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Eater DC: Barack Obama Celebrated St Patrick's Day at The Dubliner

March 19, 2012
Eater DC
 
Barack Obama Celebrated St Patrick's Day at The Dubliner
 
Monday, March 19, 2012, by Amy McKeever
 
The Dubliner is now the latest local establishment to get the Obama bump after President Barack Obama stopped into the Irish pubfor a pint of Guinness on St. Patrick's Day. He brought along his Irishcousin and the owner of the pub that Obama visited last year on a trip to Moneygall, Ireland, for just one pint or about 45 minutes at the Union Station-adjacent bar.
 
Gavin Coleman, whose family owns the bar and who recently opened Sixth Engine,tells Eater that the bar had just started to fill up around 1 p.m. whenthe President arrived. Rather than clear everyone out, the folks at TheDubliner set up a separate area of the bar for Obama — though apparently he also spent some time working the crowd, shaking "everybody's hand that he possibly could." Even though they usually onlyuse plastic glasses on St. Patrick's Day, Coleman says The Dubliner pulled out the real pint glasses for Obama and his group.
 
Obama also spent some time chatting up Coleman and his family, who have their own connection to the Moneygall pub owner that POTUS brought along with him. Gavin Coleman visited the pub after President Obama did last year, met the owner's wife and bought a memento that hangs in The Dubliner. Coleman says he reminded Obama about a statement he had made in Ireland about how you can't get a Guinness like that backhome, to which he says Obama replied, "Well, now I know where I can." Says Coleman: "I can't wait to tell the people at Guinness that."
 
And, of course, the Obama bump means that The Dubliner's website crashed over the weekend. According to Gavin Coleman, his father and longtime pub owner Danny Coleman calls it "the greatest moment he's everhad" there. And, about the experience in general, Gavin Coleman says, "It's just unbelievable how supportive this President is of local restaurants. It's just great to me how many places he's gone to."