Bay Meadows

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on March 17th, which means that whether or not we actually have Irish ancestry, we get to pretend to be Irish anyway. If you are looking for fun with friends, O’Neil’s Irish Pub on South B Street in San Mateo is a great local pub for Guinness or Irish Whiskey. Pair your pint with live music on Thursday, Friday or Saturdays. In fact, local Yelper (Jewel N.) says, “The live bands are some of the best cover bands I have ever heard – and (their) range is amazing.”  Daniel S. weighs-in on the overall experience: “This place is a nice social hangout.  They have darts and music as well as karaoke. Also they have menus for the local restaurants that deliver to you at the pub. The bar tenders are very friendly and like to talk about anything that interests you.  The prices are good as well. Definitely a nice place to enjoy a drink and socialize.”

Be sure to plan ahead for Bingo on Mondays (9pm) or enjoy a Pub Quiz on Wednesdays.

Did you know? Irish food is known for the quality and freshness of its ingredients. Most cooking is done without herbs or spices, except for salt and pepper. Kick up your heals at home and use these Irish recipes to help celebrate, all guaranteed delicious and in most cases very easy to make!

Start off the day…

Try a classic Irish breakfast including boxty potatoes (part pancake-part hasbrown), porridge, Scotch eggs, and a mixed grill of breakfast meats. Add some Irish Soda bread with flavored butter, jam or marmalade to round out your morning. This soda bread swaps out the buttermilk for yogurt and rolled oats have been added for a bit more texture.

Traditional Irish meals are usually made up of very simple ingredients and easy to cook but yet tastes great! Choose one of these easy and delicious recipes that will fortify yourself for that Guinness later.

Corned Beef with Guinness and Cabbage. This is a simple supper for the meat-and-potato lovers in your family and although it’s more of an Irish-American fare than it is purely Irish, that won’t stop us from enjoying this salt-cured beef on its most popular day. This recipe combines corned beef, dark brown sugar, Guinness, pickling spice, onion and garlic.

Irish Onion Soup with Cheddar Crouton: This onion soup is rich, hearty and flavored with delicious ingredients like Guinness beer, beef stock and dried thyme leaves. Topped with a toasted Irish cheddar crouton, this soup is sure to satisfy.

Irish Stout Shepherd’s Pie: This delicious Irish stout shepherd’s pie is full of ground lamb and diced vegetables. The Irish stout creates a thick gravy and is topped with potatoes.

Bangers and Colcannon with Onion Gravy: This dish consists of pork sausages that are served on colcannon, an Irish form of mashed potatoes with bacon and sautéed cabbage mixed in, and topped with a Guinness gravy.

Irish Beef Stew with Mashed Potatoes: This incredibly easy, hearty, slow cooked tender beef stew is mouthwatering over fluffy mashed potatoes makes the perfect comfort food meal.

On the sweeter side…

Whether you’re looking to add a splash of marshmallow vodka, dark stout beer, whiskey caramel sauce or Lucky Charms to your sips – these unique boozy beverages will definitely get you into the Irish spirit: Lucky Charms Milkshakes, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, Guinness Float, Bailey’s Chocolatini, Shamrock Shake, and the Irish Coffee Milkshake.

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce: This apple cake is tender and soft and is jam packed with apples. The apples have a little crisp to them with a bit of spice and crusted crunchy sugar top.

Bay Meadows is a family-friendly neighborhood with lots of green space to enjoy all year long. Whether its growing your own vegetables in a gorgeous community garden with our resident gardener, playing a game of pick-up basketball after work, team building over bocce and beers, or checking out Dig it every first Saturday of the month. There’s no shortage of green space to explore.