by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
You don’t have to be Irish – but it helps.
It helps if you attend the St. Patrick’s celebration and All-Heritage Parade on Saturday, March 19, at O’Brien’s Pub and Grill in Rice.
Visitors will have the chance to chow down on the Irish-inspired cabbage beef stew with roasted mozzarella and wet their whistles with Leprechaun Liquids, including pudding shots and green beer.
But if you aren’t Irish, you won’t have to mope. The All-Heritage Parade, with its 30 units, is meant to honor just about anyone from any ethnic background – from Slovenian to Polish to Ozark Hillbilly – so there’ll be fun for all.
Steven Fick is of German blood and hails from the North Country, way up by Fertile. The recent Rice resident is the daytime bartender and cook, but as an employee of O’Brien’s, he’s fast learning Irish ways.
Although his cooking specialties run to the Italian (lasagna and chicken alfredo), he and head-cook Denny Allardyce put their heads together and in a fit of Irish inspiration concocted the cabbage beef stew just for the March 19 bash.
O’Brien’s owners, Keith and Kristi O’Brien – Keith’s birthday is on St. Pat’s Day – started the St. Patrick’s Day Parade some years ago but decided to change the name to All-Heritage Parade, considering the fact the Rice area is not exactly crawling with Irish.
St. Patrick’s Day is actually March 17. The reason the celebration and parade will take place March 19 is so more people can take part and have fun, being the 19th falls on a Saturday.
On that day, O’Brien’s will open at 11 a.m. when the band Mystery Muffin starts to play. All day there will be a fish fry, along with the Irish stew. The parade line-up will begin at 2:30 p.m. with the parade set to start at 3 p.m. Later, a deejay will play music, including some Irish songs at 9 p.m., and there will be drawings for prizes right up to closing time.
O’Brien’s Pub is located at 10 E. Main St., Rice.