Just before St. Patrick’s Day, residents in suburban Massachusetts watched an Irish pub appear in a driveway—an entire miniature bar, tucked under basketball-hoop backdrop, brought in for the night instead of for a trip downtown. The Wee Irish Pub is part of a small business, Tiny Pubs, run by brothers Matt and Craig Taylor, who build compact, wheeled Irish pubs for holidays, weddings and backyard parties across New England.
Mark Cote, who hosted the pub in his Andover driveway last Friday, said the experience gives people a familiar place to gather. “It’s really just a time to forget about whatever’s going on in the world,” Cote said. “That’s what pubs are supposed to be — for people coming together and having fun.” Cote said about 20 people from five families—whose children had grown up together—squeezed into the roughly 20-foot-long (6-meter) space for his annual holiday party.
The idea began during COVID-19 lockdowns, when the Taylors found themselves missing the Irish pubs they liked to visit. Matt Taylor said the first miniature version was built in his Reading driveway, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Boston, after neighbors initially thought a pub would be living there full time. He said he and his brother worked until about 1 a.m. the night before they first rented the pub, and that he worried the windows might crack during the highway tow but the move went smoothly.
Since then, Tiny Pubs has grown into a business with four bars, including two Irish pubs, booked most weekends throughout the year. The Taylors said they wanted the mini bars to feel like real Irish pubs, not themed party props, and Craig Taylor said Irish friends advised them to avoid “leprechauns and stuff.” He said the brothers replied, “No — it’s going to be authentic.”
Inside, the pubs include design elements meant to recreate the look and feel of an older neighborhood establishment. The bar is crafted from the front panel of an 1864 piano, and seating comes from church pews salvaged from a local church. A pair of horseshoes from a farm in Ipswich hang above the door for luck, with Craig Taylor explaining that they point down when guests enter and up when they leave, and a hymn rack holds a book of Irish surnames where visitors mark their family names, sometimes with a dollar bill, prompting conversations about ancestry.
Other touches focus on both familiar pub routines and recognizable details, including packages of Scampi Fries—imported from Ireland—and a corkboard with patches from police and fire departments, a tradition common in pubs where first responders gather. Craig Taylor said one sign the brothers got the details right is when guests begin pointing things out inside: the Scampi Fries, a family name, or a familiar song—moments when the experience shifts from something novel to something personal.
The rented pubs also show up for life’s events beyond St. Patrick’s Day. Guinness has rented the Taylors’ pubs for weeks at a time, and the pubs have been used by a state senator during South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. Jarred Guthrie of Swampscott said his family has rented the original version for years as part of an annual celebration, drawing about 125 people with an Irish band inside while guests move between rooms, the pub and a waterfront yard overlooking the ocean.
For many guests, the evening becomes a rotating mix of informal service and performances, with people taking turns playing bartender, telling stories and singing. Guthrie said the pub’s music can include traditional Irish tunes or Gaelic lyrics that he said are rarely heard outside family gatherings, and he said, “People feel emboldened,” adding that “there’s a lot of singing that happens in that pub.”
Before each event, the Taylors personalize the space with custom posters that often include a family crest naming the host as the pub’s temporary “proprietor.” Matt Taylor said it is meaningful to people who may not be able to “get back to the old country,” and the brothers wait until everything is ready—lights low, music on, taps flowing—before letting guests inside. Craig Taylor said the moment can be like “Christmas morning,” and he described his deliveries as giving people joy, saying, “You’re delivering joy every day.”
After the night ends, the Taylors said they do not rush to remove the pub. “We never want to kick anybody out of an Irish pub,” Matt Taylor said, and he said the brothers return the next morning instead of late at night. Craig Taylor said when he asks hosts how long the party lasted, the answer is often “Like, three in the morning,” and that during clean-up there are sometimes people “sleeping on the pew,” as he joked.