On what is usually the biggest day of the year for restaurants and bars on West Seventh Street in St. Paul, the streets were eerily quiet, parking spots were easy to find and only a few stubborn green-clad revelers were downing Guinness and Irish whiskey.

With Gov. Tim Walz ordering restaurants and bars to close (except for take-out) at 5 p.m., last call would come early, but that wasn’t stopping Cassie Finegan, whose big Irish family usually gathers in St. Paul for St. Patrick’s Day.

Finegan, who lives in Denver, her mother and a few other relatives were downing beers and mixed drinks on the patio at Patrick McGovern’s.

“My mom lives in the area, so we’ll probably go back to her house after the bars close and keep the party going,” she said.

Lynn Bauman of Farmington said she usually celebrates with her 78-year-old mother, who is an Irish citizen and lives in Arizona, but “we told her to stay home this year.”

Asked if she was concerned for herself, Bauman said, “I should be worried, but I’m not.”

Many of the group of revelers said they had already taken the day off to party when they got the word, so they thought they’d come downtown for one last night of fun, before it’s last call for quite a while.

Owner Pat Boemer said St. Patrick’s Day is usually his biggest day of the year, “not even by a little bit.”

“We’ve grown this over 40 years,” Boemer said. “The timing isn’t very nice, but you go with the cards you’re dealt.”

Boemer said he would take the time off to redo his floors and fix tables, just make some general improvements. He said he was more worried that his employees, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, would have a hard time muddling through until he could reopen.

“I’m in a financially stable condition,” Boemer said. “But a lot of restaurants won’t make it through. You’ll see a lot of people go under.”

Down the street at The Liffey, which is generally elbow-to-elbow, the mood was much more subdued.

Tammy and John Worrell were two of just a few people sitting at the bar. The pair were celebrating their 30th anniversary. They usually march in the parade, which was canceled, with their entire family. Instead, Tammy Worrell said they “had their own two-person parade in Rice Park.”

Indeed, they showed us pictures of the banner they had carried around, announcing their 30th anniversary.

They planned to head home at 5 p.m.

“We’re still going to be together, no matter what,” Tammy Worrell said.

Melissa Custard of West St. Paul and Debbie Arocho of Inver Grove Heights sat a safe distance from the Worrells and said they rode their bikes down to the bar to stay outside as much as possible. They planned to bar hop a little, but they didn’t find too many places still open. Related Articles Coronavirus Saturday update: 934 new COVID-19 cases, 13 more deaths

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“I have nine years of St. Pat’s Day memories in my phone,” Arocho said. “We come down here every year.”

Custard said it was sad to see how dead the streets and bars were.

“Just think of all that green beer, wasted,” she said.