Contact us
Back to All Posts

St. Patrick’s Day will be a party that includes bands, blowout basketball, beer and bloodys.
— Although it may be true that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, there is no substitute locally for “being the only truly Irish bar in River Falls,” say the folks at Johnnie’s. Their traditional St. Patrick’s celebration includes five different drink specials and live Irish music by The Pan Alley Cats, (our pick of the many bands this weekend), starting early, at 4 p.m., and going strong for who knows how long. At Johnnie’s, locally owned and operated at 116 N. Main St., starting in 1946, Monday will bring $2 Irish whiskey, $3 Guinness pints, $2.50 Finnegans Irish Amber or Killian’s Irish Red, and $1.50 pints. There is always free popcorn and wireless service.
— The Badger boys basketball team sent Minnesota packing, back to the other side of the river, with Friday’s 83-57 blowout win over the Gophers, so next up is a 3 p.m. Saturday showdown. That will be against the winner of Michigan State Vs. Northwestern, Friday’s late game. The best place to watch Wisconsin, the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, is Kozy Korner in North Hudson, which was almost full for the Minnesota game, as playing during the dinner hour was a mixed blessing. Kozy promises to be even more full on Saturday afternoon, but there still will be a quality experience, wherever you sit. That’s because the back area has been repainted and redecorated, and there is a television close by for viewing no matter where you are in the place. Two new TVs were added last season to enhance that advantage.
— For the fifth straight year on St. Patrick’s Day, there will be the North Hudson pub crawl, beginning at Kozy Korner at 5 p.m., but that’s only the starting point. Participants can join in at any time or place along the route, which continues with a walk from Kozy to the Village Inn, then a ride to Season’s Tavern, and then another walk to Starr’s Bar and Mallalieu Inn. Only a night out where you have multiple designated drivers could provide this much flexability, but wait, there’s that too. At least three drivers will be on hand for his event, taking people to and fro as needed. There is no charge for the event, and while there are not any drink specials dedicated just to the pub crawl, it is St. Patrick’s Day after all, and all those great rates will apply anyway. Sponsors say that they even have met people from the Twin Cities who have come on over to do the crawl, most of them knowing someone who is local and had spread the word.
— There is a whole weekend festival for St. Patrick’s Day at the Green Mill, featuring an old style “garage party” with “our friend deejay Dug E Fresh,” beer pong and a best leprechaun contest on Saturday night, bloody Mary specials all day Sunday in case you’re feeling a little rough, and a combo bar game Trivingo on Monday at 7 p.m. Various places offer all kinds of food specials, but Green Mill gets our nod with Ruben soup.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, an inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top