Food writer Lindsey Nair

• lindsey.nair@roanoke.com | (540) 981-3343

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Perhaps it is the red hair, but for as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with all things Irish.

I devour Irish poetry and travel guides, replace my old Ireland wall calendar with a new one every January and swoon over my framed copy of "Hellelil and Hildebrand," a beautiful Irish painting by Sir Frederick Burton.

So why in the Hellelil has it taken me this long to order a draught Guinness? I don't know, but my face is blushing to match my hair as I write this.

Before you lob rotten cabbages at me, allow me to redeem myself a bit: In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I ordered my first Guinness last week, and I think I'm hooked. It was like a sheep in wolf's clothing -- it looked thick, rich and bitter but was crisp, refreshing and smooth going down.

I'm in good company.

According to the folks at Guinness, world consumption of the velvety black beverage jumps from 5.5 million pints per day to 13 million pints on St. Patrick's Day. That made me wonder how those numbers look in our neck of the woods.

For the scoop, I looked to Jeff Hutchinson, general manager of Valley Distributing Corp., a family-owned and operated business in Salem. Valley is the sole distributor of Guinness in a 10-county area that includes the Roanoke and New River valleys.

He said Guinness sales jumped 22 percent from January to February 2009, and then a whopping 130 percent from February to March 2009. Harp and Smithwick's, two other Irish brews that are owned by Guinness' parent company and distributed by Valley, show the same trends but nowhere near the volume, Hutchinson said.

After March, those figures went back to what they were in February, which is the monthly average for the year.

Hutchinson declined to reveal how much Guinness that totals in cans, bottles and kegs, but some individual restaurateurs said they had ordered two to four extra kegs for this past Saturday alone. That's because today may be the official holiday, but in Roanoke, the Saturday of the St. Patrick's Day parade and Celtic Festival might as well be called Guinness Day.

Mike Flanary, owner of Cornerstone Bar & Grill in downtown Roanoke, said the Saturday of the St. Patrick's Day parade is always far and away the busiest day of the year.

"And it is usually not even close [to any other day]," he said. "It is pretty shocking how big a spike it is on that day, because it is an all-day deal. My entire staff is scheduled from open to close."

This was the first year Flanary's new establishment, Flanary's Irish Pub in downtown Roanoke, was open during the Celtic Festival, and it was crowded all day.

The only other Irish pub I know of in Southwest Virginia is the almost 3-year-old Annie Moore's Irish Pub on Electric Road in Roanoke County, where the bartenders pride themselves on pouring the perfect pint. A couple even know how to finish the pour with a shamrock shape on top, but don't bother asking them to do it on a busy day -- pouring the perfect pint takes long enough as it is.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

A perfect St. Paddy's Day pour.

The black and white

For the unschooled, the perfect pint of draught Guinness should be poured in several painstaking steps:

1. Make sure the glass is uber-clean. According to Danny Flad, a Guinness expert with Valley Distributing, even the finest bit of residue can affect the perfection.

2. Tilt the glass at a 45-degree angle.

3. Fill the glass about three-fourths full.

4. Set it down away from the tap and let the "murky, nebulous brown churning liquid," as Flad put it, settle into two distinct layers: black liquid and a creamy, white head.

5. Top off the glass.

6. Let it settle again.

As you can imagine, when the bar is full and customers are clamoring for a beer, it might be tempting for the bartender to rush the Guinness-pouring process.

For shame!

"What Guinness drinkers like to see is the stark contrast," Flad said. "If you've got this really shiny, satiny black liquid and a nice stark, white head on top, that is what you are looking for."

In my words, forget that dyed green beer mess and go for the black and white, baby!

Flad likes to think Guinness has gotten even more popular in America over the past five to 10 years because people crave a more authentic St. Patrick's Day experience.

"I would say the days of give everybody a plastic hat and put up some paper leprechauns and have some green beer and put on an old jazz recording of 'My Irish Eyes are Smiling' are on their way out," he said.

Of course, the day after I interviewed Flad, I walked into a downtown Roanoke restaurant that was festooned with plastic green derby hats and paper leprechauns. "Come On, Eileen" was playing over the sound system, and they probably sold a truckload of green beer on Saturday.

Flanary said he still stocks green beer at Cornerstone every year, and every year they sell out. So maybe we've got a ways to go before the masses are ready for a truly authentic Irish experience.

I do know this: One Roanoke redhead has come around. Slainte! To your health!

Lindsey Nair's column runs in Wednesday's Extra.

What is hydrolyzed vegetable protein? Learn at blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet.