Nearly 3 million $1 bills cling to the walls and drape from the ceilings of McGuire’s Irish Pub in Destin, each telling a story of those who left them behind: birthday wishes, anniversary dates and the names of lost loved ones scribbled in black ink.
That tradition began unintentionally in 1977, when the late Molly Martin stapled the first tip she and her husband, McGuire, received after opening the pub. Today, it’s “a whole family movement of everybody putting dollars here, stapling wherever they like,” said their grandson Jack Martin, who manages the Destin location. Some visitors even return to search the green-covered walls for the last dollar they left behind, stapling a new bill over it year after year until the stack grows thick.
It’s far from the only custom McGuire’s has kept alive for nearly five decades. Another is the 18-cent Senate bean soup that has been served daily in the U.S. Senate dining room for over a century. While its price has risen in the nation’s Capitol, it’s remained the same at McGuire’s because, the pub jokes, “we all know Washington can’t control costs.”…