Mo's Irish Pub may soon offer breakfast

Steel cut oatmeal, an Irish breakfast and even Lucky Charms cereal are some of the possible menu items coming to Mo's Irish Pub.

The city's Plan Commission on Monday fielded a request by restaurant owner Johnny Vassallo to allow Mo's to open at 8 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays so it can service the breakfast crowd.

Mo's, 10842 W. Bluemound Road, already has experience with the morning meal, which the restaurant serves when it opens early each St. Patrick's Day. But the early opening has always required a special approval from the Common Council.

Repeated customer requests for regular breakfast hours led restaurant managers to seek permanent modification of weekend operating hours, said Debra Stephenson, chief operating officer of the Mo's restaurant group.

The commission unanimously voted in support of the request. It next moves to the Community Development Committee.

Stephenson said some potential breakfast menu items are boxty - a potato pancake filled with sausage, eggs and veggies - corned beef and hash and scrambled eggs, Irish bangers and black and white pudding, and a "hangover burger" with cheese, bacon and an egg on top. There also will be a selection of traditional American breakfast fare.

One neighbor on 108th Place told the commission he opposed the restaurant opening three hours earlier on weekends.

Chris Kelly and his wife deal with the bar crowd, often noisy, along their street until the early morning. They use the hours before the restaurant reopens, when there is a reprieve from restaurant traffic on the street, to go running.

Mayor Jill Didier said she didn't think breakfast would draw the same kind of crowd as the late-night bar scene and approving the request was a "matter of consistency and fairness with other restaurants."