St. Patrick’s Day looked a little different this year. It has taken me a full week now to try to wrap my mind around what is happening to our hospitality industry. And I keep coming back to – St. Patrick’s Day looked a little different this year.
For me, at O’Neal’s Tavern, St. Paddy’s is not just a big day, it is our BIGGEST day of the year. We rely on it to cushion the slower summer months. We spend weeks preparing for it. Hours decorating, making jello shots, promotional material, scheduling staff/bands/food trucks, and so much more. It’s a day for former employees to rejoin the ranks for an all-hands-on-deck, 20 hour work day.
St. Patrick’s Day means, and for the past 10 years has meant – an adrenaline (and Tullamore D.E.W.) fueled day. A sea of customers in head-to-toe green. Live music pulsing through the air. Green beer, Guinness, and jello shots everywhere you turn. Wave after wave of people who came out to have a fantastic time with friends, new and old.
This year, it looked a little different. This year, on Sunday March 15, the governor of Ohio issued a mandate that all Bars and Restaurants would be closed for in house consumption, but could remain open for carry out sales.
Monday March 16. The owner (my Partner-in-Crime) and I made difficult calls to the bands, finalizing the cancelations. We had even more difficult calls to staff, who over the years have become more like family, telling them that until further notice we are closed for business and encouraged them to apply for whatever relief they could. Until further notice, and possibly forever, our family has been torn apart.
This year, on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day 2020. I got dressed in my “Irish Me Was A Little Bit Taller” green shirt, and went in to O’Neal’s. We had a slow, but steady stream of regulars who came in to buy St. Patrick’s Day Bud Light, and to offer well wishes and condolences. But mostly, I stood and stared at the decorations. The hundreds of jello shots. The bar, set up for the highest of high-volume days. And fought back the sadness, anger, frustration, and desperation I felt. Throughout the day I began gathering my personal bar tools- shakers, spoons, strainers, fancy competition glassware, my specialty bitters and teas and spices, my computers and notebooks. I have to assume that I won’t be coming back- at least, not like it was before. As a tipped employee, this is one of my most profitable days; instead of counting my St. Paddy’s Tips over a Waffle House All-Star breakfast (with grits not hash browns), I received an email with my Unemployment Claim Confirmation Number.
In the long term, I don’t know what this closure means for O’Neal’s, or the Hospitality Industry as whole. I do know that so many of us are finding ourselves in the midst of the very scary unknown. I do know that it has been heartwarming to see individuals to Local and even International Brands come forward to try to find a way to support all of my service industry brothers and sisters. I do know that we will, somehow, come through all of this.
More than anything, I know that next year St. Patrick’s Day is going to look a little bit different.
