4x the beer, 3x the food, marathon partying: How Five Points is bracing for St. Pat’s

The Five Points fountain has turned bright green, glass is being removed from nearby windows and special orders of Guinness and Irish Whiskey are arriving in Columbia.

It’s almost time for St. Pat’s in Five Points.

The four-decade old festival draws tens of thousands of people to Columbia each March. Tickets to this Saturday’s festival are available for purchase through the Five Points Association, but nearby stores get to add to the celebrations by making their own plans, too.

Business owners and employees have been bracing themselves for the busiest day of the year for months.

Some restaurants and bars have ordered four times the amount of alcohol as usual for this weekend and are gearing up to open their doors for 16 hours straight. Others are completely redoing their usual setup.

And some shops are looking forward to closing up completely and joining the masses that flood the streets decked out in green.

“It’s about finding your niche,” said Steve Cook, Five Points Association president and owner of Saluda’s fine dining restaurant.

Saluda’s is hosting the official VIP event for the festival and sold 200 tickets at $200 apiece prior to the event.

Employees remove the fine china and silver from the tables to create a more casual atmosphere and will have an open bar and buffet-style food that allows attendees to hide from the crowds, Cook said.

Bang Back Pinball Lounge is planning a similar getaway.

Tickets to that bar’s private event, which can be bought for $20 in advance or $30 on Saturday, will give customers access to food, drinks, all games and “the cleanest restrooms in Five Points,” according to public relations manager Rachael Talbot.

The full late-night menu will be available starting at 10 a.m., and other festival attendees can also buy food and drinks out the window and listen to an EDM band playing in the alleyway between Bang Back and Gibson’s gift shop.

Gibson’s will be closed for the day, just like the Blossom Shop and Southern Cypress Tattoo.

Because customers need to schedule their appointments in advance and be sober to get tattoos, the tattoo parlor business doesn’t jive with what the St. Pat’s in Five Points festival brings, store owner Stephanie Melora said.

Luckily, closing for one day won’t cause revenue to dip too much, and Melora is excited for the day.

“Five Points wouldn’t be what it is today without this festival,” Melora said. “Our community has done a lot of changing. We lost a lot of businesses throughout the pandemic, but that opens the door for new business owners and new entrepreneurs to come in, and this festival helps spotlight our little community.”

One business that opened last year and is hoping to take advantage of its new roots is Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint.

Jack Brown’s, which opened in February 2022, plans to sell a variety of beers out of its window, such as Carolina Brewing’s green Carolina Shamrock beer, Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea.

It will, of course, also serve its classic hamburgers and cheeseburgers.

“We’re known for our burgers, so we got to give the people what they want,” General Manager Maz Cotran II said.

The menu inside will be the same as usual, and Cotran expects to see a gameday-like atmosphere and a 30% to 50% increase in sales.

But it’s a big event to pull off.

Cotran has been preparing for St. Pat’s for more than a month, has quadrupled beer purchases and tripled food purchases and is working overtime to compensate for staffing shortages.

Employees across Five Points described feeling a mix of emotions as the calendar gets closer and closer to March 18. Though it’s usually the most profitable day of the year, it can also be the most stressful.

“It’s about mentally preparing and letting the staff know that it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” said Thomas Dugas, the general manager of The Cotton Gin.

This is the first year that Ryan Marszal, the general manager of Pawleys Front Porch, is working St. Pat’s in Five Points.

But he did attend the festival last year shortly after he moved to Columbia from New York. He remembers passing Pawleys Front Porch as he was walking to his car to leave.

“I looked over, and I saw the whole porch was filled with students, and I was like, ‘Oh, man. I dread to be anyone who works there,’” Marszal said. “A year later, here I am.”

That year, Pawleys made three times the amount of money that it makes on a typical Saturday.

The setup will be the same this year. The front porch will be cleared off and open, and a keg of green beer will be available in the parking lot.

“All things Irish,” including Irish Car Bombs and grown-up slushy Shamrock Shakes, will be inside, Marszal said.

All of the restaurant’s employees are expected to work what will likely be a 12- to 15-hour day, Marszal said. The same is true at Breaker’s Bar and Grill and Breaker’s Live.

“We get in at the crack of dawn,” according to manager Mike Lartman, who worked 22 straight hours last year.

But it’s worth it because Breaker’s expects to make a month’s worth of revenue this weekend, Lartman said.

Customers can listen to music inside Breakers that will alternate between DJs and live bands. There won’t be an entry fee.

For even more live music to supplement the Five Points Association’s four stages that will play concerts from noon until 7 p.m., festival attendees can also stop into Jake’s.

Four bands will play at Jake’s beginning around noon, according to John Sears, who owns Jake’s, The Cotton Gin and The Bird Dog.

The Cotton Gin, which has a nightclub atmosphere, will be open three times longer than usual and expects to make up to six times what a normal Saturday would bring in, according to Dugas.

“It’s a day that we look forward to, but I totally understand that for the retailers and boutiques and such, it’s not going to be as good of a day for them,” Sears said.

To help combat this, Group Therapy bar is partnering with its neighbor, Sitting Pretty Print shop, to sell custom St. Patrick’s Day Group Therapy shirts.

Group Therapy general manager Lauren Greenlee said St. Pat’s in Five Points helps the business year-round by bringing in new customers and revenue that compensates for slower summer months.

Cook expects the festival as a whole will bring at least $100,000 to the community. All proceeds go to charity or to the Five Points Association to use for beautification projects, he said.

“It’s a hidden economic driver that Columbia is lucky to have,” Cook said.

Even though it can bring traffic for residents, inconvenience for some businesses and stress for the employees who work through the thick of it, it’s a symbol of Columbia and of spring, according to Cotran.

“People, for so many years, have disregarded Columbia,” Cotran said. “St. Patrick’s Day is always such a great opportunity for us to show that we have great events, that we have great people, that we have great food, that we’re a really cool up-and-coming city.”