Taste of Ireland.READY FOR ST. PATRICK'S St. Patrick's or Saint Patrick's may refer to:
Noun Poetic Ireland Noun 1. Emerald Isle - an island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland Hibernia, Ireland CAN BE FOUND AT HOLLYWOOD'S IRISH IMPORT SHOP THE Irish Import Shop is probably the only place in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. where you can buy a shillelagh, a shamrock and a Claddagh ring The Claddagh ring is a traditional Irish ring, given in friendship or worn as a wedding ring. The design and customs associated with it originated in the Irish fishing village of Claddagh, located just outside the old walls of the city of Galway. . For decades, Richard and Annie Jones
The store is located in Hollywood and sells frozen Irish bacon (much wider and thicker than the U.S. kind), Waterford crystal Waterford Crystal is a trademark brand of crystal glassware produced in Waterford, Ireland, by the company Waterford Wedgwood plc., previously trading as Waterford Glass Ltd. glasses and Guinness beer sweatshirts (but not a single pint of the stuff itself). On a tall shelf behind the front counter are stacks of Irish wool sweaters. The store also has the largest selection of Belleek china in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . And hanging on a nail on the side of one of the shelves is a small cloth embroidered em·broi·der v. em·broi·dered, em·broi·der·ing, em·broi·ders v.tr. 1. To ornament with needlework: embroider a pillow cover. 2. with the blessing: "May you have warn words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and the road downhill all the way to your door." "You'll never miss home when you come in here, you've got it all," Richard Jones says. Business has steadily improved over the past decade, fueled by an increasing interest in Irish music and culture. In 1988, when the store moved to its present location on North Vine Street
"I just talked with my bookkeeper, and he said profits were up for '99," he said. "It's been better every year recently, so that's good." Various booms relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc Irish culture have helped. The "Riverdance" theatrical production Noun 1. theatrical production - the production of a drama on the stage staging production - a presentation for the stage or screen or radio or television; "have you seen the new production of Hamlet?" , which started as a small piece on a European television show has become a worldwide touring sensation and fueled an interest in Irish dance Irish dances come in several forms, which can broadly be divided into social dances and performance dances. Irish social dancing can be divided further into céilí and set dancing. . The store has done a brisk business in Irish dancing shoes as a result, along with selling "Riverdance" albums and videos. Crazy for Claddagh rings More recently has come the demand for Claddagh rings -- silver and gold jewelry that originally served as wedding bands. The appearance of the rings, which feature two hands holding a heart under a crown, on the hit television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" brought an unexpected demand. After the episode was aired, "we got calls from all over the country" for rings like the one the store had provided for the television show. "We're the only store in L.A. that sells authentic Claddagh rings from Ireland," Jones said. The rings go for anywhere from $100 to as much as $500, and have slightly different designs for men and women. As in the case of "Buffy," movie and television studios sometimes come calling for Irish flags, music or other memorabilia to use in various productions. Over the years, generations of customers have grown up with the store, as it has served as a meeting place for Irish folks to swap stories and information. "People who were children waiting in the car as their dad talked with Richard now come in with their children," Annie Jones said. "They come in for what in Irish is called the 'craik' -- gossip, news, just to talk." This week, the craik is flowing particularly thick: St. Patrick's Day is one of the busiest times of the year for the shop. "Then, I don't get a chance to get a drink," Richard Jones said with a laugh. "That's the sad part of it." Jones is from County Cork County Cork (Irish: Contae Chorcaí) is the most southwesterly and the largest of the modern counties of Ireland. Cork is nicknamed "The Rebel County", as a result of the support of the townsmen of Cork in 1491 for Perkin Warbeck, a in the southern part of the Irish Republic, but has been in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. He came here in 1957 from Canada, where he had emigrated a few years before. He soon found a job as a municipal bus driver, and worked for the city for 30 years before retiring in 1988. Broadcast beginnings In 1960, he started hosting a 30-minute radio show featuring Irish folk music folk music: see folk song. folk music Music held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. on Sunday afternoons that ran for several years. "The Shamrock Show" was an unexpected success, and its popularity fueled demand for Irish music. In response, Jones started a wholesale business, selling imported records. "I started selling over the air, and after a couple of years opened a store," he recalled. The shop was then on Melrose Avenue Melrose Avenue is a well-known Los Angeles street that starts from Santa Monica Boulevard at the border between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and ends at Hoover Street in Silver Lake. Melrose runs north of Beverly Boulevard and south of Santa Monica Boulevard. and sold some souvenirs along with the music. Jones operated it for a couple of years without a license, until he got caught. "I didn't know you needed a license," he grinned. "But (city authorities) were pretty good about it." He married his wife, Annie (from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland), in 1963 and soon after moved the business to Beverly Boulevard near Normandie A venue, setting up a 500-square-foot store near what was then a sizable Irish community. While he continued working as a bus driver, Annie minded the store and took the lead raising their four children. "That was the secret, marry and make your wife do the work," Annie joked. The more popular the store became, the greater the demand was to supply other goods along with music and trinkets. "The thing people would ask for was food," Richard Jones said. "Especially those who had only recently come from Ireland. They'd say, 'how come we can't get Irish bacon?' and the like." Spotlight IRISH IMPORT SHOP Year Founded: 1963 Core Business: Selling Irish music, food and dry goods Employees in 1963: 2 Employees in 2000: 2 Revenues in 1988: $225,000 Revenues in 1999: $500,000 Revenues in 2000: $500,000+ (projected) Goal: Remain the premier importer of Irish goods in Southern California Driving Force: Serving L.A.'s Irish and Irish-American community |
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