When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day, downtown Excelsior’s Bull & Wren takes its celebrating very seriously. From the Irish dancers to green beer and corned beef, “Paddy’s is about the party, and we want to be the place for that,” the restaurant says. Months of planning go into their annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and this year the party is spanning four full days. All that time brining corned beef, scheduling live music, and ordering the famous green beer, makes Bull & Wren’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration the place to celebrate all things Ireland.
While the Irish gastropub breaks from the traditional pub fare on their menu, the celebrations stay fervently traditional on St. Paddy’s. Starting Wednesday the 16th, dubbed “St. Practice Day,” Bull & Wren will kick off celebrations with live music from the pub’s ever-popular Irish Brigade featuring Mike Wallace, samplings of Red Lock’s Irish whiskey, and giveaways for Paddy’s Day.”
On the day of the holiday, Thursday, March 17th, the pub will have live music for a full eleven hours starting at noon. Entertainment will range from bagpipes to performances by the Eillis Irish Dance Academy, as well as feature several Irish bands including Inland Seas and St. George’s Folly. “It’s very much a long standing relationship,” says the staff.
Bull & Wren strives to be a pub for the neighborhood. They focus on building memories and lasting relationships with the community. “We hope to become an annual tradition for the people of Excelsior. St. Patrick’s Day is about coming together as a community and celebrating our heritage." The pub plans to put on four days of events, and entertainment to bring people together. “We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone!”
The St. Patrick’s Day menu is, of course, corned beef and cabbage, Guinness, and green beer. The chefs at Bull & Wren walk me through the process of preparing their corned beef: “We slow cook it for about eight to ten hours in a pickle juice and a house blend of pickling spices and different curing salts. We cook it for a really long time at a very low heat so it gets tender, where it falls apart yet holds shape.”
The very next day, Bull & Wren’s celebration continues with the “Post Paddy’s Party.” Friday the 18th the restaurant will see tastings and giveaways from the local brewery Utepils, as well as live music from Shane Martin starting at 8:00 P.M.
Finally, Bull & Wren opens early Saturday morning at 9:00 A.M. for its final day of St. Patrick’s celebrations. They’ll offer a “Kegs and Eggs” classic Irish breakfast. Their traditional Irish breakfast features rasher bacon, black and white pudding, grilled tomato, mushrooms, eggs, and house-made treacle bread. The chefs explain that rasher bacon is pork loin cured and sugared. “It’s not your average bacon.” And as to be expected, the only pair for such a breakfast is “Guinness or green beer,” they add.
Similar to on St. Patrick’s Day proper, Bull & Wren expects a lot of foot traffic on Saturday from both the Luck o’ the Lake 5k that ends in downtown Excelsior, as well as the tent party on Water Street. To accommodate, the pub’s patio along with their string of heaters will be open for festivities “regardless of the weather”. Besides the breakfast, Bull & Wren will host personalized Guinness glass etchings as well as even more live music from the Hudson Irish Dance Academy in the afternoon, and the band JJ and the Guys starting at 8:30 P.M.
So for your fill of Irish celebrations, from live music and Irish dancing to green beer and the best Irish breakfast around, Bull & Wren aims to “go all out” and looks forward to celebrating with you.