By Meg Van Huygen

Seems like everybody in Tacoma’s got a little Irish in them, even if it’s just, ahem, in spirit. (Get it??? Spirits? I’m saying all y’all are drunks.) But whether you’re of Irish decent or just looking for a party, Tacoma bars are so dang friendly that it’s easy to wander into an Irish pub you’ve never set foot in and immediately become part of the clan. The city’s got a ton of them, but here’s a list of our top six Irish bars, just for a jumping-off point. You’ve got until St. Patrick’s Day to collect them all!

Fergie’s on the Ave, McKinley Hill

Fergie’s is where you go at the end of the night to get one last (generous) pour when the other bars are done. Set up in the grotty back room of a wood-paneled breakfast diner, this is one of the friendliest, most welcoming bars I’ve been to in my life, and that’s counting Tacoma as well as across the world. You’ll see groups of all classes, ages, and races fraternizing here without a hitch, and when you join in, you’ll often find that they all just met 15 minutes ago. Drinks are cheap, and everyone sings along to the jukebox. Also, once I saw an old dude with a long white beard pull out of the alley in a muscle car, yell “Hooooo yeah!” out the window, and do a perfect donut on McKinley, before zooming back into the same alley and gunning it out the other side. Super sick.

Doyle’s Public House, Stadium

Doyle’s is the Irish Bar for Adults. It’s quiet in there, with a wood-and-exposed-brick interior and big Keats energy. Euro soccer scarves line the front wall and there’s often a trad band with the fiddles and the pennywhistles. All of the food here is killer, from the classics like bangers and mash or shepherd’s pie, to the wacky shit, like wontons filled with garlic mashed potatoes or smoked salmon cheesecake. There’s usually a bunch of middle-aged beard-dads lined up at the bar to silently watch sports, and the scotch menu is like a libretto. Doyle’s is my go-to dinner/prefunk spot before a movie at the Grand Cinema down the street (and then I have another been once I’m at the Grand.)

The Cloverleaf Bar and Grill, Titlow/West End

Way out near Sixth and Orchard across from the North Tacoma Grocery Outlet, the Cloverleaf sails under the radar as an Irish bar—it’s usually classified as a pizza pub. But duh, they have a clover-shaped bar, for crying out loud and one step inside will temporarily blind you with all the bright green neon and foil-coated shamrock paraphernalia. Unfuckwithably Irish. The pizza’s pretty good, especially for the price, but it’s mostly the chatty crowd and the 1950s aesthetic that makes this place such a slay. Also, they have a taco pizza, which I’m always a sucker for.

O’Malley’s Irish Pub, Sixth Ave

O’Malley’s can get intense—just gonna start off by saying that. But it’s always a fun scene, chatty strangers will definitely come up and talk to you, and you’ll walk away with a thousand new friends. They’ve got a huge cavernous space with a great outdoor area for sunny days, the staff is nice as hell, and the Mac and Jack & cheese is to live for. There’s also some weird-good menu items, like the au-gratin adjacent Hasselbeck baked potato and the deep-fried Reuben balls, and their well vodka is Deep Eddy. Not bad! Don’t go here if you’re tired, that’s all.

Billy B’s, South End/Lincoln, kinda

Nothing fancy going on at Billy B’s—this place is about shots, beers, pool and nachos, with zero frills. It’s one of the bars that’s more of a scruffy living room that happens to sell liquor. The music is always on point, with a kickass Bose sound system, and there’s always a crowd of regulars amassed around the weird tall bench outside, smoking and yukking it up—that’s you in the future. Don’t be put off by the fact that the front windows are all boarded up right now—it’s not, as has been apocryphally said, because a car crashed into it, although that would be fucking cool. (It was just a smash-n-grab.) This only adds to its charm, obviously.

Magoo’s Annex. North End

This spot looks like it has a bunch of fance in its pants at first glance, with the restored wood and the stained glass and the rich Corinthian leather, until you’re hit by the stank of old beer and realize they’re blasting Metallica and Tool. And there’s a table with a Wu-Tang symbol carved into it, hell yeah. This is what you want in an Irish pub, a balance of classy and trashy—and especially that beer mimosa. Magoo’s is in a 107-year-old building with lots of old-world details and a nifty little upstairs seating area (the eponymous Annex), along with a solid menu of sandos and Mexican standards. Get the Reuben or the quesadilla. Plus the darts are real metal, not plastic, and there’s free pool on Sundays!