If you like sports, beer and corned beef, tomorrow just may be the best day of the year.
Tomorrow is both St. Patrick’s Day and the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness.
There will be more basketball and green beer this weekend, including the annual Shamrock Crawl bar crawl in Clarendon on Saturday, but below are a sampling of ten St. Paddy’s Day and March Madness-related events happening Thursday at bars and restaurants around Arlington.
- Celtic House (2500 Columbia Pike) — The festivities start at 9 a.m. with a traditional Irish breakfast and lasts all day with Irish music from Pat Garvey, Irish dancers and March Madness on the TVs.
- Ireland’s Four Courts (2051 Wilson Blvd) — As previously reported, Four Courts, which celebrated its 20th anniversary on Wednesday, will open at 9 a.m. for the usual St. Daddy’s festivities: live music all day and a heated tent in the back to help accommodate the crowds.
- Mad Rose Tavern (3100 Clarendon Blvd) — Mad Rose will be open from 4 p.m.-2 a.m. and will be showing NCAA basketball games, serving green beer and giving away green beads. DJs will start spinning at 7 p.m. and the happy hour will run until 8.
- A-Town Bar and Grill (4100 Fairfax Drive) — A-Town will be open at 11 a.m. for St. Patrick’s Day. NCAA games will be on TVs all around the establishment.
- Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd) — Iota will be opening at 5 p.m. for their St. Patrick’s Day party, with rock and blues band Westmain taking the stage at 8 p.m.
- O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub (3207 Washington Blvd) — O’Sullivan’s St. Paddy’s party will be kicking off bright and early at 8 a.m. with Irish dancers and a full live music lineup until 1:30 a.m.
- P. Brennan’s Irish Pub (2910 Columbia Pike) — P. Brennan’s will be opening at 10 a.m. with all-day music and Irish dance.
- Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub (2800 S. Randolph Street) — Shirlington’s airy Irish bar will open from 11 a.m.-2 a.m., with performances by Michael Darcy and the ShamrockRs.
- Don Tito (3165 Wilson Blvd) — The party at the Don begins at 11 a.m. for brunch. NCAA basketball games will be on and a live DJ will be performing.
- Copperwood Tavern (4021 Campbell Avenue) — Copperwood Tavern will be hosting a farm-to-table St. Patrick’s Day featuring special Irish menu items and gourmet craft cocktails.
Excluding Ri Ra, which has since closed, our list of Irish bars in Arlington should still be applicable for further St. Paddy’s research.
Update at 4 p.m. — Addition to the list above, Whitlow’s in Clarendon (2854 Wilson Blvd) will be holding a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The roof opened at 2 p.m., live Irish music started at 4, bagpipes will be played at 9 and a DJ will start spinning at 9:30.
Justin Funkhouser contributed to this report