Meagher had planned to open Lowry's Irish Coffee House in San Jose's River Street Historic District on St. Patrick's Day 2004. Instead it took until April 10 for the Willow Glen resident to finally open for business.

"We had delays and we'd be working and I'd see this stream of people walking by to the Sharks games and I was wishing we were open," he says.

"We opened up just as the Sharks season was closing and, of course, we haven't had the Sharks since."

So March 17 will be Lowry's first St. Patrick's Day celebration--an occasion Meagher is marking with a number of specials, including Irish oatmeal for breakfast, Irish stew later in the day and, of course, corned beef.

"We'll have some Guinness promotions and we'll be showing some Irish sports and music videos on television," he says.

Now 33, Meagher came to the Bay Area from Limerick a decade ago and his voice still has an Irish lilt.

"I won a green card in the lottery system," he says. "Things were not too good in Ireland economy-wise so I came to America, the land of opportunity."

After working at high-tech jobs, Meagher decided he wanted to start a business.

"I was looking at different options, such as a franchise, but I wanted to open something with a bit of Irish identity and representative of where I came from," he says.

Rather than follow what he saw as "the usual route of an Irishman opening an Irish bar," Meagher decided to open Lowry's Irish Coffee House.

Lowry is his childhood nickname, one his father still calls him, so he decided to use it.

His logo is a traditional Irish Claddagh symbol. However, instead of two hands holding a heart, they are holding a coffee cup with steam rising from it.

Lowry's goes beyond coffee, offering a selection of sandwiches, salads, pastries and desserts. The restaurant also serves wine and beer.

What it does not serve is the Irish coffee drink made with Irish whiskey, invented at Shannon Airport and popularized by newspaperman Stanton Delaplane and the Buena Vista Café in San Francisco.

"We're an Irish coffee house," Meagher says emphasizing the word coffee. "We do serve an Irish cream coffee made with a liquor made with wine if people want something that's similar. It's like a Bailey's Irish cream coffee."

More popular are beers such as Guinness, Harp, Bass and Murphy's.

"At the beginning, I thought we would be more of a coffee house with a bit of food, but as we've developed, we're more like a deli that does coffee. Our food has an Irish flavor," Meagher says.

"We import Irish mustards and relishes for sandwich dressings and we use Irish cheese and butter. On the breakfast side, one of our most popular items is the Irish breakfast sandwich, made with Irish bacon and sausage and Ballymaloe relish."

He points out that many items are what you find on any good sandwich list, like a club or BLT sandwich, but, he says, "each has an Irish flavor to it. The Irish Reuben is homemade and everything is familiar, but at the same time it's different."

For those who develop a taste for the Irish items, there's a small selection of Irish food products for sale as well. These include Mileeven Irish Whiskey Fruit Cake, Tipperary Pub Mustard and Jameson Orange Marmalade.

Roi B. Davis, owner of the former Cents & Sensibility store on The Alameda, has been patronizing Lowry's for several months.

"In the past, I owned a group of travel agencies and traveling to Europe was part of my six-month agenda," Davis says. "Visiting Lowry's is like taking a trip back in my past, and the food is excellent."

Peggy Monahan, who lives in San Jose, says she first went to Lowry's last summer and now stops by on mornings when she's on her way to work at the Children's Discovery Museum.

"A friend of mine found it," she says. "He told me he'd driven by this glorious little place that was lovely, comfortable, had a wireless connection and the coffee was good and the people were nice. I stopped by one day and I've been going ever since.

"I've been working my way down from a four-shot espresso, and now I'm down to a two shot. I always get the Breakfast Bite. It's egg, cheese and sausage and has this Irish relish that is really yummy. Ballymaloe relish. It's good stuff."

For the first few months after opening Lowry's, Meagher worked 14-hour days, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Now he has a staff of eight part-time employees and keeps shorter hours, closing most nights at 6 p.m.

Looking ahead, Meagher is optimistic that once the Guadalupe River Parkway opens and the Sharks resume play, business will pick up enough to justify staying open later. In the meantime, Meagher is getting ready to enjoy this year's St. Patrick's Day.

"When I was growing up in Ireland it was never that big of an occasion. It was a day to wear a shamrock and go to Mass. Now it's a big drinking occasion. Everybody likes to be Irish for a day, so I can't complain."

In fact, he says, "One of our ice drinks on the coffee side is an Irish Kiss and another is the Nutty Irishman.

"We're off the beaten track, but we're worth the trip. The food and coffees are pretty good, and you can always get an Irish Kiss at Lowry's."

Lowry's Irish Coffee House is located at 350 W. Julian St. at Almaden Avenue. For more information call 408.993.9356 or visit www.irishcoffeehouse.com.