O'Gara's Irish Pub says farewell - for now

Image 1 of 2

After 77 years in business, O'Gara's Irish Pub in St. Paul is saying goodbye - for now.

The pub on the corner of Snelling and Selby avenues celebrated its last night Saturday before it will be torn down and turned into apartments, with the bar taking over a much smaller footprint on the first floor.

“In order to stay relevant and forward thinking we had to do something. I learned from my dad a long time ago that if you stay the same, you go away,” said Dan O’Gara, owner of O’Gara’s Irish Pub.

In the new bar, they plan to keep many of the artifacts of the original building - photographs, the tin ceiling, the wood paneling and a mural painted by the original owner, O’Gara’s grandfather.