St. Patrick's Day Amid Pandemic For Brookline Irish Pub

BROOKLINE, MA — Every year, Brookline's Irish pubs are packed shoulder to shoulder, and the bartenders serve Guinness nonstop —even at lunchtime— on St. Patrick's Day.

Not this year.

The doors opened at Grainne O'Malley's Tavern on Harvard Street at noon Wednesday, and within minutes people filed through. It's a hopeful sign for the Irish pub that was closed this time last year amid the coronavirus pandemic. But still, it's a shadow of past years.

A man in construction boots and a bright orange shirt sat at the bar, and save for the plexiglass barriers, he was alone. Some 10 stools were empty on either side of him.

Two of the five booths had diners, their conversations obscured by the lilting Irish folk music of Christy Moore playing overhead.

"Tradition brings us here," said Neil Gordon, who occupied the first booth with Tommy Vitolo and two pints of Guinness.

For years, the two friends have made it a practice of heading out for an afternoon pint each St. Paddy's Day. Two years ago, they were at O'Leary's. Last year, the coronavirus thwarted tradition. This year, with O'Leary's lost to the pandemic, they opted for O'Malley's — one of the few Irish pubs in town still standing, and the only one open for lunch on the holiday.

"It was always a good crowd, with more drinks than usual going around the lunch crowd," said Vitolo, as they reminisced.

"It's very quiet," said Vitolo of how this year compares with past years. "All of these restaurants are fighting like hell to hold on, the wait staff, the owners, they're just trying to hang on."

A few booths away, Benjamin Fisher, who has been a server and bartender here for the past two years, tells a customer that he's optimistic about the day and is encouraged to see so many people already starting to swing by at 12:30 p.m.

The staff will still be keeping a close eye on keeping people 6 feet from one another, and watching to make sure there are no lines, and juggling takeout with the folks who come to sit for a meal.

"It's not going to be a typical St. Patrick's Day," he granted. "Normally, it's wall to wall, and we're serving nonstop Guinness."

At this point, he said he expects the Wednesday night to be like a pandemic Friday night.

Since the pub reopened in July, regulars have made a point of frequenting the place, but some have just started showing up again.

"It's great to see people more comfortable with coming into the business," he said. "Every day, I hear people coming in saying they've gotten the second shot."

The warmer weather, the seating out back, will all help, too, he said.

The year Marcella Walsh and her partner opened O'Malley's in 2016, they had live music, and it was standing room only on the holiday then and every year after.

That was until last March, when she and her husband were busy finding ways to use up the food they had in their kitchen ahead of the closure, prepping chicken noodle soup and giving away shepherd's pie.

The closure sent her into a panic, she said. Thankfully, the business had been doing well up until then, she said — otherwise, she isn't sure they would have made it. But thanks to regular customers, neighborhood support, a tear-inducing surprise £1,000-pound check from her dad in Ireland and a PPP loan, they have survived. She's also about to get a state grant to tide them over for a bit longer, and calls it the light at the end of the tunnel.

"It’s been really lovely," she said, standing in the dining room clad in a Kelly green shirt, jeans and shamrock socks. "In the end, you think you’re just a restaurant, and you're not. I suppose you’re part of people’s lives, aren’t you?"

She looks out into the dining room that once could fit 100 and will now only fill to 30 people at its maximum and doesn't see sadness at what once was.

"I see hope," Walsh said, "and I see people supporting us. It’s brilliant."