Mary O's soda bread is increasing to viral fame – NBC10 Philadelphia

In a modest shop at the East Village in New York, Mary O's Irish Soda Bread Shop is installed in the other red-brick shops on the block. But one thing is characterized: customers regularly set up for hours to get their freshly baked goods into their hands before they are sold out.

The menu of the shop is simple and has Irish soda bread bread bread and scones with salty butter and fresh raspberry jam. The recipes that have been passed on by Mary O'Halloran's family over generations are the core of their operations. But the secret of her success is precision. Only O'Halloran himself processes the dough, a non -negotiable standard that it exists, which maintains the quality of her baked goods.

“I have people come and said:” Why did you come in nobody and help you? “It won't work,” she said. “The scone doesn't come out right away.”

O'Halloran said that the demand for her soda bread scones exceeds St. Patrick's Day every March, but her journey to success was not easy. Five years ago, O'Halloran was faced with the closure of her East Village Pub due to the financial burden on the Covid 19 pandemic. Her husband, a longhoreman who worked in Alaska, was unable to return home due to travel restrictions, so that she led the business alone.

It was their loyal pub customers who encouraged them to sell their scones, a pleasure that they had to love. What started as a small company soon attracted the attention of Brandon Stanton, the creator of the viral social media account “Humans of New York” with more than 12 million followers.

After interviewing O'Halloran, Stanton offered to make her scones known. O'Halloran finally hesitated and led to a sales area.

“So I wrote a story about it and we sold scones worth one million dollars that night,” Stanton told NBC News. “It is one of the biggest stories in the world.”

The overwhelming reaction converted O'Halloran's small baking operation into a community effort. Regular customers and neighbors sit down by packing orders, printing of labels and decorating boxes with handwritten notes and custom drawings of one of their daughters. Despite the increase in demand, O'Halloran remained committed to quality and took care of every game of dough itself.

“Mary is where she is because this scone tastes almost good,” said Stanton. “She would have gone there without me.”

It took more than a year to fulfill orders, but the hard work paid off. The income not only saved her pub, but also enabled her to open Mary O's Irish Soda Bread Shop in November 2024. Customers from all over the world flock to their business to try the viral scones and meet the woman behind the treats.

“I live in Los Angeles, but they told me, you know, next time you are in the city, there is a place we have to go, and it is the best scone you've ever had. It is the best Soda bread, ”said David Murphy, the out-of-teder.

The hard work was worth it for O'Halloran.

“I love it, so it's just,” she said. “Of course I'm tired, but I love what I get with people from it. So it's easy. “

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