Mulligan’s Brick Bar expands hours, hires former employees of The Old Pink

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Mulligan’s Brick Bar, an iconic Allentown bar and longtime neighbor of The Old Pink, is expanding its hours to fill a void in the neighborhood left by The Old Pink.

Starting June 24, Brick Bar will be open 7 days a week. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

It will now be open 7 days a week to fill a void in the neighborhood left by The Pink, which was open 365 days a year. The expanded hours allow Brick Bar to expand its staff and they have already hired three former employees of The Pink.

A makeshift memorial and a pile of rubble are all that remains of The Pink after it was destroyed by fire Monday morning.

It’s been an emotional few days for Old Pink owner Molly Brinkworth.

For 33 years, Molly owned the iconic bar.

She told 7 News during a one-on-one that the loss of the bar is like a death in the family.

Investigators are still working to determine the exact cause of the fire that destroyed the popular Allentown bar Monday morning.

The building itself is nothing more than a pile of rubble.

Molly told us the bar has been in her family since 1969.

When asked what the owners plan to do next, Molly says she still hasn’t decided, but is grateful to everyone who has given them support.

“The other day you asked me what makes pink and I said music, music, staff. Well, at 3 p.m. I looked up and there were 100 people here and I thought, you know, at the end of the day, it’s my customers,” Brinkworth said.

Support for the bar has been evident across the region in recent days.

Now, right next door, another Allentown staple is offering Old Pink employees a new opportunity.

7 News’ Pheben Kassahun visited to find out more about this “good neighbor” gesture!

The dust has now settled.

Old Pink is now a memory for the Allentown community.

“It will be a little different and it’s hard to forget a bar that has been such a staple,” said Paul Baggs, manager of Mulligan’s Brick Bar.

Yet its employees are in the hearts and minds of its next-door neighbor.

“We said right away we should reach out and offer to the bartenders there that if you need a job, we might be able to help you,” Baggs said.

Baggs has now changed the bar’s schedule to accommodate.

The bar, which had only been open five days a week since the pandemic, will now be open seven days starting next week.

“We hired two immediately and if there are any other positions that open up here, we’ll immediately look at them first to see if any of them need a job because he’s been a part of the neighborhood forever,” Baggs said.

Paul said the gesture was something, he said it was just the Buffalo way.

“That’s what we do here. When things go wrong, you come together and you do something,” Baggs said. “That’s exactly what you do. I really feel like if this building burned down after working here 22 years, I’d want to work at another bar.”

He said Old Pink’s new bartenders and security guards will start next week.

The bar meant a lot to the community, its employees and its customers. A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money to help the bar owner and staff.

7 News spoke with community members who also shared their memories of the bar and its famous steak sandwich.

7 News spoke with Molly Brinkworth, longtime owner of The Old Pink, for the first time since the fire on Wednesday.