This, however, was brand new: drinking Guinness from glasses in a tiny, meticulously recreated Irish pub parked in a friend’s driveway.
As in 2022, Thursday’s meeting was a reminder of what life used to be and how much smaller it has become.
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Meanwhile, the eight-foot-by-17-foot Wee Irish Pub hasn’t stopped running since word of its existence began circulating earlier this year. There is something about it that people find irresistible: the closeness, the imitation of public space, the sense of portability.
“I don’t know how to put it,” said Craig Taylor, a marketing consultant who built a miniature pub on wheels with his younger brother Matt. Some of his clients have beautiful homes that they could easily throw a party in, but they love the idea of sitting in a small trailer. Craig thinks he knows why. “It’s something else,” he said. “It feels like you could be a million miles away.”
Two brothers who live in Reading, a town just north of Boston, came up with the idea for the pub over many evenings spent around Craig’s campfire during the pandemic. It would be a way to combine their skills – Craig, 58, explored his wife’s roots in Ireland, and Matt, 49, loves carpentry – and they thought of it as a side business they could take up in retirement.
The whole family got involved. A third brother living in London flew in to help build the pub, bringing back photographs of Ireland’s taverns for inspiration. Sister found lace curtains and created her own Spotify playlist. It seats 12 people, but like any bar, it can fit more if “you go shoulder to shoulder,” Craig said.
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There is an electric fireplace, a tall wooden bar, a small fridge and two beer taps. The cream-colored walls with green trim are adorned with carefully selected trappings, including a shillelagh, a traditional Irish club and cane that came from the brothers’ grandfather’s barn.
They were surprised by the response to the project, which cost about $20,000 to build. Its rent is between $800 and $1,200 and most weekends in 2023 are booked. The brothers have just bought a second trailer to turn it into another miniature pub. They don’t know of anyone else doing the same in the area. (Shebeen in Ireland also rents out pubs on wheels.)
People are just “tired of sitting at home doing nothing,” said Matt, who works as a project manager.
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On St. Patrick’s Day, the pub was taken over by Liz and Josh Mugan, who learned about it from a Facebook post in January. For the past two years, they’ve been gathering with immediate family and close friends on the breezy pandemic-era patio. It was their first real party since 2020.
They bought two kegs of Guinness and Josh was smoking chicken wings in the backyard. His parents arrived, as did his brother, straight from the airport. Neighbors and their children came from all over the street. There were Liz’s friends from high school and Josh’s friends from college, including one he hadn’t seen in over 20 years. An incendiary version of “The Rocky Road to Dublin” played from the street speakers.
The weather – foggy, overcast, short drizzle – was downright Irish. There was much to worry about, from the war in Ukraine to the spread of the coronavirus infection in Europe, but at least for one evening the mood was upbeat.
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Candice McVeigh, 46, a health educator dressed in jeans and a bright green T-shirt, said she felt dizzy all day at the thought of the party. “It’s beautiful, it comes to you,” she said, standing in front of a miniature pub and talking to friends. Two years ago, McVeigh recalls, she bought a St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock at McDonald’s and wiped it down with a disinfectant wipe.
Justin Cronin, 46, was also thrilled to be reunited with old friends. “Incredible,” he said, pointing to dozens of people loitering around the driveway and open garage. “Liberation”. He recommended drinking whiskey flavored with peanut butter.
Cronin suggested that the tiny pub may have had some pre-pandemic popularity, but at that point, something about it resonated. “It’s different now,” he said. “Especially when you never know when the next wave will come.”
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“People feel differently about being close to each other,” added Timothy Medlock, 60, who lives next door and came with his daughter Alex, 28, and two golden retrievers. The private foundation he manages is the only tenant to return to work in his office building. He and a group of friends had just decided to restart their tradition of monthly after-work drinks, but only half of them have returned, he says.
As the sun went down, the conversation in the pub became more and more blurred and lively. Josh, 44, worked as a bartender and joked that he spent the night on one of the padded benches. “Now it itches a lot – friends, pub, good music,” he said. “It’s very special.”
His wife, Liz, a 44-year-old sales manager, organized the event as an early celebration of Josh’s birthday. Other than a brief stop at Dublin airport, her Irish-American husband had never visited his ancestral country. “We decided we would bring him Ireland,” she said.
Craig and Matt arrived early the next morning to hitch the pub to the back of a Ram truck. After a thorough cleaning, he was on his way again to his next destination, about 25 miles away, just one of the stream of birthday celebrations, surprise parties and family reunions yet to come.