Irish pub crawl in Floral Park

With March 17 landing on a Saturday this year, chances are St. Patrick's Day (SPD) 2012 will be a monster holiday for mirth and revelry.

Towns like Patchogue, Bay Shore, Huntington, Babylon, Long Beach and Rockville Centre are likely to be popular destinations, as each of those aforementioned areas feature multiple bars and clubs to choose from -- meaning guests can spend portions of the evening sampling various venues -- and for those unfamiliar with this game plan, it's often referred to as a "bar crawl."

However, while those crawls are not unusual to accomplish all year, come SPD another neighborhood makes for a tantalizing possibility: Floral Park.

As it turns out, Tulip Avenue is the "Main Street" of Floral Park, and along its run are four bars that feature the Irish pub personality most appropriate for a proper St. Patrick's Day celebration -- all within footsteps of each other: J Fallon's Tap Room (136 Tulip Ave., 516-326-8604), Jack Duggan's Pub (145 Tulip Ave., 516-358-3690, jackdugganspub.com), McCarthy's Bar and Grill (152 Tulip Ave., 516-233-2498) and Jameson's Bar and Grill (157 Tulip Ave., 516-326-8300, jamesonsbarandgrill.com).

Only Jameson's (special menu, step dancers, special seatings, reservations recommended) and Jack Duggan's (corned beef and cabbage served, traditional Irish music, step dancing starts at 5 p.m.) are doing anything extra for SPD -- but then again, on any given Saturday night both J Fallon's and McCarthy's tend to be quite busy, so while the occasion will be treated as just another regular bar night at the latter two venues -- the holiday spirit is still likely to be prevalent via the decor and crowd spirit.

And furthermore, while all these Irish establishments make Tulip Avenue a good option, there is another sort of stop nearby that makes this an especially convenient way to spend St. Patrick's Day: the Floral Park LIRR station (it's only a block or two north up the road).