Your Choice to Celebrate St. Paddy's Day: Donna's

Two Dundalk bars duked it out for the right to be called Dundalk Patch's favorite place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

But in the end, Donna's Restaurant and Tavern pulled ahead, gathering more than three times the votes as runner-up Seahorse Inn, with a final tally of 711-219 as of 9 a.m. Friday.

In addition, 14 fans of Donna's submitted reviews at Patch Places, and one comment was made below the article and poll.

Others receiving votes were Dundalk's annual St. Patrick's Day parade (11), Howard's Pub (5), the Seasoned Mariner and Hard Yacht Cafe (3 votes each), the Poplar Inn (2) and (1).

Because this poll is not scientific, votes cast are not the sole consideration in choosing a winner.

The winner is determined by the Patch editor, based on poll results, positive comments below and in reviews on each of the businesses' Patch Places directory listings.

Fans of Donna's were effusive in their praise of everything from the cleanliness of the restrooms to the quality of the pool tables and the quantity of free parking places.

"Nice nice nice," Mike wrote in his review. "You can tell a lady owns this place."

"Donna's, a reputation of first class," Joe wrote.

Kelly Wacker said she has been patronizing Donna's for 18 years and has watched the business transform "from a small narrow bar when it first opened back in the late 1980s to a huge, beautiful place."

Andrew said Donna's has the "friendliest staff of any bar in Dundalk" and a "very fun atmosphere."

In a nod to the poll subject this week, Dawn Carey wrote that Donna's always has an "awesome" St. Paddy's Day party and said she can't wait to see what's planned for this year.

In a town named for Dundalk, Ireland, there should be plenty of places to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Catch the annual parade in downtown Dundalk starting at 11 a.m., and then you can be the judge all over again as to the best place to celebrate.

Readers' Choice poll next week: kids' haircuts.