Molly Mitchell, the matriarch of the McElhone family and namesake of the new Irish eatery in San Carlos, Molly O’s, pours a Guinness at the restaurant at 1163 San Carlos Ave.
Carly Hackbarth
Oliver (Óg) McElhone, Trea McElhone, Rose McElhone, Oliver (Óg) McElhone, Molly Mitchell and Juan Angulo pose for a photo.
Carly Hackbarth
Oliver (Óg) McElhone, an owner of the Irish restaurant Fiddlers Green in Millbrae, makes a cocktail behind the bar.
More than three decades after opening Fiddlers Green in Millbrae, the McElhone family is expanding their business footprint with another quintessential Irish pub and restaurant, Molly O’s, in San Carlos.
“My goal with Molly O’s is to emulate Fiddlers as much as possible,” said Oliver McElhone, whose parents opened Fiddlers Green in 1991. “Fiddlers did a really good job of creating community. It’s very authentic and those are things we want to try to bring to Molly O’s, have it be a community center, parties, celebrations of life, watching sports, commemorating milestones, meetings, school events. The goal is to keep it authentic Irish and to build that sense of community.”
Molly O’s, named after both the classic Irish tune and the family’s matriarch, Molly Mitchell, will bring classic Irish food, drink and fun to San Carlos following a weekend-long grand opening celebration at 1163 San Carlos Ave. from Friday, Sept. 8 to Sunday, Sept. 10.
The weekend’s celebration will include a performance by Irish musicians Hugo Straney at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, and 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, Sean Daly & the Shams at 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 and Ben Hunter & Friends at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10.
Like at Fiddlers Green, Oliver McElhone said the goal is to bring a similar Irish hospitality to San Carlos. Sinéad McElhone, his sister, said that style of hospitality could best be described by looking to their grandmother Molly who was easy to talk to and extremely welcoming, living her life by the motto, “There is no such thing as strangers, only friends you haven’t met.”
“When you walk into Fiddlers and Molly’s that’s the experience you can expect to receive. A lot of the time, whether American with an Irish background or straight off a plane from Ireland, people find connections,” Sinéad McElhone said. “That’s what we’re really striving for in both of those places, to really make it feel like you’ve opened the door to home.”
Creating gathering spaces for their Irish community has been a long-held tradition for the McElhones. Molly Mitchell first moved to the States from County Roscommon with her young family in 1958, living in San Francisco, Walnut Creek and eventually settling in Burlingame. The family opened a variety of bars over the years, Oliver McElhone said, one being Behan’s Irish Pub in Burlingame which is still owned and run by an uncle.
By the 1990s, Fiddlers Green was opened by Sinéad and Oliver McElhone’s parents and they and their sister Trea began working at the family business as soon as they were old enough. Oliver McElhone said he’d always felt called to continue the family legacy and would often talk about opening up another restaurant with their head chef Juan Angulo.
The perfect opportunity presented itself late last year when Angulo, now a partner at Molly O’s, learned the space at 1163 San Carlos Ave. would be opening up. The family secured the keys on Jan. 2 and spent roughly nine months getting the space ready for opening.
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“The opportunity really found us more than us going out and looking for it,” Oliver McElhone said.
Like many businesses, Oliver McElhone said surviving the pandemic was a major challenge for the family. Dedicated regulars supported Fiddlers Green along with state and federal grants and the family managed to keep their chefs working. Having just come out of the hardest parts of the pandemic, Sinéad McElhone said the family didn’t want to leave the site empty for long.
Its doors will officially open for business every day of the week starting Monday, Aug. 11. Hours of operation will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Bar hours will extend later to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 p.m. Sundays.
Once open, Oliver McElhone predicts the fish and chips will be a crowd favorite like it is at the Fiddlers Green along with the shepherd’s pie, Irish breakfast and spicy sandwich. Pints of Guinness will also be flowing, he said, noting the Fiddlers Green was awarded the perfect pint award in April of 2021.
“It feels a little surreal that we’ve finally hit the grand opening spot,” Sinéad McElhone said. “[The grand opening] will be a nice moment to begin our journey.”
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.