While there’s still much work to be done, Brian Carroll said last week that he wants to open Riverside’s first-ever Irish pub on his grandmother’s birthday – St. Patrick’s Day.

Of course, his late grandmother’s birthday was actually March 15, but the family always celebrated it two days later, on the unofficial high holy day of the Irish calendar.

Carroll’s new Riverside venture, Mollie’s Public House at 31 Forest Ave., is named after his grandmother who was born in County Westmeath in central Ireland. She and her sister came to Chicago in the 1920s and settled in the South Shore neighborhood, where Mollie opened a deli/grocery store/bar.

So you could say that being a pub owner is in Carroll’s blood.

“It kind of inspired me to run a family-run restaurant,” Carroll said.

The Riverside village board made Mollie’s a reality on Jan. 19, when trustees voted to create the Class E liquor license Carroll sought. On Jan. 21, he bought the assets of Jem Café from Joyce and Mario Mongello, who operated that restaurant in the space for the past five years and closed it for good a day earlier.

Carroll has since received his liquor license from the village and, as of late last week, was awaiting building permits to get started on an interior renovation that will transform Jem into the Irish pub Carroll’s envisioned for the past decade.

The centerpiece to the pub will be a bar that will run along the back wall with room for 10 to 12 seats. Carroll said the bar is being custom-built for the space, which will also include 20 to 24 tables, with a total seating capacity of about 85 people.

“To me, it’s the perfect size place to start out with,” said Carroll, who has been working in the restaurant business since 2000. “It has a pub feel to it.”

The entire space will be repainted to give it more of a pub feel. The Jem’s fancy chandeliers will be replaced, Carroll said, and the decorative fireplace on the east wall will get an upgrade. He also plans on applying for an outdoor eating permit to take advantage of the patio created outside the front door along Forest Avenue.