The watering hole’s website puts it plainly, simply, and confidently, “Molly Bloom’s is Israel’s first truly Irish Pub.” That’s quite an Emerald Isle marker to lay down, but the facts on the ground are there to substantiate the claim.
As many a proprietor in this country knows, it’s not easy keeping a food-based business going in the long term. The overheads, taxes, etc., don’t come cheap, and there are all kinds of unknowns out there that get in the way. Leisure time trends can fluctuate, and frequent regional military altercations put a spanner in the works too. That’s even without mentioning the COVID-19 era when lockdowns came and went in double quick time, or the fact that popping down to the local on the corner of Hayarkon Street and Mendele Street in Tel Aviv is not the first thing that springs to mind when enormous missiles are heading your way courtesy of Iran.
With all the aforesaid considered, Ronny Levy and Robert Segal are thrilled to have stayed the course, with the pub they opened in 2000 preparing to celebrate its silver jubilee from November 28 to 30. The pair has lined up all kinds of fun stuff for the three-dayer, with copious amounts of Guinness front and center, and patrons even getting an opportunity to pull their own pint.
So, how did Swedish-born Levy, along with Segal, who hails from the home of Guinness, manage to get the bar up and running? For Levy, Molly Bloom’s was a bit of an afterthought. “We ran hostels and a guest house before this,” he recalls. Then again, there was some intent in there, and some prior experience, of sorts. “We had a breakfast room in the guest house, which also served as a little bar in the evening. One day, someone came and said Guinness is coming to Israel. So Robert called and asked if we could have Guinness [to sell].”
Even with Segal’s birthplace pedigree, it wasn’t going to be that easy to cash in on the introduction of the iconic “Black Stuff” to this part of the world. The modest drinks dispensary at the guest house was deemed to be ill-equipped to cut it in terms of the required turnover.
“They said no because it has to be drunk within a certain amount of time,” Levy explains. Segal wasn’t going to let a little matter of sales volume deter him. “Robert said to Guinness, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll drink it,’” Levy chuckles.
Thankfully, the sought-after agreement with the Dublin-based brewery eventually came to be, pursuant to a highly successful St. Patrick’s event at the guest house bar, at which a surprisingly large amount of Guinness was downed. Segal’s liver also lived to fight another day. “Robert didn’t have to drink it all himself,” says Levy.
A representative of the Irish alcohol giant came to Israel, looking for potential local outlets for the world famous stout and, with his help, Levy and Segal obtained the hefty backing of the Israeli branch of Coca Cola. The requisite finances were sorted out and, on November 29, 2000 – coincidentally, the 53rd anniversary of the United Nation’s vote on the creation of the State of Israel – Molly Bloom’s, designed and kitted out with appropriate furnishings, opened its doors to an eager and thirsty Israeli consumership.
“We remade the floor according to the [Irish] company’s specifications and painted the place according to their specifications,” says Levy.
As anyone will know who has savored the special ambience of a pub in Ireland, or even watched a movie with a scene set in an Irish bar, live music generally goes hand-in-hand with pint pulling, and Molly Bloom’s got in on the act from the start.
“We had someone, actually playing the Scottish bagpipes, at that first event at the guest house bar,” Levy notes.
Jamming happily in a corner of a Tel Aviv pub
Before long, something close to the real McCoy appeared when Ehud Nathan came knocking at Molly Bloom’s door. Nathan, who plays bouzouki and bodhran, is considered to be the godfather of the Irish music scene. He created, and has fronted, his Black Velvet group, through its various incarnations, since back in 1980 – and was a regular in the early days of the long-running Jacob’s Ladder Festival up north.
Every Friday afternoon, Nathan, various members of the band, and other like-minded musicians can be found jamming happily away in a corner of the Tel Aviv pub. And they will be in the thick of the anniversary weekend program.
A quarter of a century of providing thirsty folk here with alcoholic beverages, including dozens of fine whiskies, as well as a varied menu of solid sustenance, is some going. But it has been far from easy. The bar has been through its fair share of ups and downs over the years, generally brought on by political and security upheavals.
The place started with a bang. “We opened the doors that first night and there were people lining up outside to get in,” Segal happily recalls. ‘It went really well to begin with.”
“I still meet people who say they couldn’t get in back then because the place was so packed,” Levy adds. “But that was the first years.”
That was a golden era for anything Irish here, with a well-attended Irish music festival taking place annually at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, bands from Ireland practically queuing up to play here – and local Celtic music acts springing up all over the country.
“We had four or five very good years,” says Segal. “In those days, we had to send people home at 2 a.m. There were Israelis, foreign workers, journalists from abroad.”
This was at a time when the Israeli bar scene was still in an embryonic state, so to find a professional pub with several brews on tap, and fixtures and fittings that brought a whiff of foreign climes over here, was an enticing novelty.
But, as with so many walks of life here, at some stage, regional violence intervened and the business took a serious knock on the head.
“[IDF operation in Gaza] Protective Edge was the first blow,” Segal notes. “We opened through the Second Intifada, with all the terrorist attacks – remember Mike’s Place was blown up then – the place was still packed. There were sirens going off the whole time during Protective Edge, and people didn’t want to leave the house.”
Levy and Segal were determined to keep the ball rolling regardless, even opening a new bar in Sarona slap bang in the middle Protective Edge.
“We could see missiles flying over from there,” Segal laughs. “And when things started settling down, there was a terrorist attack in Sarona.” Tel Avivians were wary about venturing out in the evenings, half of the place was sold off to a restaurant, and Levy and Segal eventually offloaded the other part.
More trials and tribulations came there way when COVID-19 came along and put a definitive damper on pub life. “We were closed for six months,” says Levy.
Somehow, Molly Bloom’s managed to resume operations after the pandemic, just in time for the backlash of October 7 to leave its mark on their turnover. That required a strategic shift.
“The sirens always went off in the evenings, so we opened earlier, in the afternoon, and when it got dark, everyone was gone; they went home,” Levy says with a wry smile. “We had a few evacuees [from communities near Gaza] who were staying at hotels near here, who’d come in for a quick drink.”
A marketing rethink was in order, and a slew of potential crowd pullers were introduced, such as musical bingo nights and live music on Mondays, in addition to a return of Nathan’s Irish music jam sessions. The menu was augmented with new dishes, and five large TV screens were dotted around the pub showing a variety of sporting events. “The [European soccer] Champions League is, of course, the most popular, and we get a lot of people coming in when the World Cup is on,” says Levy.
So here we are, a quarter of a century on since Molly Bloom’s first threw opened its doors to enthused consumers delighted to get an opportunity to sample some of Ireland’s finest – and soak in the convivial ambiance of a real Irish pub, right here in the Middle East.
There will be a special menu laid on for the birthday three-day event, and we’ll have live music. No doubt the patrons will be glued to the bar’s TV screens on the Sunday, as they sup their beverage of choice.
“Guinness is now the official sponsor of the [English] Premier League,” Levy notes. “There are a lot of good games on Sunday.” There will be special birthday t-shirts on offer for anyone ordering three pints, and customers can get to play barman and try their hand at pulling their own beer.
The Guinness-soccer-matchup has proven to be a winning combo over the years, and Segal and Levy hope that, along with the live music, games, and traditional décor, it will continue to bring in the punters, keep the cash till ringing, and help keep Molly Bloom’s a merry going concern for years to come.
Cheers!
For more information: https://www.molly-blooms.com/