On-trade

Gleesons of Booterstown – Irish Pub of Year!

 This year's Irish Pub of the Awards had the highest-ever number of entries

 

Irish Pub of the Year was awarded to Gleesons of Booterstown. From left: LVA Chair Alison Healy,  Minster Heather Humphries TD, John and Ciaran Gleeson of Gleesons of Booterstown and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

Irish Pub of the Year was awarded to Gleesons of Booterstown. From left: LVA Chair Alison Healy,  Minster Heather Humphries TD, John and Ciaran Gleeson of Gleesons of Booterstown and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

 

Gleesons of Booterstown, County Dublin, was named National Pub of the Year at the Irish Pub Awards 2022.

The Southside pub was crowned national champion from a field of 61 regional winners at a Gala Awards Ceremony in the Round Room at The Mansion House in Dublin.

The Irish Pub of the Year Awards are jointly presented by the Vintners Federation of Ireland and The Licenced Vintners Association.

With over 700 entries from all over Ireland this awards programme continues to be recognised by publicans countrywide as a valuable way to promote their businesses. Here, we review the Overall Winner and nine Category Winners.

Irish Pub of the Year

Since its establishment in 1954 Gleesons has been an integral part of the Booterstown community. The Gleeson family developed the business to offer excellence across a number of areas including traditional pub, extensive food offering from breakfast through to late evening, gourmet food corner shop/Deli – and most recently the premises was expanded to include luxury accommodation.

The pub has ably demonstrated a consistency in quality across all it offers.

All-day food is served, starting at 7.30am and Gleesons offers a Deli for home essentials too. Emphasising its place in the local community the pub has coffee mornings daily.

“Ciaran and I bought the business from the family in 2007 and have continually reinvested since,” says John Gleeson, “When you’ve only one pub you’ve to ‘sweat the asset’.

“In 2010 we built the Deli on the front of the pub; we renovated extensively over the following years and in 2018 built the 16-bedroom Townhouse over the pub.”

Gleesons managed to stay open throughout Covid via its Deli, serving customers takeaway food and pints while feeding local hospital staff. A WhatsApp group for its customers proved a great success, with competitions every week.

Meanwhile it didn’t lose focus on its core business: great food and drink – consistent product, with efficient friendly service.

“We’re lucky to have wonderful staff, many of whom are with us for many years” says John who expected that to win they must have got high ratings in seven of the nine categories, “…with the two exceptions being music and late night, neither are conducive to having bedrooms!”.

Since winning Irish Pub of the Year Gleesons has noticed  plenty of new customers coming in to check it out for the first time. Indeed John reports that December was “a great month in volume terms”, with Guinness stout the big winner, again increasing its percentage of the draught market.

“The Irish Pub Awards are very well publicised in print, radio and online” he says, “backed by the LVA and VFI and all the main suppliers; they’re seen as the definitive awards. I think a lot of people recognise this so I’m sure it will increase new footfall this year. ”

Gleesons’ 16-bedroom Townhouse has exceeded expectations.

“We spent approximately €2 million on the project in 2017/18 which included renovating the restaurant, a new bar and new reception/office.  Our wives Patricia and Gillian were the interior decorators; they did a brilliant stylish job that will last.

“We had a great 2019, high occupancy, everyone happy then Covid! But we came right back in 2022 with 90% occupancy at good rates.

“Customers are mostly  a mix of corporate and tourism. Residents love the atmosphere of the pub downstairs, the good pint, nice meal, particularly midweek, corporates and tourists alike.”

Consistency of product has been built-up over many years – and in Gleesons’ case, generations.

“Customers will support the business that gives consistency whether it’s a great pint, great cocktails or great food,” says John, “In relation to food, buy in the best product, insist on it from your supplier and charge for it. You have to get your prices these days, but if the product is good people will pay for it. You’re only as good as your last meal, so complacency is the enemy of consistency.”

As for the future, “Our main objective for the next couple of years would be to keep improving our offering. It’s the great thing about hospitality, there’s always room for improvement!

“Ciaran and I both have family coming into the business, thankfully, so we aim to keep the momentum going for the next generation.”

The nine category winners of the Irish Pub Awards are:

Best Food Pub sponsored by Musgrave MarketPlace: Collins Bar & Restaurant, Dooradoyle, Limerick.

Best Tourist Pub sponsored by Fáilte Ireland: O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin.

Innovative Pub of the Year sponsored by BOI Payment Acceptance: Andy’s Bar & Restaurant, Monaghan Town.

