McNally’s Irish Pub
St. Patrick’s Day is here! And despite my better judgment I’ll probably end up at my favorite local watering hole again this year. Most nights McNally’s is a solid night-ender, with stiff drinks and mellow crowds, but on St. Patrick’s, McNally’s turns into a drunken circus, with live bagpipes and drums on the hour. Complete with the only bumper pool table in Oakland (that I know of), a real wood-burning fireplace without a grate for drunks to fall into, and a rear (mostly indoor, ssshhh…) smoking room that’s decorated entirely in tacky posters taken from college dorms over the last three decades, McNally’s is an East Bay institution. But the best part is Tony the Irish bartender, who probably averages two jokes for every pint served. If he likes your lady friend he’ll tell you—and her—in colorful Irish terms that make one second guess whether whatever he just said was entirely filthy or just gibberish. But he’s just old enough that it’s kind of endearing.
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