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Molly Molloy's Opens
Will seek Market's okay on beer for center court

Plenty of taps await beer lovers at Molly Molloy's

The Iovine's opened gastropub Molly Molloy's at the Reading Terminal Market this morning. Named after brothers Jim and Vinnie Iovine's mother, the pub replaces the considerably more downscale Beer Garden.

The only detail to be resolved is whether customers can take beer into center court to enjoy with items bought from other market vendors. Jim Iovine told me their license allows them to sell beer for consumption in market seating areas, but they have yet to present their request to market management, which must also approve any such plan.

Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager, told me today that when the Iovines get around to making a formal request "it's a policy matter we have to deal with." Beyond operational issues, liability will be a key question, i.e., who's the responsible party for an alcohol-related incident outside of Molly Molloy's but within the market? Until that's resolved, you'll have to enjoy the craft beers offered by Molly Molloy's within the confines of the gastropub.

Although beer sales are strictly on-premises for now, there is a take-out counter for food. I tried it for a late breakfast this morning and found chef Bobby Fisher's French toast with berry sauce quite good, accompanied by a sagey scrapple. While I was enjoying that at a center court table, Tom Nicolosi of DiNic's had an early lunch of something else with French in its name: onion soup; he noted with approval that it was made from homemade stock, not an institutional salt-based broth.

No menu has been posted at the restaurant's website yet, but Menupages has one, even if they misspell its name.  Hot sandwiches include braised oxtail, pork belly, rib  eye, pulled chicken, and burgers. Irish beef stew, fish and chips, short ribs and chicken pot pies are among the entrees. And since the bar's focus is beer, there are wings.

There isn't a lot of overlap on the menu with what's offered by other RTM lunch vendors, but of all the others the one most likely to be concerned would be the Down Home Diner, which also offers a large seating area independent of center court and similar foodie aspirations. My guess is that Molly Molloy's won't so much take away business from the Down Home Diner as grow its own volume. And if it gets permission to sell beer in plastic cups for travel to center court, it can only help other sandwich vendors (though their profitable soft drink sales may suffer).

Beer Garden Shuts Monday,
Reopens on "Molly's" Birthday

The renovation of The Beer Garden will start next week, with the projected grand re-opening scheduled for Oct. 11, which just happens to be the birthday of the owners' mother. With the reopening, it will be renamed for her, Molly Molloy's.

In addition to more beer taps Molly Molloy's will feature food by chef Bobby Fisher, who's worked for owners Vinnie and Jimmy Iovine at a number of their catering venues. The new entrance to the Beer Garden will be from Center Count.

The Iovines had hoped to close off the entrance from the aisle between Franks A Lot and Coastal Cave, but the Philadelphia Historical Commission nixed that idea, which necessitated a modest redesign.

RTM Musical Chairs: Continued

Flying Monkey will move to Spataro's spot

Since Michael Klein in his The Insider blog today picked up and added to my report yesterday on DiNic's forthcoming move to the vacated Ochs' location, here's the rest of the story (much of it also reported by Michael):

The prime reason for all the musical chairs is Flying Monkey's lease for its center court spot. Originally the market wanted to move Flying Monkey to a new spot where coolers are now located (behind the wall displaying photos from pubic markets around the globe), but that wouldn't be on center court. Flying Monkey proprietor Elizabeth Halen would have been put at a locational handicap, so with the opening of the Ochs' spot, the musical chairs began.

Getting the cupcakerie on center court will be accomplished by moving to the Spataro's spot once they move into DiNic's space. Flying Monkey will get some additional space from The Spice Terminal, which will extend a bit into the current seating area astride the existing Flying Monkey location.

Paul Steinke hopes that the move of DiNic's will reduce congestion at the nexus of center court, which long lines waiting for roast pork sandwiches create a traffic jam from for one or two hours every lunch time. DiNic's additional seating may help as well.

Beer Garden Progress

Vinnie Iovine reports he and brother Jim received Philadelphia Historical Commission approval for their design on Friday. They still have some minor tweaks and approvals to obtain, but none that they see standing in the way. Once everything is in hand, expect a shut down of the Beer Garden after the Independence Day holiday for a month of renovations. When they reopen as Molly Molloy's, the entrance will be from center court and feature a gastro-pub menu from Bobby Fisher, who has long served as chef of the Iovines' catering operations.

Iovines Clean Up Beer Garden

The Beer Garden, with latticework removed, is now more open to the rest of the market.
That's Jack Morgan, proprietor, stopping by, at far right

As anticipated Jimmy and Vinnie Iovine took over ownership of the Beer Garden at the Reading Terminal Market earlier this week, and they quickly made changes, though more will come in the months ahead.

