A St. Patrick’s Day office party is a great way to boost employee morale and bring some good luck to your company. Creative minds will love these unique St. Patrick’s Day decorations and menu ideas from the Chicago catering company who loves to help you keep the green in your pocket.
Read on to see how you can put the luck of the Irish in your Chicago office party.
Planning a Unique St. Patrick’s Day Party
Give your St. Patrick’s Day corporate event a refreshing twist with the luck of the Irish and good company fortune, setting the tone for a golden party.
Golden St. Patrick’s Day Party Decorations
Leprechauns, shamrocks, green streamers, oh my! We can bet you don’t want the same old all-green St. Patrick’s Day party. Let us suggest using a soft metallic gold instead. Those lucky leprechauns were known to wear gold-laced coats and had a special pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—it’s a perfectly suited color for your Irish celebration!
Fill your Chicago venue with gold balloons and paper lanterns. Or, for a DIY St. Patrick’s Day decoration, spray paint horseshoes with gold paint. Use these custom decorations to accent a delightful floral arrangement on each of your tables.
Irish Food Stations
Don’t let your St. Patrick’s Day menu sway too far from typical Irish dishes. Guests will welcome a hearty golden potato bar alongside traditional beef and cabbage. We at Tasty Catering share a love for the potato, just like the Irish.
Browse our corporate menu to find a pairing for these hearty potato dishes:
- Herb-roasted potatoes: Baby redskin potatoes with garlic, rosemary and parsley
- Mashed potatoes: Roasted red pepper, roasted garlic or classic roasted with gravy
- Baby potatoes: Potatoes roasted and served in garlic herb butter sauce
- Roasted Yukon potatoes: Yellow potatoes roasted with rosemary, thyme and basil
Beef and Guiness Stew 
Mashed Potatoes
Looking for a bit more direction as you custom design your St. Patrick’s Day menu? You are in luck, because the Tasty Catering chefs have been hard at work filling our St. Patrick’s Day menu with delightful Irish dishes.
Our St. Patrick’s Day menu lets you choose among popular entrees and sides, so you can mix and match to perfection. It is also special because it is only available in the month of march, so do not miss your chance to try Tasty Catering seasonal specials like:
- Corned beef. Slowly simmered
- Gaelic grilled chicken breast. With leeks, bacon and mushrooms in a white wine sauce
- Baked herb-crusted cod. With shrimp, potatoes and chive stew
- Beef and Guinness stew.
When it comes to adding flavor and personality to traditional St. Patrick’s Day dishes, herbs are your best friends. They bring a refreshing taste to very basic Irish ingredients like potatoes and chicken. One of our favorite flavorful spring dishes is grilled chicken marinated in thyme-rosemary oil and finished off with lemon sauce.
In our St. Patrick’s Day menu, you will notice that we also use herbs to enhance the flavors of our sides. Some of our most popular Irish side dishes are:
- Boiled white potatoes with mint
- Creamed peas and pearl onions with mint
- Spring carrots with thyme-garlic butter
Shining St. Patrick’s Day Desserts
For dessert, ditch the green sprinkles and treat your guests to a regal display of golden cupcakes and gourmet cookies. Recently, guests fell in love with the cupcakes and cookies on our seasonal menu. But a dusting of gold can take even the simplest sugar cookie or cupcake up a notch.
Sweet treats also make great St. Patrick’s Day party favors. Our cinnamon sugar popcorn comes packed in miniature take-out boxes that you can customize with your corporate logo and set out for guests to grab and go. Other golden party favors include peanut brittle and personalized chocolate gold coins.
New St. Patrick’s Day Drinks
No St. Patrick’s party is complete without copious amounts of beer. But think about other Irish-inspired drinks that will treat guests to some new flavors and pair well with your St. Patrick’s Day menu.
An Irish coffee with whiskey and whipped cream or a shamrock milkshake spiked with vodka is a lovely match with golden cupcakes. You can also add fresh orange slices or juice to many of your favorite beers and cocktails. Even if just for show, this touch of color and flavor is a great addition to your gold-themed party.
Don’t forget about green power drinks! Set up a green bar filled with superfood drinks like kale smoothies. This will be a popular station for guests looking for a nutritional boost.
Interactive St. Patrick’s Day Invitations
About 37 million US residents claim Irish ancestry, so chances are high that quite a few of your guests are feeling pretty proud of their heritage on March 17. Along with the RSVP, ask guests if they have any traditions or quick facts they would like you to incorporate in your St. Patrick’s Day party. Maybe they even want to lead an Irish dance.
Fun St. Patrick’s Day Office Party Activities
Turn up the contemporary Irish music like Celtic Thunder and The Irish Tenors and invite employees to follow along in a group folk dance. With a great instructor, it will be hard to get guests to pause for other activities. But we have a solution for this too. Just let them know you have some big prizes for the winner of the desk decorating or costume contest, and guests will hurry over for the big announcement.
Hide St. Patrick’s Day facts and figures throughout your venue for a scavenger hunt or invite guests to a game of trivia. Did you know there are four places in the US named Shamrock and 16 places called Dublin?
If you are planning a more relaxed luncheon, lucky shamrock bingo is a great St. Patrick’s Day activity. Use gold coins as markers, and everyone will go home feeling like a winner.
Change is easy when you work with the Chicago catering company backed by nearly three decades of flawless service at an affordable rate. So let our creative planners and flexible chefs mix up your St. Patrick’s Day party.
To start planning your exceptional St. Patrick’s Day celebration, contact us online or give us a call at 847-593-2000.
