Maggie returns to The Table for St. Patrick’s Day soup special
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
The Table manager Lacie Bryner dishes up a bowl of potato chowder at the East Chestnut Street restaurant in March.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
The Table manager Lacie Bryner stirs a pot of potato chowder at the East Washington Street restaurant, while Maggie Berry, the former owner of Maggie’s Irish Pub, teaches her how to make it. The soup will be on special Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, at The Table.
The Table manager Lacie Bryner stirs a pot of potato chowder at the East Chestnut Street restaurant, while Maggie Berry, the former owner of Maggie’s Irish Pub, teaches her how to make it. The soup was supposed to be on special for St. Patrick’s Day, at The Table.
Katie Anderson/ Observer-Reporter
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Maggie Berry, 83, of Canonsburg, the former owner of Maggie’s Irish Pub in Washington, teaches the cooking staff at The Table on East Chestnut Street how to make her famous potato chowder.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
The Table manager Lacie Bryner learns how to make potato chowder at the East Washington Street restaurant, from 83-year-old Maggie Berry, the former owner of Maggie’s Irish Pub. The soup will be on special Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, at The Table.
It’s been more than a decade since Maggie Berry has cooked an Irish meal in the kitchen on Chestnut Street in Washington.
This year, she was ready to return to make her famous potato chowder.
Maggie’s Irish Pub was in business for 25 years before it closed in 2007. It sat where The Table café is now located on East Chestnut Street next to Life Church.
The Table invited Maggie, 83, of Canonsburg, back to the kitchen last Thursday, to teach its staff how to make her famous potato chowder, which was scheduled to be a special today, St. Patrick’s Day.
The Table café has, however, postponed its scheduled event because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“We hope to reschedule something to honor Maggie when things normalize,” said Adam Miller, the restaurant’s chief operating officer.
With the type of outpouring The Table has received over Maggie’s return it’s easy to see why that would be the case.
“People come in here and talk about your food all the time,” The Table manager Lacie Bryner told Maggie last week.
Maggie and her daughter-in-law, Gee Gee Ross, visited The Table a few weeks ago, when the idea formed to have Maggie in as a guest chef for the Irish holiday.
“It’s a true testament of her cooking,” Gee Gee Ross said.
Maggie’s Pub previously offered a lengthy beer list along with traditional Irish dishes like corned beef and cabbage, colcannon, shepherd’s pie, Reuben sandwiches and corned beef and cabbage soup. Her homemade rolls and potato soup were a community favorite.
“I got up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to bake the bread,” Maggie said Thursday. “We were a big lunch spot, and we had all the police and firemen in here.”
Maggie said she’s an eighth Irish, and she married into a very Irish family. Her first husband was the late Robert Ross, whose father John Ross was an immigrant from Ireland who started a farm in Washington County.
When she opened the pub in 1984, it was one of the only Irish pubs around, so they were very popular, she said.
“The first year we opened, we didn’t even have it finished yet, but we decided to open because we didn’t think we’d get too many people,” Maggie recalled.
But they were wrong – people were lined up out the door and the pub was packed. They weren’t prepared for that.
“We ran out of beer, kegs,” she said. “We ran out of everything.”
They were prepared for crowds at The Table today with plenty of Maggie’s potato soup to go around, Miller said. He said being able to offer the soup for St. Patrick’s Day would’ve been an “an honor to the past.”
“We love this community, and when you meet someone who brought the community together the way Maggie did for so many years, we are just so honored to have her here,” he said last week.
Bryner said he was pleased his establishment had the opportunity to meet with Maggie.
“We’re so honored to have her in here and to learn from her,” she said.