Rare is the Irish-themed pub that won’t sport green beer and plates of corned beef and cabbage this St. Patrick’s Day.
Rarer still is one that’ll deliver those staples in the volumes anticipated by The Shannon Rose, the two-unit concept run by Applebee’s and Panera Bread franchisee Doherty Enterprises.
Drawing on past experiences, the two New Jersey restaurant-bars expect to go through 2,000 pounds of corned beef this Friday, all of it brined and cooked in-house. The brine is Guinness-based, of course.
“On St. Patrick’s Day, we set up a whole corned beef and cabbage station,” says Regan DeBenedetto, Shannon Rose's director of operations. “We have one person who does nothing but plate corned beef and cabbage orders all night.”
There’s the wild card this year of St. Patrick’s Day falling on a Friday during Lent, a day and seasonal stretch when many Catholics forgo meat. But DeBenedetto is confident the Pope will expressly exempt corned beef March 17 in recognition of the holiday.
And if not, there’s the option of fish and chips, perennially a best seller for Shannon Rose on its biggest sales day of the year.
Revelers will wash down items off a special Foods of Ireland menu with an estimated 60 kegs of Guinness, or roughly 6,430 pints.
And each restaurant will use gallons of green dye to meet the demand for green beer, though traditionalists might opt instead for the Irish whiskeys being showcased.
DeBenedetto is confident that Shannon Rose’s sales will hit an all-time high on March 17, and not because of easier comparisons with the St. Patrick’s Days of bygone years. Her projections hold that 2,000 guests will visit each Shannon Rose that day and night.
Because the Wearing of the Green tends to generate so much green of another sort for Shannon Rose, Doherty Enterprises decided this year to host a monthlong celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Since March 1, the pub operation has been hosting a series of focused promotions within the 31-day promotional run.
One weekend, for instance, the pubs hosted a daytime St. Patrick’s Day celebration specifically for children. Youngsters could celebrate with such specials as a Leprechaun Sparkler, a bright green specialty soft drink made with mixed-in glitter and garnished with a gummy rainbow. There was also ice cream with Lucky Charms mix-ins. Dancers were recruited to demonstrate Irish step dancing to the Irish music that played.
A portion of the proceeds were donated to St. Jude’s, the children’s hospital network.
During the year-long brainstorming for the month-long St. Patrick’s festivities, “we asked ourselves, ‘What communities within our clientele are we not including?’” says DeBenedetto. “On St. Patrick’s Day, there’s a lot of drinking, so it’s not always an ideal situation for families.” Hence the kids party on a Saturday morning.
On the very next day, the pubs featured a Senior’s Brunch for celebrants who might not relish the green-beer-and-silly-hats antics enjoyed by a younger crowd.
The emphasis for those silver-haired revelers was on value, with items like a $5 Irish Coffee or a Gallic Breakfast Sandwich. The traditional Irish breakfast that’s a brunchtime signature for the pubs was offered at a special price. Guests had an option of a fixed-price meal or ordering a la carte.
The event was heavily marketed to the targeted audience. “We went out to community centers and housing areas for seniors,” DeBenedetto says.
Doherty Enterprises views the St. Patrick’s season as Shannon Rose’s key marketing opportunity as well as its sales high point. DeBenedetto estimates that she was on the phone at least three times a day with her marketing counterpart during the weeks leading up to the month-long promotion.
The collaboration resulted in a late-winter upswing in business, like the 200 reservations that each Shannon Rose fielded for brunch on an otherwise routine Saturday.
The afterglow of the monthlong celebration should last for some time, says DeBenedetto, a 25-year veteran of Doherty Enterprises.
“There’s definitely a tailwind to this whole thing,” she says. “If there’s a marketing message we want to get out there, it’d better be ready for March. If we want to see a crowd on Mother’s Day, if we want to see a crowd on Father’s Day, this is the time to spread the message.”
Hosting a month’s worth of activities tied to St. Patrick’s Day has its challenges, DeBenedetto acknowledges.
“Every year, on the Monday following the holiday, we have a meeting,” she says. “We sort of circle the wagons. We take really comprehensive notes and talk about what we’d like to do the next year.
“The real high-gear planning starts Jan. 1.”
Because of all the activity, “it’s all hands-on deck,” she adds. DeBenedetto estimates that the pubs need 50% more staff on March 17 to handle all the volume. They meet that spike in staffing by inviting employees of Doherty Enterprises’ other restaurants to pick up shifts at the Irish haunts.
She suggests that it’s an easy sell because employees are included in the celebration. In late February, the pubs hosted a decorating day to give the establishments a St. Patrick’s Day feel. Management turned it into a party, though one with a purpose, for staffers who wanted to participate.
All in all, says DeBenedetto, the St. Patrick’s Day festivities require a lot of work. But “you’ve got to stop and have a little fun every once in awhile,” she says.