Best Local Pub sponsored by Diageo: Casey’s Bar & Restaurant, Clonakilty, County Cork.

Best Late-Night Bar sponsored by Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard: The Reg, Waterford City.

Outstanding Customer Service sponsored by Edward Dillon: Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim.

Best Digital Campaign sponsored by Heineken: The Bridge 1859, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Best Music Pub sponsored by IMRO: The Porter House, Westport, Mayo.

Best Outdoor Space sponsored by Bulmers: O’Connells, Galway City.

“This year’s awards set a new benchmark for excellence in pubs across Ireland,” said VFI President Paul Moynihan, speaking at the Awards, “I’m delighted to see some truly fantastic pubs receive their awards on the back of the highest-ever number of entries.

“The Irish pub is rightly celebrated around the world so it’s important we have a prestigious awards ceremony that captures the unique qualities of our pubs. The level of innovation and excellence on display in our winning pubs should act as an inspiration to publicans thinking about entering next year’s Irish Pub Awards.”

LVA Chair Alison Kealy added, “The Irish Pub Awards have clearly established themselves as the definitive awards programme within the pub industry by trebling the number of entries in this, its third year, to over 1,700.

“The programme has been acknowledged for the excellent national and local media coverage attained along with the in-depth management training that all finalists have received that is beneficial to their business. We’re very pleased with the growth and success of the Awards in such a short time and it has now become a great vehicle to highlight the vital contribution that pubs make to Irish business, community and tourism.”

The Irish Independent is the media partner to the Irish Pub of the Year Awards and Drinks Industry Ireland is the trade media partner.

Best Digital Campaign sponsored by Heineken: The Bridge 1859, Ballsbridge
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Sharon Walsh, Head of Commercial On-Trade at Heineken; Tony McCabe, Group General Manager for The Bridge 1859; Colm Ryan General Manager of the Bridge 1859; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Sharon Walsh, Head of Commercial On-Trade at Heineken; Tony McCabe, Group General Manager for The Bridge 1859; Colm Ryan General Manager of the Bridge 1859; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

The Bridge 1859 has been a firm favourite among sports fans since it opened in 2013. It’s most successful digital campaign to date has been the #MatchDaySorted twitter competition, run on key rugby dates. Since its famous #MatchDaySorted competition was launched six years ago the pub has given hundreds of rugby fans the opportunity to attend rugby matches nationally and internationally. The Bridge 1859 usually offers two tickets along with pints and lunch before the match, but this has grown to include bigger prizes of match tickets, return flights and a hotel stay.

Having Rob Kearney, Dave Kearney, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip involved as owners helps its rugby ties here.

“It’s a very simple mechanism,” proprietor Noel Anderson told Drinks Industry Ireland, “All you need is tickets for the game and a couple of pints of Heineken. We’ve the venue and my partners can put our hands on tickets.

“What’s really good about it is that we can give them to people who can’t normally get to games.”

This has seen winning fans jet off to matches in Cardiff, Bilbao and Marseilles.

“It builds brilliant loyalty and creates customers for life,” says Noel, “It always goes viral and gets a lot of followers on the back of the promotion which helps us to market things like new cocktails etc.”
#MatchDaySorted has gained an organic 596,000 impressions on Twitter and 13,786 engagements.

So successful has it been that the pub recently trademarked #MatchDaySorted!

This all entails weekly management meetings to discuss the week’s content. Noel has also ensured a social media Whatsapp group for each of his venues to post news about what’s happening there or to introduce new product.

“I look after the twitters sometimes and someone else does the instagram,” he says of the digital campaigns which are all conducted in-house to give them more control.

He also believes that the venue’s digital presence and digital campaigns have helped it weather the Covid 19 storm.

“We built up our following during it which was the whole idea,” he says, “We’d created our takeaway platform ‘Window at the Bridge’ and used our database of followers for this to get the message out.

“Short videos of us them selling crepes through ‘The Window’ appeared, for example.

“So by having the database when it happened as it happened meant that we were able to get our message out quickly and in real time.”

Best Late-Night Bar sponsored by Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard: The Reg, Waterford City
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Cormac Murphy, Head of Groups Accounts & Wholesale, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard; Justin Caffrey, Barry Monaghan, Aisling and Donal O'Brien, Derek Monaghan and Fred Hickey of The Reg; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Cormac Murphy, Head of Groups Accounts & Wholesale, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard; Justin Caffrey, Barry Monaghan, Aisling and Donal O’Brien, Derek Monaghan and Fred Hickey of The Reg; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan

 

Back in the 2000s Donal O’Brien was part of a team that created the ‘Safe Home
Partnership’ in Waterford. This group included late-night bar operators, take-away operators, Gardai, the Emergency Department in University Hospital Waterford, Taxi representatives, Waterford Council, residents etc.

