Cheers for toilet paper as Newport Beach pub owner rolls out a day of distribution

When Orange County ordered this week that bars and restaurant dine-in services be shut down, Mario Marovic locked up Malarky’s, his popular Irish pub in Newport Beach.

But he didn’t stop working.

On Friday, he set up a one-day-only drive-through toilet paper operation at the shuttered establishment on Newport Boulevard. He brought 4,000 rolls, selling them for $5 for 10 rolls.

On Thursday, he teamed with Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill to deliver 1,100 rolls to the Oasis Senior Center for distribution to low-income senior facilities.

Marovic, who owns 11 restaurants around Orange County, including six in Newport Beach, also has nightly to-go dinners for his employees and their families.

A driver gets a bundle of 10 rolls of toilet paper in the parking lot of Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach on Friday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

The toilet paper drive began as a post on social media. Marovic had a couple of thousand rolls that he planned to give to his employees, their families and the community surrounding Malarky’s. Soon, hundreds of people messaged him — some of them friends he sees regularly, some he hasn’t spoken to since high school.

“It was unbelievable,” Marovic said.

Troy Barton bumps elbows with Josh van Egmond, who bought a bundle of toilet paper outside Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach on Friday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

He ordered a couple of thousand more rolls of toilet paper from a restaurant supplies distributor. Then another couple of thousand. Then 9,000.

“At first it was kind of tongue in cheek,” Marovic said. “Then I realized ... wow, people actually need this.”

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