
Erie Eats: Molly Brannigan's
5/7/2021 | 4mVideo has Closed Captions
Molly Brannigan's started from humble beginnings and became a culinary destination.
Molly Brannigan’s legend can be traced to 19th Century Irish folklore, where her beauty inspired a melody of love and longing passed down through generations. Molly brought just three things with her to Erie – a brogue, a beer and a beautiful hand-hewn bar. From these humble beginnings comes what she is today – a culinary destination with something on the menu for everyone!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Erie Eats is a local public television program presented by WQLN PBS

Erie Eats: Molly Brannigan's
5/7/2021 | 4mVideo has Closed Captions
Molly Brannigan’s legend can be traced to 19th Century Irish folklore, where her beauty inspired a melody of love and longing passed down through generations. Molly brought just three things with her to Erie – a brogue, a beer and a beautiful hand-hewn bar. From these humble beginnings comes what she is today – a culinary destination with something on the menu for everyone!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[upbeat music] Hi, I'm Anne Brown, one of the owners at Molly Brannigan's in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Hello, I'm Greg Brown, one of the owners at Molly Brannigan's in Erie, Pennsylvania.
[upbeat music] Molly came over here with three things: a brogue, a beer and a hand-hewn bar.
So what that means is, a brogue is really a Irish dialect accent, a beer is perfect because we have tons of great beer here at Molly Brannigan's, and the bar aspect.
Most folks don't know this, but the bar and all the furniture and the fixtures here at Molly Brannigan's were deconstructed, put on a boat, moved overseas, and then reconstructed right here in Erie, Pennsylvania.
[upbeat music] All right, my name is Ricky Jamieson.
I work at Molly Brannigan's.
I've known my whole life I wanted to be a chef and I started out whenever I was 18, worked in my first kitchen.
I'm 28 now.
I've just been doing it ever since.
GREG: We're gonna be showing you the process of sautéing a filet colcannon.
This is a phenomenal dish here at Molly's.
It's pan-seared and glazed with a Jameson Irish whiskey and reduced demi glaze.
It comes with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and colcannon.
The filet colcannon would pair very well with a Guinness or really any type of Irish whiskey.
So we have a great selection of flights here at Molly's.
So, for those that are interested in learning more about Irish whiskeys, our staff would love to be able to engage with you and walk you through some of the cool flights we have and the history as well as the formulation of those drinks.
[upbeat music] [gentle flute music] So Beth Lewis, our business partner, she has fantastic style, great taste and she's super creative.
So I give her a lot of credit, but we knew that people love Molly's traditional atmosphere, but we felt like it could use a freshening up and put a little modern twist on it.
So, really, up here you can see there's new wallpaper, there's fresh paint, all the wood work was refinished.
We kept the furniture and worked with a local business to have it refinished and give it some new upholstery.
We are just so excited to be downtown.
And when you think of Molly Brannigan's, think about fun.
Think about a place to come after work, kick back a pint, have a cocktail with your friends.
Actually in this room that we're talking in right now is the Shebeen room, which is more than available for private events, whenever someone might enjoy those.
Shebeen actually means speakeasy in Gaelic.
I mean, really, one of the key missions with Red Letter Hospitality, which also owns other restaurants in the Erie region, The Cork 1794 and also the Skunk and Goat Tavern, was to create a culinary step change in the Erie region.
So, back in 2018, my business partner and I, Billy Lewis, we invested in the Molly's and not only did we invest in the Molly's, but we invested in Molly's because it was an investment in downtown.
And, quite frankly, it was an investment in our community.
And as we've gone through the course of time since getting involved with this business downtown in 2018, number one, I would say thank you so much to all of our phenomenal employees who've really made our idea a great success.
Number two, thank you to all of our guests and also our community, really, for joining us in this journey as we bring Molly Brannigan's back to life, but also bring the Erie downtown back to life.
[upbeat music]


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