This has evolved over the years and currently operates under the banner of ‘Waterford City Safe’.

“I’m also actively involved in Waterford’s Purple Flag working group,” says Donal, now Manager at The Reg, “Purple Flag is an international standard (much like Blue Flag for beaches) that Waterford was successful in attaining and retaining in the last few years.”
Getting home safely is a key ingredient for a safe night out. The Reg opened
in Waterford’s Viking Triangle in 2013 and was the only late bar in the area
at the time.

“We quickly established that a proper taxi rank was required to enable taxis to safely pull-up outside and to provide transport home for our customers,” says Donal, “The Council also saw the need and installed an official rank just at our front door. This has contributed to a safer overall experience for all our customers.”
Live Music is core to The Reg’s offering. Not only does it give customers an
extra reason to visit (on top of its food and live sports offering), it provides employment to many talented musicians and allows it to maintain its relationship with them 52 weeks of the year.

Around 20-25% of staff at The Reg have completed their City & Guilds and QQI Level 6 Supervisory Management Training.

“We identified early on during the pandemic closures that it was vital to maintain a connection with our staff who were temporarily out of work,” says Donal, “The training courses gave us that opportunity and kept the staff active and involved even when the business could not operate.”
Taking part in the course together allowed a continuity of the team spirit and gave each individual a clear purpose during difficult times.

“We plan to offer these courses to the next cohort of our staff this year,” he says.
The Reg still has two senior members of staff taking part in the Bar Manager Degree Course through Griffith College.
“We’ve demonstrated our commitment to the development and wellbeing of our staff
and customer safety – all on the principle of treating each person with
respect,” explains Donal, “This was further demonstrated the week following the award when we got the news that we were certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’, with our Trust Index Scores well above the industry benchmark.

“We look forward to another successful 2023 where we will make improvements to what we do, refine our offering, experiment with new ideas and hopefully retain the title of Best Late Night Bar in 2023!”

Best Food Pub sponsored by Musgrave MarketPlace: Collins Bar & Restaurant, Dooradoyle, Limerick
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Area Sales Manager for Musgrave Marketplace Gary Byrne; Collins Bar's Kevin Dowling, Gary Constable & Wayne Anderson, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Area Sales Manager for Musgrave Marketplace Gary Byrne; Collins Bar’s Kevin Dowling, Gary Constable & Wayne Anderson, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

 

Collins Bar, Dooradoyle, is in a region rich with fantastic local food producers and it uses their products where it can – meats, fish, vegetables, leaves, cheese, chutneys, jams.

“If we see something we like we build a dish around it,” says proprietor James Collins, “We try to do the simple things well. Our team will make as much as we can in-house – breads, pizza dough, deserts, soups, sauces – even our kids’ meals.

“We also love to experiment and try new ideas. Every week we work with our suppliers to create weekly specials to keep the creative juices flowing. It keeps us motivated and keeps our customers returning.

The pub has been using ‘Big Green Eggs’ for its corporate BBQs since it opened in 2004.

“Rather than buy-in smoked produce, we decided to slow cook and smoke our own beef brisket, pork, chicken and duck in the Green Eggs for our lunch, dinner and street food menus,” explains James.

Last Summer the pub wanted to experiment a bit more and offer a wider variety of choice.

“We change our street food menu regularly,” he says, “This month our food truck menu includes items such as Fish Tacos with homemade salsa, guacamole, red cabbage, lime juice, sour crème served with sweet potato fries or Beef Brisket Reuben – slow cooked 14-hour brisket in a blend of spices, Sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island Dressing.”

Added to this are Chicken Shawarma – marinated strips of chicken roasted on a vertical spit, spiced Aubergine, red Onion and red pepper wrapped in Collins’ own pizza bread; Low and Slow Pork Shoulder in a cider gravy, Attyflin Estate apple sauce with Caroline Rigney sausage wrapped in bacon; the Great Dane Hotdog with crispy fried Shallots, pickled Cucumber and Dill with a curry remoulade sauce.

“We also make our own pizza dough and tomato base for our hand-stretched pizzas,” he adds, “The food truck has been very busy serving our beer garden. We’ve also been inundated by requests to take it on the road for events.

