The pandemic knocked her down, but Mary O’Halloran — and her mother’s delicious soda bread scones — rose up.
During the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mother-of-six had to close the East Village Irish bar, Mary O’s (32 Avenue A, East Village), that she’s had for more than a decade.
“[There was] nothing going on, pitch black outside every day, no one on the streets,” the West Ireland native told The Post.
To cheer herself up and give herself something to do, she began baking her mother’s Irish soda bread scones from the bar and selling them to old customers.
“It just gave me something to focus on,” she explained. “It wasn’t a money maker at all. I started doing it just to try it out and honestly there was no money in it. I just did it because I was in the bar with nothing going on.”
Soon, thanks to word-of-mouth and a Humans of New York Instagram post about O’Halloran and her scones, the soda bread business took off and she was inundated with orders.
But, O’Halloran, who makes the soda bread using a family recipe, was only willing to scale up so much
“I knew that I had to do it myself. I can’t send these scones out from anywhere else but Mary O’s,” she said. “They have to get the scones exactly the way I made them.”
By the spring of 2022, O’Halloran was able to partially reopen the bar for business, but the popularity of her scones never let up. In late November 2024, she opened a bakery location — Mary O’s Irish Soda Bread Shop (93 1/2 E. 7th St., East Village) — dedicated to the scones.
The shop sells just two things: individual scones topped with Irish butter and homemade blackberry jam ($6) and an Irish soda bread loaf ($30).
The bakery is only open Thursday to Sunday, from 7 a.m. to whenever they sell out — usually between noon and 1 p.m.
Customers eagerly line up in the cold to get their scones. They say they’re worth the wait.
“They were perfectly moist and the butter and jam made for a very perfect bite. l also really admire that it’s a family-owned business, it made the experience feel even more special and personal,” gushed Olivia Mannion, who braved a frigid January morning to wait in line for a scone, after seeing them on TikTok. “I absolutely loved it … It definitely won’t be my last time going there!”
O’Halloran estimates she makes and sells about 1,000 scones per day, but she doesn’t love talking quantities.
“I hate that question because everyone asks and then it rotates into how much money do you make a day,” she said. “I don’t make my scones for money. I don’t count them. I do it because I love doing it and seeing the people who get the scones. They’re just so happy, they love getting them.”
While the pastries have become a favorite of carb-loving social media mavens, the recipe is a simple one. They’re made with just raisins, butter, sugar, buttermilk and Irish self-rising flour.
“I think there’s a little magic in them, that’s the bottom line,” O’Halloran said. “People think I’m crazy but if you believe, you get it, if you don’t, you don’t, 99.99% of my people feel it. They eat the scone and they just love it. People are craving simple things right now.”
