs of dyed Miller Lite marked by a single piece of green duct tape were rolled into Mulligan’s Bar and Grill, 1705 South Bend Ave., Tuesday morning, ready to be tapped by the Friday kickoff. Indiana Beverage sales consultant Michael Imus discusses logistics with bar manager Jessica Dodge, making sure she has enough supply to get her through the weekend. Green shamrock decorations hang from the ceiling and Guinness advertisements are placed at all table tops at the bar.

“It’s our biggest holiday,” Dodge said. “The owners said they want it to look obnoxious in here with all the decorations, but that is part of the fun.”

Dodge said she has been preparing the past three weeks. This, she said, is the bar’s time to shine.

O’Rourke’s Public House near the University of Notre Dame, 1044 E. Angela Blvd., boasts having the largest Irish whiskey selection in the state, but the business also will be stocking up on beer. For this week, the bar will be adding 10 kegs of Guinness, 10 kegs of the green-dyed Miller Lite and five other Irish beer varieties to its lineup, owner Kurt Janowsky said.

Downtown South Bend watering hole Corby’s Irish Pub also gets ready for the influx of sales, tripling its number of Guinness kegs and having green food coloring on hand in case customers want their mixed drinks to have a festive theme.

“(The green-dye) is pretty popular but I always make sure to ask before I do it,” bar manager Jason Zolman said. After 22 years of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at the bar, Zolman said it’s important to be properly staffed, be stacked with toiletries and, of course, have plenty of Irish beer and liquor.

“We’ve maybe run out of one or two things some years, but you don’t want to run out of the Irish stuff,” Zolman said. “We stay on top of the beer, especially the green beer. After the weekend, people don’t really want to see the green beer anymore so you have to sell it.”

For more information about downtown South Bend events and specials for the holiday, visit downtownsouthbend.com/paddy-party.

King Gyros in Mishawaka update

King Gyros located at 2419 Lincoln Way W. in Mishawaka has been closed more than a year for construction, and many readers question when the restaurant will reopen.

Mishawaka senior planner Derek Spier said in July of 2018 that he had spoken with owner Ari Lambridis that April and was told the project would be completed and the restaurant re-opened a couple months later. Those plans did not come to fruition as the building still sits in construction.

Spier said he briefly spoke with Lambridis about the project on Tuesday and said construction plans will restart in the “next couple months,” and that Lambridis mentioned a summer opening date.

Have you heard?

A new Jimmy John’s is coming to Granger. According to construction documents, the “freaky-fast” gourmet sandwich shop will be located at 12782 Indiana 23, near Adams Road. Franchise owners said they expect construction to begin within the next few weeks and finish in May with the shop opening soon afterward. … Dari Fair, 4012 Lincoln Way E., Mishawaka, has opened for the spring and summer season. Its hours are Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 8 p.m.