Putting together a St. Patrick's Day celebration at Clancey's Restaurant in Fort Myers, means a lot of extra help and double the normal orders of food for owner John Browning. Preparing for the indoor and outdoor celebration meant getting supplies at least three weeks in advance.
“1100 pounds of corn beef, 800 pounds of potatoes, 106 pounds of cod for fish and chips."
That is how much food he had to order for the hundreds of people coming in and out the restaurant and milling around the tents outside. Browning has been putting on the large St. Patrick's day party for few years now. It's gotten so large that he is had to call in help from his other restaurants to help keep it going.
One of the people helping out is Randy Strohman, he works at one of Browings other restaurants but always helps out at Clancey's for St. Patrick's Day. The crowd getting so large that it's hard to keep track of how many people he is actually serving.
"Hundreds, and we have hundreds more to serve later in the evening."
Overseeing is all is Richard Smith who runs the restaurant from top to bottom. He's been at Clancey's since 6:30 in the morning. As long at the people keep coming and customers are smiling, Smith and his staff are happy as well.
"Everybody’s really excited. Everybody’s glad that we’re open. This is the day that a lot of our fan base will actually know that we’re open. This is the day that we’ve been waiting for."