During lockdown the pub pivoted to a takeaway model to keep connected with its customers and keep the team employed.

“We’re a training kitchen and we felt we were building a great team, so we opened a takeaway,” explains James, “We used the time to upskill but also to research to try things we’d been too busy to do before. We reckoned people wanted to treat themselves so we looked to offer as high-a-standard as possible.”

Dishes customers may not cook for themselves were considered – for example Sunday roast family boxes, sharing mixed dessert boxes, weekly fish specials as well as pastas, burgers, ribs and wings.

“Many of our food truck dishes – especially our vegan and vegetarian options –  were developed during Lockdown.”

Best Tourist Pub sponsored by Fáilte Ireland: O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Acting Head of Tourism Careers at FáilteIreland Sarah Dolly; O'Connells' Simon O’Connell, April Borland, Jennifer Murphy and Matthew Duggan, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Acting Head of Tourism Careers at Fáilte Ireland Sarah Dolly; O’Connells’ Simon O’Connell, April Borland, Jennifer Murphy and Matthew Duggan, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

Hundreds of tourists from all over the world visit O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin, each week according to owner Simon O’Connell. The pub offers various tourist activities including historical talks and Pour Your Own Guinness as well as a trad session of nearly 40 years’ standing!

The pub shows visitors from abroad what Ireland has to offer through multilingual signage and menus while various staff members can converse with visitors in French, German, Polish, Russian, Portugese, Ukranian, Spanish and even Romanian and Arabic.

Simon opened O’Connells in 2012 with the aim of creating a place where tourists can mix with locals and experience an Irish pub’s hospitality and he’s recently put two of his staff on language courses to learn Italian and Spanish.

“People can see that our team genuinely has an interest in our international visitors,” he says, “Many of our team – most of whom have been with me for several years – have lived abroad, have family abroad and – like all of us – love to travel. And we all realise the importance of giving visitors the best experience possible!

“We always say to new team members, ‘Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, if you were on holidays how would you want to be treated and what experience would you be looking for?’.”

So few pubs make such an effort to speak the language of so many of their visitors.

“The idea of trying to make our venue more multilingual came about as a result of a group of German tourists that visited roughly six years ago,” continued Simon, “My German is reasonably strong and I began to speak in German to these guys and they were absolutely amazed. They were really delighted and had a great time. So much so that they’ve returned every year since.

“Their reaction gave me the idea that we should make an attempt to learn the languages of our visitors. So often we (Irish) go on holidays and never have to struggle with foreign languages as everyone makes the effort to speak English with us, so I thought that maybe we should be making the effort too!”

O’Connells also merits a tripadvisor Seal of Excellence which means a great deal to Simon and all the team.

“It’s recognition that we’re doing a good job and that all the hard work everyone puts in every day is worthwhile,” he says, “We all check tripadvisor daily and as soon as there’s a review in, the team are posting it in our work WhatsApp group where all the points are discussed and celebrated where appropriate!

“Tripadvisor is a great tool to help us learn, improve – and of course to help us feel appreciated for the hard work everyone does!”

Innovative Pub of the Year sponsored by BOI Payment Acceptance: Andy’s Bar & Restaurant, Monaghan Town
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Marketing Director at BOI Payment Acceptance Barry Gray; Kevin Redmond from Andy's Bar, Minister Heather Humphreys, Andy's Bar's Sean Redmond and Andy Rudzinkas with VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Marketing Director at BOI Payment Acceptance Barry Gray; Kevin Redmond from Andy’s Bar, Minister Heather Humphreys, Andy’s Bar’s Sean Redmond and Andy Rudzinkas with VFI President Paul Moynihan.

 

From making its own Sloe Gin to being a former SEAI category winner and Green Award Green Leader finalist what does Andy’s Bar & Restaurant in Monaghan town not do?

For example, proprietor Kevin Redmond and Mixologist Eddie Rudzinkas from Cocktailsforyou.net pre-batch their own cocktails. Eddie has over 1.5 million followers on his Facebook and Instagram accounts and is also an annual judge at the world cocktail championships.

The cocktails are displayed prominently on the bar counter or available in a 200ml takeaway bottle (€1 deposit charge, recoverable on return) or as a corporate gift box.

Andy’s Sloe Gin is made in-house too, dispensed from a five litre bottle bar-mounted on a ‘lazy-suzy’.

