Happy St. Patty's Day!
Decatur Metro | March 17, 2009 | 9:57 pmSometimes things are just a little too serendipitous to NOT be considered creepy.
I was just going to check in, say sorry for the late St. Patrick’s Day wishes, and then note that The Grange is absolutely mobbed this evening.
But then I noticed that Andisheh sent me a photo! Gotta love him.
As of 10pm, the credit union parking lot was still full and on-street parking stretched back to St. Thomas More. You’d think the owners were Irish or something!
Maybe Darren will be good enough to give us an estimated head count tomorrow.
G’night all! (Cue drunken rendition of “The Parting Glass”. Fade black.)
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We went there with the kids at about 5pm. It was packed, with the back of the Grange full of families and kids. I had a meeting and then returned with a group of friends at about 8:30pm. It was packed, inside and out. When I left at 11:30, it was still packed. A friend left about 1:30, and she said it was still packed. It was a comfortable packed. You could walk around with only a few problems.
Darren, Colin, and Jen all said the crowd was unexpected. I was surprised myself. Granted, an Irish Pub should be slammed on St. Patrick’s. But this was the first St. Patrick’s for The Grange, and little or no advertisement had been done. My buddy and I kept saying, “where did all these people come from?” There were clearly people from all over Atlanta.
I want everyone to know that I think the staff did a wonderful job. This is my local. I am on a first name basis with pretty much everyone there. I got to talk to the staff some during the night and I could tell that they were absolutely exhausted. If I had to guess, I would say that they probably planned some shifts, but that everyone ended up having to work the entire day. While I could tell they were tired, they kept on working so hard.
I was so happy to see the crowds. I hope the Grange made a ton of money. I hope the Grange has continued success and that the crowds last night are a sign of continued support and patronage.
Hats off to the staff. I’m sure it was difficult. And with that many people, someone is bound to complain about something. Y’all did an awesome job with your first St. Patrick’s Day! I hope tips were great because y’all deserve it, especially for last night.
We also went last night to the Grange – but we sort of expected it would be packed since we had seen it mentioned in creative loafing as well as on one of the local CBS early morning shows (when the guy from Citysearch comes in to tell everyone what’s on tap for the week). We figured there would be people from all over Atlanta (not just Decatur). We were right!
It was packed. I was disappointed only on a few details. When we got there at around 6pm we were greeted by the sounds of a cover band that could be heard in any college campus bar on any night & had expected to hear traditional irish music since that was what was on the list we had seen. We were really looking fwd to some nice traditional music for a change.
We didn’t eat there, but joined friends who did & as expected with such a crowd….the food was slow getting to the table & the wrong sandwich came out. One of our party was told she could not request her burger well done b/c there just wasn’t enough time for that.
I’m not a beer or wine fan & I was told i couldn’t get a mixed drink at the ouside bar & also that they were not serving mixed drinks inside either because they were trying to scale back for the crowds. I would’ve really liked to have enjoyed a mixed drink (& would’ve paid & tipped nicely for it)…but, no such luck.
that being said, it was definitely a nice st pats event right here in Decatur. i’m glad it was a success!
MC wrote:
“Darren, Colin, and Jen all said the crowd was unexpected.”
[edited]
We LOVED the Angel. Great food and service. But the Grange is a total disappointment. Never had pub food so bad.
Sarah, which Angel were you going to? Their service was lacking at best and the food was never “great”.
When was the last time you tried Grange food? It was a bit inconsistent early on, but they’ve really stepped it up in the past few months IMO. (But note that I have a Grange bias, since its my neighborhood pub and all three owners are very community friendly – unlike the old Angel.)
Oh, and no insults. Give me a break.
We’ve had good meals at the Grange. The tables by the fire were great during the Thundersnow of 09! I like the turkey/brie/cranberry sandwich, personally. Every once in a while we get a slow server but generally things are working well for us at the Grange. We were thrilled to see so many places in Decatur packed to the gills last night–what a great evening.
The Grange is so much better than the Angel. In numerous ways. Sounds like last night was a success. Good for the Grange.
i was at the Grange last night as well. it was very pleasant, staff handled the swarm fine. food came out slow then came out fast (same with the beer) music wasn’t that great, but who cares? if you had time to complain, you weren’t in the spirit of the day. everyone i saw had smiles on their faces.
i had brunch there the morning of the snowstorm and it will always be a very pleasant memory. the Grange is a nice business to have in Decatur.
i also ate at Nectar yesterday for lunch and thought that too was a nice spot. I don’t think the prices were that out of line. The food was fresh and tasty, the service was exceptionally friendly, the buildout was done nicely and it was comfortable. again a great business to have in Decatur.
Maybe instead of allowing the city to help private developers annex additonal land for more ‘mixed use’ Decaturites should focus on the exisiting businesses that are worthwhile and add value (empirical or real) now. Or is this old news already, didn’t follow up on the city commission meeting.
We’ve had several good meals at Nectar as well! It’s on our rotation. . .
Another nice thing about Nectar, my daughter and her friends like to venture down there for “hanging out” purposes. Instead of the Cokes and 3 Musketeers that characterized my youth at 7-11, they’re getting fruit smoothies and chai teas.
A tad pricey but, hey, you get what you pay for. No complaints here.
We made it to the Grange last night. Were there Saturday as well. Last nights weather was a nice improvement from Saturday. I thought the Grange folks did a great job of celebrating St. Patricks Day considering it was their first one and a big one at that. Hope to celebrate many more there.
As an aside, rode through Oakhurst last night and Steinbeck’s was also packed. Good to see there’s plenty of Irish cheer to go around.
In true Dublin tradition, we did a St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl last night. Started out at Brick Store around 7:00 for St. Bernardus and pretzels. Crowd was just right. Lots of folks, but since it was so gorgeous outside, many folks happily spread out onto the walk out front. As we were leaving, session musicians were starting up in one of the window booths in front.
Then it was on to the Grange (with a couple shopping stops on the way) which was completely blitzed. This was our first time there. Nice public house atmosphere (and probably better when it’s not such a frat party). We tried our luck inside and amazingly found an unoccupied two top in the back. Ordered a couple Strongbows. Server told us it would take an hour to get food, but it actually only took 15 minutes. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the grub, even for pub fare, but this was certainly not the night to be judging and we will definitely be back to give it a proper try when they have the full menu and proper time to prepare stuff.
Stumbling back toward home, our final stop was Leon’s for Etienne Dupont cidre bouche and a shared apple cobbler. If I have to declare my allegiance, Leon’s is my place. True, it’s not a pub in the strictest sense, but the atmosphere, drink selection, and amazing food make me very happy. But no matter which place you call home, we are truly, truly spoiled in Decatur.