The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dallas is more than a tradition; it’s a financial lifeline for Greenville Avenue’s bars and restaurants facing rising costs.
DALLAS — Going green on Greenville for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the biggest annual traditions in Dallas.
But for many of the bars and restaurants that line the street, the celebration is about more than green beer and floats.
“It is sink or swim for a whole lot of the businesses on this street,” said Tommy Donahue, the general manager of Milo Butterfingers. “Without this day, they wouldn’t make it.”
Donahue said some bars and restaurants can make a month’s worth of revenue in a single day, helping them sustain through lean times.
Saturday will be the 45th St. Patrick’s Day Parade through Dallas, and Donahue has been there since the beginning, when it consisted of just a few beer trucks and lasted about 15 minutes. Now the event has grown into a spectacle that draws thousands to Greenville. But like others, the parade and the businesses that make it happen are facing increasing costs.
“With the price of meat and tariffs and things like that, there are a lot of places where the margins are so slim that I’m not sure they’re going to make it,” Donahue said.
The turnover has become noticeable to those walking the street.
“A place I used to frequent for breakfast was open just a few weeks ago, and now it is closed,” said Mandi Skerbetz as she looked for a new breakfast spot. “It’s kind of constant. There was a steak and seafood place, and I think it lasted like three months.”
Adding to the business woes, customers are operating on slim margins of their own.
“I’m definitely limiting where I go, expense-wise and how often,” Skerbetz said. “My iced tea used to be $2.50 and now it’s $4.25, but it’s the same drink.”
Although it provides a much-needed boost, the parade itself also faced uncertainty.
For more than a decade, the event received significant support from the Dallas Mavericks under former owner Mark Cuban. But when team ownership changed, that sponsorship ended, and the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association passed the responsibility of organizing the parade to Navarro-Gambit Experience.
The Greenville Avenue Area Business Association, which organized the parade for decades, eventually passed the responsibility to a new group, NGX, to keep the event going.
Donahue said costs for police, barricades, permits and other logistics can reach well into six figures but he hopes NGX can keep the tradition alive for years to come.
“Without this parade, we lose our soul,” Donahue said. “We lose our heart and soul.”
With good weather expected, businesses are preparing and hoping for crowds to deliver more than enough reason to celebrate.