{"id":389467,"date":"2026-09-03T18:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389467\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:14:11","slug":"mary-margarets-irish-pub-expands-as-demand-keeps-growing-in-downtown-st-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389467\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Margaret\u2019s Irish pub expands as demand keeps growing in downtown St. Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a busy Friday night, the challenge at Mary Margaret\u2019s Olde Irish Tavern<\/a> is not finding a good pint of Guinness. It is finding a place to sit, order dinner, or even make it to the restroom.<\/p>\n

The downtown St. Pete pub is often filled shoulder to shoulder with live-music fans, soccer supporters, dinner guests, and late-night crowds. <\/p>\n

Publican Pete Boland, who also co-owns The Galley<\/a> and The Ship\u2019s Hold<\/a>, said the space has become so consistently busy that an expansion next door has shifted from a longtime idea into a necessity.<\/p>\n

Mary Margaret\u2019s, at 29 3rd Street North, will expand this winter into the neighboring Top Slice Pizzeria <\/a>space. <\/p>\n

The expansion marks a full-circle moment for Boland, whose grandmother, named Mary Margaret, operated a salon out of the Top Slice Pizzeria space back in the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Irish pub currently occupies about 1,600 square feet, and the 1,400-square-foot addition will more than double its seating capacity with roughly 50 new seats, a second 12-seat bar, more patio tables, and additional restrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re packed to the gills,\u201d Boland said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. \u201cIt\u2019s become a logistical challenge. Where do I put empty kegs? Where do I put the beer? Where do I put people?\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction is expected to begin in early October, although the original Mary Margaret\u2019s will remain open throughout the work. <\/p>\n

Boland hopes to have the new space ready by Christmas, or at least before the pub\u2019s seventh anniversary in February and the rush surrounding St. Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a busy Friday night, the challenge at Mary Margaret\u2019s Olde Irish Tavern is not finding a good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-389467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}