Holy and half-in-bag revelers find St. Pat's Day parties downtown tonight
YOUNGSTOWN
The holy and the half-in-the-bag celebrated side by side on Federal Street during tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration in downtown Youngstown.
A pair of parties kicked off early Friday and stretched into the evening, each catering to a very particular brand of reveler.
At Overture Restaurant, Jeff Chrystal, the head chef, was mingling through a crowd of diners, many dressed in green sweaters, jackets or dresses. In anticipation of his 37th time creating a St. Patrick’s Day menu, Chrystal prepared a number of the holiday's classic dishes – corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, fresh-baked rye bread – for the parade of diners moving through the restaurant Friday.
Traditional Irish music – heavy on violins and flutes playing over a floor of steady drumming – filled the restaurant while diners talked over glasses of pitch-black Guinness.
Farther down the road, near the corner of Federal and Phelps Street, a white tent was pitched just outside V2. The bass of contemporary pop music coming from the tent was audible across downtown, much to the delight of the lines of partygoers participating in the Sham-Rock on the Block St. Patrick’s Day party downtown.
Sham-Rock on the Block – which started as a collaboration between The Federal and V2 – not only served as a means to attract revelers downtown to patronize the bars along Federal Street, but also acted as a fundraiser for the Downtown Youngstown Partnership.
Read more about the holiday events in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.