The ownership team behind an Irish pub that recently arrived along the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza will be opening another endeavor in Jersey City’s northernmost neighborhood as a long-time local staple appears slated to undergo a renovation.
Earlier this summer, a public notice was published looking to transfer a liquor license at 1135 Summit Avenue. The property, situated at the road’s intersection with Irving Street, has been home to the Blarney Pub for decades.
Jersey City’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board heard the application over the summer, which was initiated by a group called Bela Restaurant Group LLC. Ownership within the entity includes Michael Donan and Grace O’Malley’s co-owners Michael McKenna, Camillus O’Callaghan and Jeremy Tirpak.
For the uninitiated, Grace O’Malley’s opened inside the former LITM space at Newark Avenue back in 2020. The contemporary Irish restaurant fashions themselves a “whiskey chapel” and have greatly expanded their outdoor seating area following the completion of the plaza’s renovation.
Construction paper is officially up at the windows at the Blarney Pub property, but there’s no word on exactly what will be coming to the space. An inquiry Jersey Digs placed to Grace O’Malley’s about the Blarney Pub takeover has thus far gone answered.
Whatever the situation, changes are clearly in the works for this relatively quiet stretch of Summit Avenue. The pub is situated along the northern end of The Heights near the Union City border in a more residential neighborhood not far from Washington Park and Bang Cookies.
