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As a child, Emma Crawford frequently visited the beloved Irish gift shop, Irish on Grand. As an adult, she helped run the store alongside its longtime owners. Soon, she will open her own Irish shop in the same location. Moloney’s Irish Imports opens Saturday in the former Irish on Grand building where it will continue a decades-long tradition of supplying St. Paulites with Irish favorites like Winston’s sausages, Irish dance shoes, Claddagh rings and Belleek dishware. “When (Irish on Grand) closed, at the time, we thought it was the end,” said Crawford, who began working for the store in 2021. After 35 years of doing business at 1124 Grand Ave., Irish on Grand owners Maeve O’Mara and Liam O’Neill made the difficult decision earlier this year to close their storefront and sell the building, opting to spend more time with family and traveling to and from Ireland. “After they closed, we started thinking about what’s next and decided to try and open our own store,” said Crawford, who owns Moloney’s with her husband, James Berget. Moloney’s Irish Imports Somewhat of a continuation of Irish on Grand, Moloney’s will carry time-tested Irish favorites like wool hats and sweaters, candles and food including Irish tea, marmalade, jams, biscuits, chocolates and, of course, Winston’s breakfast sausages. To make the business their own, Crawford and Berget have sourced new products, brought in new vendors and updated the layout of the building’s main floor to accommodate the new, spacious checkout area. “I’ve had a lot of fun sourcing smaller designers, makers and artists,” Crawford said, like peat candles from Dalkey Aromatics and stationery from Dublin-based illustrator Rachel Corcoran. Corcoran designs greeting cards, prints and notepads in a style that is nostalgic for expatriates, said Crawford, whose mother is an expat. “When we reached out (to Corcoran), we were the first American-based store to reach out to her,” she said. Crawford brings a decade of retail experience and Irish heritage to the shop while Berget, who manages a group home and is “Irish by marriage,” takes on the more physical tasks like refinishing furniture for the space. One such project Berget took on was refinishing the food pantry shelving, which customers of Irish on Grand know well. While sanding down the countertop in the pantry, Berget discovered ornately-patterned burn marks scorched into the wood from cast iron pans of years gone by. Instead of covering up the emblazoned seals, the owners chose to keep them visible, saying it adds to the charm of the building. In addition to their own personal savings, the couple said they received help from family members to launch the business and used a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration to secure the building. The 115-year-old building was recently purchased for just under $650,000, according to an electronic certificate of real estate value filed with the state that lists the buyer as Two Cottages LLC. Family ties The store is named after Crawford’s mother, Nanette Moloney, who emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. Moloney, the youngest of seven who grew up outside of Limerick, said it was a “big surprise” when she learned the name of the new store. “It’ll be really nice to have our name up in full print so people know how to spell it,” she joked. Moloney has lived in Minnesota for the past 40 years and known O’Mara and O’Neill for about the same length of time. “Maeve and Liam were at our wedding,” Moloney said. Meanwhile, O’Mara and O’Neill claim to have known Crawford “before she was born.” The closing of Irish on Grand did not come as a surprise, Moloney said. “I knew it was coming down the pike. It was time,” she said. When she learned that her daughter was making an offer on the building, “I was amazed. I was terrified,” Moloney said, adding that Crawford has taken to business ownership “like a duck takes to water.” Moloney said she is looking forward to helping out around the shop, meeting other fellow expats and stocking up on Lyon’s Tea and Little Chip Lemon Marmalade. “Most of the people who come in are expats and they want a little piece of their childhood,” she said. “I’m expecting to meet a lot more people through being at this shop.” Tariffs, trials and tribulations While Crawford and Berget were in the process of buying the building on Grand Avenue near Lexington Parkway, President Donald Trump was threatening 30 percent tariffs on goods imported from the European Union. “Luckily it’s not that,” Crawford said, as a trade deal was reached for a roughly 15 percent tariff on most European goods, with specialty tariffs applied to wool, metal and pharmaceutical products. “No one really knows exactly what’s happening or what the best way to handle imports is right now,” Crawford said. “We think we have it sort of figured out, until something changes again.” To combat some of the unpredictability, the business owners said they are “ordering smart” by ordering in bulk as often as they can and forecasting sales and expenses further out to help better distribute import processing fees. For example, at Irish on Grand, Crawford said they placed a weekly dance shoe order. “If we didn’t have the right size in stock, it would just come the next week. That is a thing of the past … because the processing fees would be impossible to justify,” Crawford said. As a result, Moloney’s shoe orders will be less frequent and about three times bigger than the orders of Irish on Grand, Crawford said. “We are hoping we can be smart enough with the ordering that we’re keeping overall fees and costs down as much as possible so we aren’t having to pass that on to other people,” she said. “Some things we are resigned to not making a margin,” Crawford said. Candy and sweets, for instance, have gone up almost double in price, she said, but Moloney’s won’t double their prices. Irish on Grand When Irish on Grand closed its doors earlier this year, O’Mara and O’Neill planned to continue selling products in their online store and at the Minnesota State Fair, one of their favorite traditions. When the Pioneer Press caught up with the husband-and-wife team on Thursday, they said that plan has changed. “We want freedom to travel and an online store can be very costly,” O’Mara said. Getting straight to the point, O’Neill said: “It was tying us down.” As a result, the couple decided to pause the online store and said they have no immediate plans to restart it. Rest assured, though, the Irish on Grand booth at the State Fair will continue. “I’m working 12 days a year,” O’Neill said with a laugh. “We had a lot of fun and it was a lot easier not having to run the store at the same time,” O’Mara said of the State Fair this year. “It was like a reunion.” New generation “People were feeling the loss of (Irish on Grand),” said Holly Weinkauf, president of the Grand Avenue Business Association and owner of Red Balloon Bookshop. News of Moloney’s opening traveled quickly along the avenue and, “People are thrilled,” Weinkauf said. “That was some of the best news we heard, that there was someone who bought the building and is putting in an Irish store.” To begin, shoppers will have access to products on Moloney’s main floor, but the couple has hopes to expand its inventory to the second floor of the building next year. Crawford and Berget, who are expecting a baby, also have plans to set up a nursery at the shop. “I think it’s going to be great. It’s filling a gap that was left open there,” O’Neill said. “I hope things go well, I am wishing them the best.” O’Mara and O’Neill plan to be at Moloney’s for Saturday’s grand opening to support the new business owners and pick up some Irish products of their own. “I’m out of flour for my brown bread — Odlums Wholemeal Flour, extra coarse,” O’Mara said with a chuckle. “Maeve and Liam were an institution, they left this big hole with the store closing,” Moloney said. “We’re not going to fill the hole exactly, but we’re hoping it will be as welcoming as they were.” Moloney’s Irish Imports When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Where: 1124 Grand Ave., St. Paul.
