Irish pubs live with a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, there’s the well-known American affinity for Ireland—or at least for a romanticized notion of the Emerald Isle, apparently a land of hard drinkers, cereal-loving leprechauns, and statesman rock stars. As an added bonus, we’ve been known to overlook the odd spate of violence and legacy of affectionate priests. Once a building is cast as an Irish pub, however, it is destined by fate to remain one for the rest of its existence, architecturally and thematically typecast. Thus Molly Maguire’s fills in the old Tipperary Inn space, with little to distinguish between old and new but a name change and a little touch-up paint.

Yet the second iteration of Old-World pub has one distinct advantage: chef Grant Morgan, late of Dragonfly. Morgan brought Hotel ZaZa’s restaurant back to life, creating the most obscenely sophisticated interpretations hunter-style pheasant and European pub duck one could reasonably imagine. Here he attempts modern Irish. Morgan’s vision ranges from sorry corned beef to superb organic salmon.

The problem with all the new Irish ideas, however, is Molly Maguire’s station as an East Dallas watering hole. So eventually the menu descends into American bar food. In other words, they serve wings, painfully ubiquitous dishes of spinach and artichoke dip, and such.