Sunday, September 7, 2025

A 'Dear New York' moment at Mary's O's Soda Bread Shop

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Yesterday, St. Martin's Press gave away 100 signed copies of "Dear New York" at Mary's O's Soda Bread Shop on Seventh Street. 

This is the latest book by Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York. 

I caught up with Stanton and Mary O'Halloran at the shop, 93 1/2 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenues. 

As you may recall, Stanton led a hugely successful fundraising effort for O'Halloran in 2021. Stanton featured O'Halloran's story in August 2021. 

He followed up with a special promotion — the limited edition Mary O's "HONY" Irish soda bread scones. Stanton shared the deal with his more than 20 million social media followers worldwide. According to Stanton, they took in more than $1 million in orders for scones by the end of the night.

O'Halloran, proprietor of Mary O's on Avenue A, started making and selling scones (from her mother's recipe) by the box during the pandemic.


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2 comments:

  1. Scuba DivaSeptember 7, 2025 at 11:15 AM

    If Mary O. starts baking a vegan variety of her soda bread, I'm there! Until then, I can't even stop by to sniff the aroma of sodabread baking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CPBSeptember 7, 2025 at 1:50 PM

    I love Mary O and her scones ❤️. She’s one of the kindest people you will ever meet.

    ReplyDelete

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