Go forth and eat some guilt-free corned beef.
In a clash of calendars that happens every seven years or so, St. Patrick’s Day this year falls on a Friday during Lent, when Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat.
Don’t fret. Bishop Daniel Thomas, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Cleveland, has issued “a dispensation to the faithful from the obligation of abstinence from meat for the memorial of St. Patrick.”
Thomas has encouraged the faithful to go ahead and have some corned beef, but asks that they also partake in “another act of penance” on Friday.
We should thank our lucky charms that we live in a diocese with a large Irish Catholic population where such “special” dispensations are typically granted to mark the feast day.
The Catholic News Service noted recently that it found just 12 other dioceses in the country where such dispensations have been granted.
A quick survey of Ohio.com and Beacon Journal followers on Facebook found many Akron-area Catholics plan to take Thomas up on his offer.
Akron’s Michelle Greenwell said, “I’ll eat meat all I want bwahaha.”
Others plan to stick with tradition and head off to a Friday fish fry.
“I will have some beer battered fish and a few pints,” wrote JP Griffin. “Typical Friday for this grandson of Ireland.”
Akron restaurateur Joe Gallagher, who lived in Ireland until age 8 when his family moved to Northeast Ohio, said he’s grateful for the free pass, but noted with a priest as an uncle, they have been long forgiven for such transgressions when the unthinkable happens and the feast day for St. Patrick falls on a Friday during Lent.
The co-owner of D’Agnese’s Trattoria and Cafe said his family always starts the day at Mass at St. Patrick’s in Cleveland then heads downtown for the parade — which is expected to be among the chilliest in its 175-year history when it steps off at 1:04 p.m.
“You start the day off at Mass, then you will be blessed for the rest of the day,” he said.
As busy as it will be in downtown Cleveland when one of the largest such parades and gatherings in the country marches on in the snow, Gallagher said, things will also be hopping at his restaurant on White Pond Drive.
This week, he has drawn on his Irish roots and mixed in some special dishes, including corned beef and potato pancakes among the restaurant’s typical Italian fare. He has been adding Irish flavor to the menu during St. Patrick’s week for the past three years, and each one is more popular than the last.
He said they will probably cook anywhere from 180 to 200 pounds of corned beef by the time the last dish is served on Sunday.
“That’s a lot of corned beef for an Italian restaurant,” he added with a side of sarcasm.
But corned beef is king on a day when we celebrate the patron saint credited for spreading Christianity to Ireland. It was pagans — not snakes — that St. Patrick drove out of the country.
The single busiest day of the year at Akron’s famed Diamond Deli is St. Patrick’s Day, with lines typically out the door and down the block, and phone orders for corned beef sandwiches piling in as early as Thursday.
To meet the demand for the prized meat, owner Chuck Magilavy said, extra roasters are brought in for the corned beef and sauerkraut.
It is an “all hands on deck” kind of day, he said, to make corned beef and Reuben sandwiches along with the rest of the deli’s lineup of goodies.
“Thank God we are well known for our corned beef,” he said.
The deli had a record day for business last St. Patrick’s Day, serving up some 400 pounds of corned beef alone.
But the weather was unseasonably warm that day, unlike Friday’s chilly forecast of snow and rain and temperatures struggling to climb out of the 30s.
As for Magilavy, he is a Reuben guy, but as he gets older he tends to do plain corned beef with a little mustard on the side to help maintain his trim frame.
“We probably sell more Reubens than corned beef sandwiches,” he said.
Either way — thousand island dressing or not — the corned beef will be flying off the meat slicers, and the deli’s trademark friendly banter will still be included along with a complimentary pickle with every order.
“We’ll still be able to carry on a conversation with folks in line,” he said. “But we will be moving the sandwiches out pretty quickly.”
Craig Webb, who is definitely a Reuben guy with some extra thousand island dressing on the side, can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.