MINOT, N.D. (KXNET) — The most wonderful time of year usually involves jingle bells and a man in a red suit delivering presents. But that’s not the case for local bars.
For them, the most wonderful time of the year starts with green beer, college basketball, and shamrocks.
“The stars align, it’s the most beautiful time of the year,” said Amanda Dalen, the general manager at Sports on Tap.
Local bars prep weeks in advance for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations creating festive drinks, ordering extra beer, and scheduling more staff for the busy weekend.
As soon as pub doors open, you can expect a sea of green to take over.
“Everybody comes dressed up, they all want green beer, they want green drinks, special shots. It’s just fun to see everyone just all festive. Everyone’s being Irish for the night,” explained Dalen.
St. Patrick’s Day is the third luckiest holiday for bar staff.
They say they love working the holiday because of the atmosphere and of course, the extra gold coins in tips.
“We get so busy that there’s people coming in just waiting to sit at your dirty table. We have to get our dirty tables cleaned off so that they can sit down It’s really a rush. Once lunch hits we’re going to get busy it’s going to be so busy people are going to struggle to get tables,” said Rondi Bertsch, a server at Ebeneezer’s.
St. Patrick’s Day increases beer sales by 175%, nationwide.
If you plan on participating in the festivities, it’s important to have a designated driver or a safe ride home.
75% of St. Patrick’s Day drinking and driving fatalities involved people over twice the legal limit.
That’s why law enforcement is on high alert during the celebrations.
“We have extra patrols out and about during peak hours during that time. Our goal, of course, is just to keep the safe community,” explained Aaron Moss, the community outreach officer for the Minot Police Department. “Ideally when we run saturation patrol and extra patrols for this event the numbers we’d like to see is zero. Unfortunately historically that’s not proven to be the case all the time.”
It’s all hands on deck for MPD, as they are hoping for a fun and safe St. Paddy’s Day for everyone.
So, when the emerald dust settles and there is no more green beer to drink, don’t test your luck of the Irish getting behind the wheel.
For $10 off Lyft rides home, enter the code VZPATS23. Or you can call 855-2-TOW-2-GO for a safe ride home from AAA.
