In the Land of Cocktails

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Get Your Irish Up!

Multi-talented actress and funny lady, Maile Flana­gan, tells us a bit about Irish cock­tails and tradition.

St. Patrick’s Day.  One of my favorite days (that and Hal­loween, another story, dif­fer­ent drinks and col­ors).  I love it because it is sim­ple and usu­ally happy, until you start singing “Danny Boy” … but that’s another story.

I drink Irish Cof­fee about three times a year.  Once on St. Patrick’s Day and the other two times when I feel like it.  And the BEST thing about Irish Cof­fee is that it reminds me of my father Dick Flana­gan.  He lived in San Fran­cisco as a young, sin­gle man and, as he did in the many, many cities he lived in around the world, had a great time.  Sev­eral years ago I was in San Fran­cisco for my cousin’s wed­ding — it was wasn’t St. Patrick’s Day, but just as fes­tive.  On the day before the wed­ding, I was walk­ing with my Dad, my funny and smart Mom Win­nie and my spec­tac­u­lar part­ner Lesa (I have to say that because she might read this, but she really is.…)

The four of us split off from my sib­lings and their kids, etc…  My father said — in a great Boston accent, though he didn’t live in Boston for decades — “I think the place where they invented the Irish Cof­fee is up here”.  We turned, saw the Buena Vista Cafe, and he said, “This is it!”  My father had not been there since he was prob­a­bly in his twen­ties and he was far, far beyond that then.  The four of us went in and had the best Irish Cof­fees in the world.  It was very crowded but we stayed for another.  My Dad was so proud that he remem­bered how to get there.  My Mom, Lesa and I were hav­ing a great time lis­ten­ing to his old sto­ries and laugh­ing, because he was hilarious.

My father Dick Flana­gan is gone now, but I can never have an Irish Cof­fee with­out think­ing of him.  And those were, and remain, the best Irish Cof­fees I have ever had.  If you are ever in San Fran­cisco, go have one at the Buena Vista.  I highly rec­om­mend it.  And if you aren’t in San Fran­cisco — have one some­where else — they are delicious.

Sláinte!

For more video and recipes check out our Face­book and see Maile Flana­gan and Maeve Quin­lan at Butch McGuire’s in Chicago.

ALSO… Rachel Mad­dow from 3/17/09 — Rachel, Kent Jones and author and Mas­ter Mixol­o­gist, Dale Degroff, make real Irish Cof­fee in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day.

3 Comments on “Get Your Irish Up!”

  1. IShakeItUp said:

    March 17th, 2009 @ 4:29 pm

    Maile, thanks for shar­ing this story. I had con­sumed and served a lot of Irish Cof­fee back in the day. I was a wait­ress at Houlihan’s for years. Every St. Patrick’s Day I still wake up with dread about shifts that started at 6AM til 2AM and guys with green tongues from all the dol­lar beer that day. 

    Years later my fam­ily and I were in SF on St. Patty’s and found our­selves hap­pily fight­ing for a place at the bar at the Buena Vista — and it was their Irish Cof­fee which brought me back into the fold. 

    Here’s to great Irish Bars and cock­tails shared with great fathers…

  2. Cocktail Chicks said:

    March 19th, 2009 @ 11:46 pm

    Check out the new Dale DeGroff/Rachel Mad­dow video at the end of Maile’s Blog…

  3. mangababe said:

    March 19th, 2010 @ 12:05 am

    Thanks for shar­ing a lovely remem­brance. My father was a news­pa­per pho­tog­ra­pher in SF in the 50’s, and told me sto­ries about the famous water­ing holes of the city, and the orig­i­na­tion of Irish Cof­fee at the Buena Vista. I finally got a proper Buena Vista intro­duc­tion when I moved to the city for col­lege. Fond mem­o­ries. Hope you had a lovely St. Pat’s Day!

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