Clancy's eyes early to mid-April reopening; best-case scenario would be St. Patrick's Day

FARMINGTON — Clancy’s Irish Cantina is making strides toward a speedy recovery less than two months after an electrical fire in the bathroom hallway shut the establishment down.

Clancy’s general manager Lewis McMullen said his goal is to reopen the Farmington eatery by early to mid-April, once repairs are complete and the employees gradually return.

McMullen also said the best-case scenario would be to reopen in time for St. Patrick’s Day because his family is Irish.

“That’s our busiest day of the year, typically,” McMullen said. “It just depends. It’s all in the air due to COVID and all this bullcrap.”

McMullen said Clancy’s is still working on ridding itself of the smoky stench in the bathroom hallway, but the stench in the kitchen, bar and dining room areas are now all gone.

“We’ve done massive amounts of work on that end,” McMullen said.

McMullen said the restaurant, which already had an above-ground grease trap, added a city-approved underground grease trap to accommodate the kitchen. 

McMullen also said a new roof will be installed because of leaks in the original one, and he’s still waiting for new windows to arrive.

In the end, McMullen said merely having a new tentative time frame to reopen gives him peace of mind.

“It’s the craziest roller coaster I’ve ever been on,” McMullen said. “I knew that Clancy’s is insured, and I knew that we’d come back.”

Matt Hollinshead covers sports for the Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4577, Hollinshead@daily-times.com and on Twitter at @MattH_717.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e