The most visible change is the removal of the latticework that isolated the pub from the rest of the market. Now, with only a half wall around three quarters of its borders, The Beer Garden opens up invitingly to market shoppers.

In addition to a general quick cleanup of the space, the Iovines also introduced craft brews, both on tap and in bottles. The taps now feature Guinness and Stoudt's Scarlet Lady, along with Yuengling and a couple mass market brews.

For the moment, they are promoting it as "The Beer Garden (by iovine brothers)", but when major reconstruction takes place, including installation of a kitchen, it will be a gastropub called "Molly Molloy's," in honor of the brother's Irish mother.

More and Better Beer on Tuesday!

The Iovine brothers, Jim and Vinnie, are expected to take over the Beer Garden on Tuesday, following the scheduled settlement Monday.

They will operate the business under the name Molly Malloy's.

Although renovation work will delayed because of some design nits of the Philadelphia Historical Commission, they plan to open Tuesday with 10 beers on tap, including local craft brews. In addition to some products of big brewers, the taps will offer Guiness (another big brewer, but one who puts out a unique product), Victory's Hop Devil, Yards' Philadelphia Pale Ale, and Troegs' Sunshine Pils. The beer list Jim provided me today also shows Sly Fox's Scarlet Lady, but that must be a typo: Scarlet Lady is made by Stoudt's.

Eventually they'll add some great bottled beers to go along with the standards. Among them will be products by Appalachian, Bells, Boddingtons, Dock Street, Dogfish Head, Flying Fish, Lancaster Brewing, Hagic Hat, Original Sin Cider, Penn Brewing, Philadelphia Brewing, Rougew, Sly Fox, Stoudts, Straub, Troegs, Victory, Wyerbacher and Yards.

Until the new kitchen is constructed the only food offered will be the same as under current management: chili dogs. But the chili, currently out of a can, will be made by Bobby Fisher, the Iovine's chef who works for their catering business and was chef at local golf and swim clubs where the Iovines operated the kitchen.

Fisher has a considerably more ambitious menu planned when the renovations and kitchen are completed.

The french fries will be hand-cut on premises and served with a roasted garlic mayo. Among the starters: wings in a bourbon bbq sauce, salt and pepper baby back ribs, homemade bbq potato chips and fried eggplant "fingers" with tomato jam. Three soups -- creamy potato, roasted tomato bisque, and veggie -- are on the menu. Eight salads are listed to take advantage of the Iovine's excellent produce sources.

Molly Malloy's will offer a steak sandwich, but it won't be your typical Philly cheese steak. Instead, Fisher will serve a char-grilled rib eye in a brioche roll with roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions and provolone. Two other hot sandwiches I'm eager to try (both of whose fillings will also serve as the basis of more extensive platters) include a braised oxtail on ciabatta with gtrilled onions and carrot ketchup and a roasted pork bell with apple-onion compote and fried leaf spinach on a French roll. There will also be a burger, BLT with avocado, sausage and potato, braised chicken thigh and a grilled cheese with goat cheese on brioche.

Cold sandwiches include sweet glazed turkey, lime scened chicken salad on tortilla with avocado, a veggie cream cheese, and open-faced tuna salad.

Besides the pork belly, other plates will include the ribs, fish and chips, fried chicken tenderloins and a braised short rib pie in a Guinness reduction. The small dessert menu will include a grilled peach shortbread with fresh berries.

There is also a breakfast menu with egg platters and sandwiches, vanilla and cinnamon scented French toast, and baked frittata.

I'm getting hungry.

LCB Glitch Delays Booze at Markets

A purported computer glitch at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is holding up two transactions related to Philadelphia markets.

The LCB has temporarily "lost" applications of Blue Mountain Vineyards and Molloy Molloy's. The former is seeking to sell its wine at the Rittenhouse Square farmers' market. The latter, as previously reported here, is a venture of the Iovine brothers to take over the Beer Garden at the Reading Terminal Market and recast it as a gastro pub. The computer glitch is expected to delay each of the endeavors by a couple of weeks.

Another Beer Garden Update

The Iovine brothers still haven't closed their deal to take over the Beer Garden and convert it to Molly Molloy's, an Irish pub. The last big hurdle, according to Jim Iovine, is approval by the LCB of the design. When the deal concludes, the Beer Garden will shut down for reconstruction. Alas, no way they can accomplish all that in time for the Flower Show in early March. A mid-spring opening is probably the best the Iovines can hope for.

The layout of the pub will be considerably different than the Beer Garden's, with the main entrance repositioned to Center Court near Flying Monkey. The bar, which sits in the middle of the space, will be moved to the area where public seating can now be found. There will be a long banquette against the far wall opposite the rear of the L. Halteman butcher shop.