The Blackthorn Hosts St. Patrick's Day Bash
New Jersey is rich with Irish pubs and that’s a good thing, especially as the calendar turns toward St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, which falls on Thursday this year.
In Parsippany, the Blackthorn Restaurant and Irish Pub will be the place to celebrate.
There will be live music throughout the day, including Irish bands, bagpipers and step dancers to enhance the mood. Outside, a tent will be set up in the parking lot. To ensure that those looking for a drink are of legal age, an age verification machine is used to scan drivers’ licenses to make sure they are legitimate.
“We try to make it like a weeklong festival,” said Eugene Gillespie, Jr, who works at the restaurant with his parents and founders Eugene Sr. and Rosemary. At their St. Patrick's Day bash, family is pulled in to work the floor. So if you’re a mother, father, cousin, niece or nephew, in this family, it doesn’t matter; you will be drafted to serve.
The Gillespie family made its entry into Morris County last fall when they opened the 40 table restaurant, Blackthorn, on Route 46 East in Parsippany. It’s named for the Blackthorn tree which grows in County Mayo in western Ireland; that’s where Eugene Sr. and the shillelagh hail from. The shillelagh is the traditional Irish walking stick which can sometimes be used in self-defense, although at the Blackthorn they are merely decorative.
Eugene, Sr., wife Rosemary and their 25-year-old son, young Eugene, are the mainstays in Parsippany; this new restaurant follows in the footsteps of their seven-year-old restaurant of the same name in Kenilworth.
The restaurant,which opened in the fall, is celebrating its first St. Patrick’s Day at the Parsippany location and the family is bracing for a good turnout.
The Irish network is widespread in Morris County.
“There’s a small, close-knit community of Irish,” in the area, said Eugene, Jr. It might be easy to view other restaurateurs and pub owners as rivals for business but that’s not the case with this Irish community. Eugene, Sr. regularly connects with local pub owners like Jim Mongey of the Dublin Pub in Morristown and Molly Malone’s in Whippany and Eddie and Brian Fitzpatrick of the Grasshopper off the Green, also in Morristown.
“Any promotion of an Irish place promotes the Irish overall,” says Eugene Jr.
So, while there are plenty of pubs and restaurants in Morristown, the Gillespies expect to see many of their local Parsippany clientele this Saturday after the Morristown parade.
Blackthorn’s menu typically features everything from Irish fare to chicken nuggets and even pasta, but on St. Patrick’s Day itself the menu will be tuned to the all-Irish station to celebrate the patron saint of all that is Gaelic.
That means bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) if you’re in early enough for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, the fare includes fish and chips, Shepherd’s pie, chicken pot pie and that Irish-American favorite, corned beef and cabbage. If a burger better suits your fancy, it can be topped with some Irish cheddar. Barbecued wings will be bathed in Guinness barbecue sauce. It’s a calorie rich assortment that can justly be viewed as “comfort food” for both Irish and Americans.
On tap are favorites Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks; if you favor a little drop of the drink, they include well-known Irish whiskey such as Jamison and Tullamore Dew.
Desserts carry an Irish lilt as well; a sure crowd-pleaser will most likely be the Irish soda bread pudding served with coffee ice cream and Bailey’s cream-flavored whipped cream.
Blackthorn Restaurant & Irish Pub 1735 Route 46 East Parsippany NJ 07054 973-334-4900 blackthornpub46@yahoo.com; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. 7 days a week. Late night pub menu available. Major credit cards accepted.
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