GETTING YOUR IRISH UP

When it's tough to navigate through a standing-room-only crowd in the back tent of Palmer Place Restaurant & Bier Garten in downtown La Grange three days before St. Patrick's Day, you know the owners are having another good go at it.

Although the bands had stopped playing for the night when we arrived on opening night --March 14 -- the beer was still flowing and the outdoor crowd was estimated at about 200.

Not much different than previous years, but it's still hard to believe the Palmer Family: Mom Ruth and sons Steve and Phil have been going strong for the past 26 years. Heck, I wasn't even drinking age yet.

Although the Shannon Rovers Bagpipe Band kicked off the festivities this evening, we're predicting the real fun will happen the next two days.

The Shannon Rovers return for a repeat performance at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 16, to be followed a half hour later with the sounds of The Spirits featuring none other than Father Mike Shanahan, former associate pastor from La Grange's own St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. He and his band will be joined by Father John Hoffman and other clergy at the church -- who will be on hand all evening serving as food servers and bus runners, reports Steve Palmer.

"We're doing a (fund-raiser) thing with St. Francis Xavier in which 20 percent of our food sales will go toward the St. Vincent de Paul Society -- a Catholic service organization near and dear to our hearts because our the late mother of our News Editor, Jim Pluta, was orphaned at a young age when her parents died within three months of each other in the winter of '43 and lived in an orphanage in Fort Wayne, Indiana operated by the St. Vincent de Paul order.

With a motto that suggests "no act of charity is foreign to the Society, St. Vincent de Paul is a nonprofit organization that provides direct assistance to anyone suffering or in need. It offers a lifeline to those in want of food and clothing, rent assistance, medical aid, help with addiction or incarceration, employment and shelter.

Besides offering more than 35 beers on tap and a couple hundred foreign and domestic bottled beer, wine and mixed drinks and a complete menu fit for the whole family, the restaurant has a few specialties this time of year.

Try their signature corned beef and cabbage dinner with a pint of bottle of Irish beer and you can't go wrong. There's also a kid's menu and wonderful milk shakes. And yes, there's green beer.

"We serve a good pint of Guiness," says Steve, who estimates the well-known establishment sells some 1,000 pounds of corned beef on St. Patrick's Day alone.

Entertainment on Tuesday, March 17 includes The Plough Boys at noon and who could forget Those Funny Little People at 4 p.m., followed by David Scott Crawford on piano and a sing-along at 6 p.m. The 'world famous' Shannon Rovers return at 6:30 p.m. and the band South of 80 concludes the night with a concert that kicks off at 7:30 p.m.

There is no cover, prizes will be awarded, families are welcome all day long (the place stays open 'til midnight Monday and Tuesday) and both outdoor tents are heated.

If you're lucky, you might meet a new Irish lass or laddie to spend future St. Paddy's Days with and/or to take to this season's Cubs games with a night cap at Palmers on your way home.

Either way, you will be back (even if just to meet Jimmy at the bar, usually donning an Irish cap and sweater, spinning yarns about the lore of St. Patrick -- whom many do not know was born a Scot).