Saint Patrick's Day - Ireland 32, Johnny's, and Hermosillo

"I wish you health, I wish you well, and happiness galore.
I wish you luck for you and friends; what could I wish you more?
May your joys be as deep as the oceans, your troubles as light as its foam.
And may you find, sweet peace of mind, where ever you may roam."

The band, the Shenanigans, opened with this toast Sunday, 9:42 am. With raised glasses the crowd let out a resounding: "Slainte!"

Ireland 32 opened their doors at 8:00 am by the time I go there at 8:50 am the place was packed, standing room only. Fortunately, I found myself a little place to put down my drinks and my Irish breakfast. Like any good Irish place there were authentic Irishman and Irish woman tending the bar. I had been here before on a Friday afternoon and Allan was serving. Like any good Irishman he enjoyed boxing and football. Today, all the Irish were about and the bar was open to the wee little people. By wee little people, I mean kids, like all authentic Irish bars you can bring your kids in with you while you have a pint or two. The only Irish place I know that also allows kids in is Griffins of Kinsale. By 9:00 am the place was already loud and boisterous.

First Glass of Guiness-Slainte!

Irish car bomb - Slainte! I forgot to take a picture of the bottle of Magners (Irish cider very popular at Ireland 32).

Irish breakfast:  Black pudding, white pudding, sausages, bacon, eggs, backed beans, roasted tomato, brown soda bread and butter.

This was an expensive early morning St. Patty's Day celebration: $10 cover charge at the door, $10 Irish breakfast, $8 for the Guiness, $10 for the Irish car bomb, and $8 for the Magners Irish cider. $46 for the morning, throw in the tip its about $50. They do a bit of price gouging on St. Patty's day,  Guiness is normally $5.00. I had to take a mid-morning nap just to recover.

After my nap, I headed out again. I caught the Metro Red line at the No Ho station, sometime at 3:30 pm. My plan was to hit all the Irish bars via the Metro. I got off at the 7th and Figueroa station. I popped my head out like a gopher to check out the action at Dublin's, there was line about half a block long just to get into the local "Irish" bar. Forget that and I might as well forget about going to Griffins of Kinsale. Might as well go to the Hermosillo. I got back on the Red Line, transferred to the Gold Line and got off at the Highland Park station. I walked over to the Hermosillo about 1/2 mile but the bar was not open. So I walked down to Johnny's.

Holy shit! The place was packed. On a typical lazy Sunday afternoon there would be at the most 5 guys at the bar. But the place was packed. There was a line just to get beer. I do get antsy/impatient before my first beer and my moxy will pretty much show because I'll start waving my hands and trying to flag down the barkeep. Fortunately, I was only behind one guy. Two girls were tending bar Joanna and Lana. The girls looked like suicide girls, if you know that look. I decided to double fist it i.e. take two beers in hand and find a place to drink, who knows how long before I have to wait for another brew.

Green Beer and Guiness

The guy who was ahead of me, his name is Brian and we got to talking. We started talking about the bars in the area and the history of  the bar. Johnny's used to be known as the Wild Hare. It also used be a cop bar. In the 80's, the bar  was the watering hole for cops from the Highland Park station. The Highland Park station is now a police museum. 

There were some wild times at the bar. Brian said once in a while one of the girls would get drunk and perform a strip tease and go shirtless. Another time, a girl was passed out in the ladies room totally naked and they had to call an ambulance. Back in the bad old days, you couldn't get into the men's restroom because somebody would be in there doing drugs.

Then I segued into a bar in Sunland where the guy in the restroom would deal drugs... Brian says "Yeah, I know that one"...I used to get me coke from the guy in the men's restroom. The place is a paisa bar. There would be these paisa girls who would preform illegal lap dances for money and if the price was right you could take one of these paisa girls with you. (Where the hell is this place?! I thought. I could be like Sir Galahad on the quest for the Holy Grail in some perverse obscene alternate universe.) Brian said, "One time, I took my girl friend there to make a buy. I told her to stay in the car. This is going to be quick." The girl friend said you're not to leaving me in the car and wanted to see what was going on inside. So Brain goes to bathroom and comes out with a vial for $20. When he comes out some paisa girl has one leg up on the bar and some borracho is performing cunnilingus on her. The girl says to Brian so this is why you come, its not for the coke its for the paisa action.

Brian left he had to catch the Laker game. So instead of a pool table Johnny's had a ping pong table. The city won't allow Johnny's to operate a pool table without a license. Another creative way the city of Los Angeles generates income for itself. I was up for the challenge and wanted to play the winner. So I got to play and naturally I lost because I had a self imposed handicap of one green beer and three Guinesses in me, not to mention the winner refused to present the ball when he served. (Ping pong cheats I hate them.) The best part of drunken ping pong is my accidental whacking of some girl's glass filled with beer. The glass with beer shatters on the floor. A crowd erupts with a loud caterwauling, "Wwwooooohhhhoooo!!!" I play it off by going after the loose ping pong ball. James the bouncer comes over but doesn't bounce me and instead does does clean up  on aisle # 9. Cool another reason to fall in love with Johnny's.

I started walking back up the street. I avoided going into the York, a bit yuppie for me and found out the Hermosillo was open. Yes. I was famished and wanted something really hoppy.

Hopocaplypse

I asked if they had any corned beef in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The former paisa bar, Hermosillo, had corned beef and cabbage. Score!!

Corned beef and cabbage with country Dijon style mustard.

I took the 83 bus line to connect with the Metro Gold line which connected to the Red Line. The only thing of interest was at the Hollywood and Vine, St. Patty's Day revelers came on board the train
 with their loud boisterousness. I had pretty much sobered up but still enjoyed their merriment. I got to bed by 10:30 pm.