“We have a lot of work to do,” said Scott Prince, one of the partners in the venture. “But so far, the experience has been really great. I’m very hopeful that our vision will become a reality.”
Prince, 40, knows his way around a bar; he’s poured drinks at The Banshee in Dorchester for the past eight years. Before that, he lived on Mission Hill and worked at another neighborhood staple, the Puddingstone Tavern.
The original Flann O’Brien’s, known for its rusting statue of its Irish poet namesake (since auctioned off), closed in December 2020 after being open since at least the early 1990s. But Prince said his memories of it are still strong.
“It was a place where you kind of got lost in,” he said. “You would go in for a brunch, right, and you’re hanging out, you’re watching whatever, and before you know it, it’s 6 o’clock.”
That getaway feel is “kind of what we want” to bring back, he said.
Prince said that after he found out that Yellow Door was closing, he brought the idea of bringing Flann’s back to Ray Butler and Michael Vaughan, who run The Banshee as well as Brick & Beam Tavern in Quincy. Butler and Vaughan agreed to partner with Prince to resurrect the bar, which they too had frequented in the 1990s.
“It was nostalgic to them, so it was kind of the perfect opportunity for all of us,” Prince said. “When that opportunity came up, you know, we kind of pounced on it.”
Since Flann’s heyday, Mission Hill has seen plenty of change. But Prince said the bar will reflect both the old and the new.
“Flann’s brought a ton of people together,” he said. “You would get Irish immigrants, hospital workers, college kids, Mission Hill [locals]. It was just a place where people from all walks of life would come and hang out. That’s the biggest thing. If we can get back to that, I think that’d be a great success for us.”
Prince said the owners are working to secure a liquor license; a prospective transfer is slated for review before the city’s licensing board on June 24.
If all goes well, he said, the pub will be ready to reopen by the end of the year.
By staying in the bar’s original location, Flann O’Brien’s will be opening just down the street from Puddingstone Tavern. But Prince said he isn’t trying to push out his old stomping ground; on the contrary, he had nothing but praise for the Puddingstone and its owner, Harry Walsh.
“Learning from Harry is [learning] how to run a restaurant, but also be a great person,” he said. “I think that he kind of embodies what Mission Hill’s about. Obviously, there will be a little bit of competition, but I think at the end of the day it’s healthy for Mission Hill and for all the restaurants in the area.”
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.