Doors Anticipated to Open at Paddy Murphy’s Irish Pub

When revelers don the green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, odds are they’ll be able to do it at Marco Island’s sole Irish pub. 

The long-awaited opening of Paddy Murphy’s Irish Pub, located in Marco Town Center Plaza, should occur in time for the March 17 observation of the festive holiday that commemorates the fifth-century missionary credited with bringing Christianity to parts of the Emerald Isle. 

“If all goes well with the construction, we're shooting for a soft opening somewhere between the 11th and 14th of March and then to have the grand opening on the grandest day of all, as we say, St. Patrick's Day,” said Ireland native Michael O’Regan. He’s a partner in the restaurant and bar with his son, Mike, and fellow Marco Island resident Johnny “Spoons” McNaboe.

Paddy Murphy’s will occupy a roughly 3,000-square-foot corner space at the Town Center, situated between Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) and the Marco Island Post Office. The interior will feature a 50-foot-long bar, and there’ll also be an outdoor patio, with an indoor-outdoor bar. There will also be two stages and live music provided by O’Regan and his wife, Mary Jo, a realtor with Premier Sotheby's International Realty’s Marco Island office.

The interior will be accented with some traditional Irish design features. For example, there’ll be an Irish “Snug,” which is a small private room or compartment in a pub. 

“A lot of old traditional bars in Ireland have this feature,” said O’Regan. Back in the day, women didn't like to be seen drinking at the bar, so this was a room where they could go in, play cards or bridge, and there's a little cutout hole with a door latch so they can still get served by the bartender. For guys, there’ll be a dartboard and TV in there. It's a nice little feature to have.” 

The Snug’s door will include a stained glass rendering of a “Claddagh,” a woman’s ring bearing a pair of hands, a crown, and a heart symbolizing friendship, loyalty and love.

“A lot of women have a Claddagh ring as their wedding band,” explained O’Regan. “If you're married, it (the hands) points to your heart, and if it's pointed away, you're single or you're divorced.” 

One of the walls in the stage area will include a replica of Dublin’s Guinness Gates. Like the original, the replica will include the words “Saint James's Gate Brewery, Dublin,” with “Paddy Murphy's Irish Pub of Marco Island, Florida,” underneath. 

On one of the walls in the stage area, we're putting a replica of the Guinness Gates of Dublin. It says Saint James's Gate Brewery, Dublin. And then underneath it says Paddy Murphy's Irish Pub of Marco Island, Florida.

This will be the second incarnation of Paddy Murphy’s. The first operated for 22 years from a location on 5th Ave. South in Naples. It closed in 2020 when the building owners decided to follow through on long-delayed plans to redevelop the property. Efforts to find another Naples location failed, which led O’Regan to inquire about the Town Center space when the plaza was being refurbished by its current owner, Brixmor Property Group.

A remnant of that original location will be a prominent part of the new pub, a section of mahogany bar rail. 

“It originally came from Ireland,” said O’Regan. “When I started here on Marco Island, back in 1988, I started working as a bartender at the September's nightclub. That bar rail came from Ireland to September's. The guy I worked for, Paddy McDonough, turned out to be my partner in Paddy Murphy's. So it went from Ireland, to September's, to Paddy Murphy's and Naples, and now it's back here.”

An early 2022 debut had been the initial goal for the grand opening, but a variety of factors combined to delay the process. 

Plans for the opening to include a kitchen specializing in traditional Irish fare were placed on the back burner in order to complete construction in time for St. Patrick’s Day. O’Regan said that when he discussed the construction timetable with the project’s contractors five or six weeks ago, they estimated it would take another 12 weeks to finish the work. 

“That would have put us past St. Patrick's Day, which was always the end goal,” he explained. “So, I said, ‘What can we do to get things going a little quicker to make that a reality?’ And they said, ‘Because we have a full liquor license, we don't have to serve food.’ So, we decided to not do the kitchen for now and just open up the bar instead of a bar-restaurant.

“In reality, trying to get a kitchen staff in the middle of the season would be quite a challenge,” he added. “A lot of the people I wanted to hire already have jobs. So that’ll be a little easier. We can kind of ease into it. We just want to open the bar and then over the summer we'll finish the kitchen and hire the staff and be ready for the fall. That's the plan.”

O’Regan said the journey to reaching this point has included some emotional ups and downs for himself and his partners, but with the finish line in sight, all is positive. 

“We were excited at the beginning, but, you know, with all the obstacles we came across, in between, it was kind of disheartening,” he said. “But right now, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, so we're starting to get excited again. We passed a bunch of inspections last week, all the electrical and plumbing and everything, and now we're starting to sheetrock and close everything up. We start with the finishes next week. So, it's finally starting to look like a bar. It’s exciting.”

Marco Town Center is located at 1017 N. Collier Boulevard, at the intersection with Bald Eagle Drive.