All right, you alchie lads and lassies, your day is near, the one time of the year where the bars open up for breakfast and people won’t look at you twice for having a little whiskey with your morning cuppa. Take the day off so you can start drinking early to beat the mad crowds and avoid the long lines. These Irish pubs can accommodate your pre-dawn cravings as they open up in the a.m. for St. Patrick’s Day next Monday.
Brennan’s Pub: Opens 6am. This Marina del rey pub, home of the turtle races, will open its doors before the sun even comes up so you can enjoy your green beer and corned beef and cabbage, breakfast of leprechauns. There will also be live music on two stages and bagpipers. Cover: $10 after 2pm.
Casey’s Irish Bar and Grille: Opens 7am. This downtown bar not only offers Irish food, green beer and live music but a chance to be in the St. Paddy’s Day parade. Buy your ticket for a seat on Casey’s bus and give your best royal wave to the masses below. The bar also has a 6-7pm happy hour with $1 off Guinness if you want to bookend the workday. No cover.
Clancy’s: Opens 7am. With both karaoke performed by drunken bar flies and bagpipers doing their thang at this downtown Long Beach dive, the decibel levels here will be off the charts. But who needs ears to enjoy green beer? No cover.
Finn McCool’s: Opens 10am. This charming Santa Monica pub brings you the requisite green beer, drink specials and live music as well as Indie 103.1, who will be broadcasting its import radio show, Passport Approved, from the bar. And you have to try the food. Mmm, boxties. Cover: $10.
Irish Times: Opens 10am. You won’t find green beer here at this divey, off-the-beaten-path Palms pub but there will be plenty of bagpipes and live music. Hey, maybe it won’t be too much of a madhouse after work! Cover: $12.
Killian’s Pub and Grill: Opens 11am. True, this Torrance pub’s 11am opening doesn’t necessarily stand out from the others, but their $2 green beer sure does! No cover.
O’Brien’s Irish Pub: Opens 6am. Since this opens up before Finn McCool’s, down the street, you can start off an early morning pub crawl here with an Irish breakfast and a pint. Live music starts at 1pm. No cover.
Patrick Molloys: Opens 8am. This Hermosa Beach bar not only opens early on Monday but on the Saturday and Sunday before St. Paddy’s Day, too. Now that’s hard-core. Kegs and Eggs, they’re calling their breakfast of $4 pitchers of Bloody Mary and Screwdriver. Cover: $5 after 11am, and increases the busier they get.
Tom Bergin’s Tavern: Opens 6am. I love this Fairfax District pub with its horseshoe bar, but it turns into such a zoo come St. Paddy’s Day. Get there first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds of frat boys and workhorses and enjoy their “world famous” Irish coffee. No cover.