“Purim Party” aka “Jewish St. Patrick’s Day”

The Star and Shamrock is less than one week away from kicking off its first-ever, month-long Spring Shenanigans Simcha Festival, launching this coming Wednesday, March 4th, the first night of the Jewish holiday, Purim.

Dubbed by the deli/tavern as “the Jewish St. Patrick’s Day”, this particular Jewish holiday is famously celebrated by being drunk on happiness, with the help of lots of good alcohol. In fact, the Talmud even instructs Jewish people to celebrate the holiday as "yemei mishteh v'simchah, days of drinking and rejoicing" (Esther 9:22). With guidelines like that, this is clearly a holiday for people of all faiths. Staying true to its Irish-Jewish namesake, Star and Shamrock is setting course to mark this “Jewish St. Patrick’s Day” with a Purim Party packed with as much revelry as its upcoming Irish one.
 

The festivities will begin at 7:00 pm on the evening of 4th, featuring a wide-range of menu specials, drink specials, live entertainment, and even a costume contest, throughout the course of the evening. Given the drinking-centric nature of the holiday, the event will be held in partnership with the popular Shmaltz Brewing Company, whose brewing industry celebrity founder, Jeremy Cowan, will be onsite for a He’Brew “Tap Takeover”.

 

Shmaltz’s He’Brew Tap Takeover will include a wide selection of its award-winning, top-rated, barrel-aged, beers including their Hop Manna IPA, Funky Jewbelation 2015, Death of a Contract Brewer Black IPA, Jewbelation 18, Specialty 12 oz feature bottled beers and/or flights of specialty beers, and a limited supply of their highly lauded Saint Jewbelation Belgian Style Imperial Sour Rye, directly from their Clifton Park Brewery--with select free samples and giveaways from party start to finish.

Along with the He’Brew Tap Takeover and a special “Manischewitz Whiskey Punch” $5 craft cocktail special, Star and Shamrock’s kitchen team will be serving up a full menu of twists on traditional Purim holiday favorites with the highlight being its, “Battle of the Briskets” pitting their traditional signature house-cured Irish Corned Beef against their unique Jewish-style slow roasted Batamte Brisket (“Batamte” means “tasty” or “delicious” in Yiddish) served with braised cabbage and a delicious, savory, soon-to-be famous house-made knish.
 

Party-goers will be entertained by live music performed by local Klezmer act Klezcentricity (http://www.klezcentricity.com). Klezmer music is kind of like “Jewish Bluegrass” but without any singing and with clarinets and accordions instead of banjos and guitars--so really, nothing like Bluegrass at all, except in spirit, since it’s similarly a fun, traditional music-of-the-people mainstay.

And finally, also in true Purim tradition, Star and Shamrock will hold a costume contest promising what Feldman described as “significant” prizes. The costume contest is for adults, with no specific costuming guidelines--as the holiday’s costuming roots are derived from parades akin to Mardis Gras, with any number of costume varieties and themes. Judging is set to take place throughout the night, with winners announced at 9pm.
 

Other do not miss events on tap during Star and Shamrock’s month-long Spring Shenanigans Simcha Festival include: