Fire in the Mission on St. Patrick's Day

On Monday morning, the Morning Bag ran an article extolling the virtues of The Dovre, an old-time Irish bar where they always present a rollicking St. Patrick's Day celebration. Plotnik remembers The Dovre as belonging on the corner of Skank and Skank, but that doesn't bother anyone on St. Patrick's Day.

Then, that afternoon a fire broke out next door to The Dovre and they had to evacuate the place. The Plotniks watched the smoke and flame from their deck. There probably weren't all that many celebrants at the Dovre who even noticed.



Then, that evening the Beeze got back from her day at UC Berkeley and decided she needed Irish corned-beef-and-cabbage for dinner. Plot wasn't confident of finding the real stuff on that night, since every Irish-for-the-Day merrymaker in Saint Plotniko would be heading for his and her nearest Irish bar, but it was worth a try.

The Plotniks first drove by the Dubliner, but it was absolutely jammed. They drove downtown and tried Johnny Foley's Irish House (finding a parking spot, Mush, on the corner of Powell and O'Farrell!) but it was unbelievably loud and stank like old tennis shoes.

There was a line at Lefty O'Doul's too, so the Plotniks paused to wonder what to do next. They ended up waiting in the Lefty's line and within half an hour they were eating their corned beef but not their cabbage.



Because by the time the Plotniks wended their way up to the countermen, O'Douls had run out of cabbage. The corned beef itself wasn't too bad. The sauerkraut was really rancid, ohmigod, but the boiled potatoes were tasty. The bread was fresh and the side salads were very good. The beer was too.

The best part was going out to eat with The Beeze, who left the next morning. She looked pretty sad at the airport, but maybe not as sad as her parents felt to have her heading back east again. Plot and Duck had a very quiet ride back to World Headquarters.



Still, Tuesday morning is when the first orange tulip opened up in the pot on the deck. So life goes on. Isn't this one a beauty?