St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day marked my two year anniversary of working at Irish Times!  I had actually worked one or two shifts after I got hired in March but my first real shift was our favorite Irish holiday and now it's a yearly thing to have our entire staff working throughout the day and it was my third St. Patty's Day with everyone!

Kiss me...I'm Irish!

I actually prefer to work the early morning shift so that I can be done before all the rif raf comes in and the crazies aka drunks come out.  Los Angeles had a pretty big earthquake that morning around 6:30 am that shook my apartment and had me jump to the middle of my bed just in case the picture above my bed fell down.  Of course, it's always interesting to check out Facebook right after an earthquake with all the status updates and this one didn't disappoint, with people commenting that it was the Guinness kegs rolling off the truck, or that 'We Will Rebuild' with a photo of a plant that fell off a desk and 'Los Angeles Strong' just below that.  The earthquake was centered in Westwood and was a 4.7 and probably the biggest one I felt since moving to LA.

Needless to say, I couldn't get back to bed so I just got up and got ready for the day at Irish Times and started the shift at 9 am!  It was actually a little more quiet than normal, most likely because it was a Monday versus a weekend Holiday.  The kitchen always starts the day off with a traditional Irish breakfast of eggs, toast, ham, three different kinds of sausage including black pudding and tomatoes and then there's a choice of Fish & Chips, Beef Stew, and Corned Beef & Cabbage after breakfast is served.  It did get busy later in the afternoon and I had some friends filtering in and out throughout the day.  In fact, Marty who was only going to have one stayed for my shift and there were many Hell Fires to be had!  I believe that was the first and last time Aimee will ever take Hell Fires ;)  And St. Patrick's Day at Irish Times wouldn't be complete without live Irish music, shots of Jameson and a Bagpiper.  

Starting the day at Irish Times before the Hell Fires were served ;)

By the time I left at 5:30 pm the bar was packed and I was happy to be done with the shift and getting to relax and enjoy some basketball, good food, and a jalepeno cocktail at Freddy Smalls!  Another successful St. Patty's Day in the books...Diddly Doo!

St. Patrick's Day at Irish Times!

The week of St. Patrick's Day was crazy for me as I was at all my jobs multiple times during the week and keeping so busy!  Hopefully, everyone had been prepping for the St. Patrick's Day festivities that were going to be happening at Irish Times and throughout LA, because I heard there were big parties with wristbands to get in, covers at the Irish bars, and Green Beer just about everywhere!

 

Tattoos!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I went into work at Irish Times bright and early at 9 am and was working the early shift until 5 pm.  I was so glad to have that shift even though I was working on just a couple hours of sleep since I had Bartended at Bar Lubitsch the previous night until the wee hours of the morning.  Matty and I shared a traditional Irish Breakfast of eggs, toast, black and white pudding, ham, and all the fixings.  Since it was the early shift it was a little quieter and calmer than it would be 5 hours from now.  Last year I had to work from noon until close (which by the time we got out of the bar was 4 am) so the early shift was just fine with me.  Plus, it was a Saint's & Sinner's reunion with Ian, Matt, and Bulos all working throughout the day!  I didn't realize how many people really love to be drinking Guinness and Car Bombs but it's the norm for the Irish Holiday.

 

As the day went by it got busier and busier and more Bartenders and Barbacks showed up and at one point there were 8 or 9 of us behind the bar.  Thankfully, that didn't last long and I was able to finish up with my shift and head out with some Corned Beef & Cabbage and Fish & Chips before the madness really hit.  A woman stopped by and was giving Glitter Tattoos, there was Live Irish Music, even a Bagpiper at one point, plenty of Food, Guinness, and Jameson to go around.  We had a tent outside for the overflow where we had some beers on tap in addition to bottles of Bud Light and Heineken. 

Your Irish Bartenders...yes, I'm Irish :)

Irish Times is certainly one of the places to be on St. Patrick's Day and I'm glad that I've been able to spend the day working with some of my favorite people!  Now, if only we could finish up that Power Hour at some point...