Photo by Warren Scott Bartender Regan Hunter prepares the outdoor bar at McCarthy’s Harp and Habit for a busy St. Patrick’s Day weekend, with an assortment of drink and dinner specials offered and several performers set to take to the stage in the covered patio of the Steubenville restaurant through Monday.

STEUBENVILLE — Since it opened last fall, the Harp and Habit adopted an Irish theme, but with the restaurant’s transfer to a new owner, it’s embracing the tastes and sounds of the Emerald Isle wholeheartedly with a slate of food and drink specials and live entertainment throughout St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

The restaurant has been renamed McCarthy’s Harp and Habit, and new owner Chris McCarthy said he’s enjoyed building on the menu and atmosphere created by friend and former owner Franco Carapellotti while adding his own touches.

McCarthy said it’s a great time for those who haven’t stopped into the restaurant recently to experience the changes and for anyone who would like to kick back and celebrate the holiday.

In light of the recent warm weather, he and his staff have prepared a covered outdoor patio, served by two bars, adjacent to the restaurant.

The area includes a stage to showcase a full lineup of musicians delivering Celtic and other music at 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and from noon to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday.

McCarthy said in the event the weather should become wetter and cooler, the patio can be enclosed and heated and there will be plenty of seating, indoors and out.

For the weekend, the eatery will be offering a special Irish menu that includes corned beef and cabbage, bangers and mash (sausage with mashed potatoes), cottage pie, Guinness stew, Reubens and Reuben burgers and colcannon (Irish mashed potatoes.)

The bartenders will be serving up green tea shots, mini beer shots and many other drinks.

And for dessert, there’s bread pudding, Irish potato candy, Irish dirt pudding or Guinness floats.

McCarthy’s Harp and Habit recently added a Lenten menu, including baked cod, grilled salmon, crab cakes, cajun shrimp and other seafood entrees. It’s available throughout the week during Lent.

McCarthy said Wing Wednesdays, with an expanded selection of 30 sauces, and Sunday brunches, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., have been well received.

He added that in April he will be introducing a new menu with about a dozen new items and some returning favorites.

McCarthy said among them will be mushroom ravioli, served with an Irish cream sauce, that proved to be popular around Valentines Day and is included in the Lenten menu.

McCarthy is a native of Philadelphia, where he owned and operated a chain of sit-down hamburger restaurants.

He had attended Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2002 and returned recently because his daughter is a student there.

While visiting Carapellotti, “I came to the restaurant and was really impressed by what he did here.”

McCarthy said he started working in the restaurant industry as a teen, serving as a waiter, bartender and in other positions before opening his first restaurant seven years ago.

His ancestors hailed from County Cork, Ireland, and he recently welcomed the opportunity to visit his ancestral home.

But McCarthy also gives high marks to the Steubenville area, which has become to him and his family of nine.

“I love Steubenville. I have a lot of friends here. Some of my best friends were born and bred here,” he said.

“The people here are very hard working and really caring.”

McCarthy’s Harp and Habit is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday.

It is part of Franciscan Square, about 4.5 acres developed by Fraspada Co. Limited, headed by Carapellotti, and Franciscan University of Steubenville along University Boulevard near the campus’ entrance.

The site includes a four-story, 113-room hotel, a seasonal ice-skating rink and other eateries and businesses.