After 30 Years in Willoughby, Mullarkey’s Irish Pub Is Looking for Its Next Owner

For three decades, John Bowers has been the man behind countless late nights, Saturday sessions of live Irish music and packed St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Downtown Willoughby.

Now, the longtime owner of Mullarkey’s Irish Pub is getting ready to hang it up.

At 72, Bowers is looking for a life that leaves more room for travel with Eileen, his wife of 48 years. So he’s made the decision to put the bar he opened up for sale.

For years, Mullarkey’s was a family affair. The couple’s three sons each worked there as teenagers. But they grew up, found careers of their own and, unlike their father, won’t be making a life behind the bar. The question now is who will.

“Well, I am 72. I don’t have the vigor, vitality that I had just a few years ago,” Bowers says.

The decision to sell the bar closes a chapter that began long before downtown Willoughby became the dining and nightlife destination it is today. When Bowers took over what was then Erie Street Cafe on Aug. 13, 1996, he remembers just four places on Erie Street where someone could stop for a drink.

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“Downtown Willoughby was different than it is now,” Bowers says. “It was John's Cafe, 1899, Gavi's and Erie Street Cafe.”

Bowers was hardly an obvious candidate to help usher in that transformation. A Cleveland native who grew up in South Euclid, he spent some time teaching at St. Joseph High School before moving into medical sales, where he worked for 19 years. Eileen taught at Immaculate Conception, and the couple settled in Willoughby in part because it was convenient to their jobs.

The idea for the pub grew out of Bowers’ connection to Irish music and culture. Eileen’s grandparents immigrated from Ireland, and her father, who led tours to the country for years, was an avid fan of Irish music. Finding it often meant traveling to Cleveland’s West Side, and Bowers saw an opportunity closer to home.

“We weren't sure if we could do it, but I just felt like there was a need for that,” says Bowers. “I kept thinking, there's an East Side Irish Club, there's plenty of Irish folks on the East Side that there should be a venue to hear Irish music.”

The pub eventually took the name Mullarkey’s, a nod to Eileen’s maiden name, and began building an identity of its own in the neighborhood.

Bowers’ balancing act between the pub and his day job didn’t last long. He was fired from his medical sales position after missing a mandatory meeting because business at Mullarkey’s kept him tied up. From then on, the pub had his full attention.

Those early years were demanding, but Bowers didn’t want to build Mullarkey’s in isolation. With the local bar and restaurant scene still small, he believed neighboring businesses would benefit more from drawing people to the district together than fighting over the same customers.

“When we first moved in there, the bars were competing with one another, and I knew that if we changed that competition to a more collaborative approach, that, a rising tide will lift all boats,” he says.

That philosophy started with something as simple as a shared billboard, with neighboring businesses working together to draw people downtown. Over time, it became more organized. Bowers helped form the Downtown Willoughby Bar and Restaurant Association, turning that early collaboration into chili cook-offs, rib burn-offs, charity pub crawls and other events that gave people more reasons to come downtown.

As more businesses arrived, downtown grew from a handful of drinking spots into the dining and nightlife district Bowers sees today. He says that collaborative spirit has endured, with established owners still offering advice and support to newcomers.

Mullarkey’s has evolved alongside the neighborhood. Payments have shifted largely from cash to credit cards, and newer drinking trends have brought options like seltzers behind the bar. The crowd, though, remains a blend of generations.

“Well, it's still a mix. Later in the evening, it's mostly a younger crowd,” Bowers says. “There's older folks that come in, and as far as what people want from a neighborhood pub is,, a place to relax, a place to socialize, and those things have not changed.”

The music hasn’t gone anywhere, either. Kevin McCarthy has performed at Mullarkey’s for nearly all of its 30 years, Bowers says, while Mossy Moran has been playing there since 1996 and Dan McCoy has been a fixture for more than 25 years. Along the way, many have built followings of their own.

And while tastes behind the bar have changed, some taps are staying put.

“We've always maintained Guinness, Harp, Smithwick's and Magners,” Bowers says. “Those are the four draft products that we'll always carry. We won't step away from that.”

How many of those traditions survive after Bowers steps away will ultimately be up to whoever buys the pub. He isn’t attaching requirements to the sale or demanding that a new owner preserve Mullarkey’s as it is today. But after thirty years spent building the place, he admits he’d like to see some of its identity live on.

“Well, it would be cool if the new owners kept some of the traditions, kept the name, that would be nice,” Bowers says. “But it’s whatever they want to do with it. That's their prerogative. I mean, I wouldn't force it in a contract or anything like that. So you just hope that they will. That's all.”

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