For many, the real fun starts after the St-Patrick’s Day Parade in Montreal finishes and downtown becomes one big open-air party. Drinking in the streets continues for usually a couple of hours until the cops decide to move in and overcompensate for hours of lax municipal bylaw enforcement, but by then, the party in the bars has been going for some time and keeps going until at least the early evening.
One place that always gets quite a few visitors during the afternoon on St-Patty’s is the Cock n’ Bull Pub. Its usual mix of CEGEP and University students mixed with longtime regulars accommodated the less-than-frequent drinkers out looking for green beer. If you moved the tables away, the place was large enough for all and the live music already offered was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, this legendary place was forced to close its doors this past August and despite promises to re-open in a new location soon, didn’t look like soon would be in time for St-Pat’s at first. Now, it looks like the luck of the Irish has rubbed off on this famous drinkery despite its predominantly British-themed interior décor.
Tonight (March 13th), on the eve of the St-Patty’s parade, the Cock n’ Bull reopens with a new name: Le Bull and a new location: 2170 Ste-Catherine Street West, corner Chomedey, a little over a block west of their previous location. They open officially at 6pm and The Shut Up and Dance crack open the stage at 10pm. Tomorrow, they open before the parade at 10am for Irish Coffees.
In a city where gentrification seems to be the trend of the day and venues and other fun places seem to be dropping like flies, it’s good to see that one place is not lying down for too long. It’s good that the Bull is back for St-Pat’s and besides that, it’s good that it’s St-Patty’s Parade Day tomorrow.
Happy St-Patty’s from Forget The Box!
