Passing the bar with flying Irish colors

Alicia Robinson

In 1974, Fashion Island was just starting out, and Corona del Mar was

still a village when Los Angeles attorney Ron Schwartz partnered with

twin brothers Ed and Chuck Smythe to open a restaurant and bar

honoring the Smythes’ Celtic heritage.

A venerable institution in Newport Beach, and one of its only

authentic Irish pubs, Muldoon’s Dublin Pub and Celtic Bar on Sunday

kicked off a 30th-anniversary celebration that will last all year.

The Smythe brothers sold their interest in Muldoon’s after the

first year, but the restaurant is still a family business. Schwartz

and his wife, Sindi, a trained chef and former cooking-show host, own

the restaurant, and their two daughters have worked there.

Ron and Sindi Schwartz were married in the restaurant 17 years

ago, and Sindi dove in after the wedding to help with the business.

“I guess you’d have to say that Muldoon’s, up until that point,

was under an all-men’s tutelage, so you can imagine what I found,”

Sindi Schwartz said. “Little by little, I came in and started

cleaning and working in the kitchen and redoing all the recipes.”

She started using fresh herbs in all her dishes, and the apple pie

Muldoon’s serves is her grandmother’s recipe. Now the restaurant does

about 50% of its business in food, she said.

The menu includes a vegetable-rich Irish stew, corned beef and

cabbage, and shepherd’s pie as well as hamburgers, salads and an

extensive list of wines, beers and Irish whisky.

In honor of three decades in business, Muldoon’s will hold a

contest for patrons to design and name a gourmet burger to add to the

menu.

Over the years, the restaurant has wet the whistles of the late

John Wayne, writer Ray Bradbury, singer Sinead O’Connor, actor Will

Ferrell and Sen. John Kerry.

Sindi Schwartz said it’s even been popular with the dead. The

restaurant has been mentioned in wills as a place people want their

wakes held.

“It was when somebody asked me if they could bring the coffin to

the wake that I had to put my foot down,” she said.

The restaurant’s wall of fame immortalizes various prominent Irish

people and friends of the Irish, and the Schwartzes bring in events

such as Irish music and dancing and the annual sexiest-kilt contest.

In the tradition of a true public house, Muldoon’s offers food,

drink and a place to socialize and relax, said Marissa Schwartz, one

their two daughters.

“It’s supposed to be your home, your second home,” she said.

Patrons Barbara Wright of Newport Beach and her sister Joann

Wright of Orange said they like the atmosphere and the food.

“I’ve been [coming] here for about 10 years,” Barbara Wright said.

“Everybody knows Muldoon’s.”

The pub has been a second home to Muldoon’s general manager Mary

Murphy, who grew up in Ireland but has lived in Newport Beach for 17

years. She saw an ad for a waitress job at the pub in 1989, and she’s

worked there ever since.

“I don’t know any other pub like Muldoon’s [in Newport Beach],”

she said. “I don’t think there’s any pub that can match it.”

Today, the business is growing in a new way -- Marissa Schwartz, a

jewelry designer, created Muldoon’s logos for shirts and other

clothing, and those are selling well, she said.

And just upstairs from Muldoon’s, Ron Schwartz and daughter Shaina

Colover share a law practice. Sindi Schwartz jokes that they have two

bars, the legal kind and the pub.

“For me it’s a great feeling, Ron Schwartz said. “Now I have both

my daughters working with us.”

Muldoon’s Dublin Pub and Celtic Bar is at 202 Newport Center Drive

in Newport Beach.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].