Andy’s even sold 50ml baubles filled with Andy’s Festive Sloe Gin for the Christmas tree at €5 each.

Seasonality has become part of the offering at Andy’s via two creations – Damson Old Fashioned & Autumn Foraged Gin – which the bar intends extending to having something for all seasons. This also gives it something to promote on social media.

“I wanted to offer a whiskey range” says Kevin Redmond, ” but no ordinary whiskey range. I designed Andy’s Whiskeys of the World Tour – 15 whiskeys from around the world that you’ve never heard of from India to Israel, Mexico back round to Iceland.

“On your first purchase you’re issued with a passport which opens up into a map of the world – we stamp your passport after each visit!”

Andy’s Bar has also worked on environmental projects with the EPA, Clean Technology Centre Cork, SEAI, VFI and Monaghan County Council.

“Our research work has been used by Failte Ireland and Diageo for their Storehouse,” says Kevin.

A project with four VFI members in Monaghan town was successful in establishing cost of Food Waste at €2.75 per Kg – a world first. In collaboration with Monaghan County Council Andy’s made the world’s most popular food waste video with 18 million views.

It has also benchmarked energy, water, waste, food waste and glass waste per cover.

Winning the Innovative Pub of the Year was eight years in the making, explains Kevin.

“It all started back in 2014 when we decided to serve Premium gins; it started off with three gins and we ended up with 142. Today, we’re currently ranked the No 2 Gin Bar in all Ireland.

“During the pandemic we were serving takeaway food only and saw an opportunity for Premium takeaway drinks. We work closely with our local distiller Stephen Murphy from Old Carrick Mill. Stephen exclusively supplies us with gin and whiskey for all our products – it’s truly a Monaghan product!

“The key to our sales is that they’re placed on the bar counter at the pay point; customers can see the products, pick them up, read the labels, ask questions and very importantly customers are always offered a free sample!

“The more we started to do things differently by offering new products and experiences, the more our customers really enjoyed what we were doing; in addition to this we gained new customers and ultimately profits have increased! Besides that, we’ve created a very distinct identity which has got people talking, which is so important in business today.”

Outstanding Customer Service sponsored by Edward Dillon:  Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Commercial Director at Edward Dillon John Cassidy; Buffalo Boy's Head Chef Daniel Knight, Proprietor Sean Purcell and Manager Gabriel Camburu; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Commercial Director at Edward Dillon John Cassidy; Buffalo Boy’s Head Chef Daniel Knight, Proprietor Sean Purcell and Manager Gabriel Camburu; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

Buffalo Boy in Carrick-on-Shannon is a place where the staff aim to ensure that their customers come in happy and leave happier.

Proprietor Sean Purcell believes his team consistently delivers the best authentic customer service experience for all their guests.

“We believe the customer service starts from the minute that the customer makes contact with us through e-mail, social media, phone-call or if they walk in, then a smile will be the first thing they experience when they walk through our door,” he says, “At present we’ve chosen to not offer online automatic bookings for customers, just so we can talk and get to know the customers before they arrive; this also gives us the chance to find out if there’s a special occasion. Sometimes it could be a very small personal occasion that they’d never normally mention on an online booking form but while chatting with us on the phone we can find out these things and make a moment for it during their evening with us. We want to be as personal with them as they want to be with us, no more or less.

“Our aim is to turn customers into friends that will return to us; we’ll always remember them and greet them as friends when they return. We hope to remember them by name and they’ll normally remember our team by name as well.”

As one employee put it, “Our Buffalo Boy menu comes with a side of truly amazing characters to give you the best dining experience in Ireland”.

Sean comments, “What I take from that is that each team member has their own character and quirks. We let them be themselves and be authentic to their own character but the one thing that must stay the same is the goal: to give the best customer experience that’s possible, always.”

Sean sums up their win thus: “We’re always looking for ways to be better. All of us read about the industry, we watch YouTube and TV programs by leaders and teachers of the industry and we follow lots of influencers on social media to learn what we can of new and old ideas and trends.

“We encourage, support and pay for upskilling throughout the team; most of our supervisors/managers and kitchen team do three-year college courses and other smaller courses on a regular basis. At present we’ve three from the service team doing three-year courses and one of our kitchen team’s doing one too.”

Best Local Pub sponsored by Diageo: Casey’s Bar & Restaurant, Clonakilty, County Cork
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Colin Green, On-Trade Sales Director at Diageo; Casey's Zach Collins, Adrian Harrington, Eadaoin Collins and James Casey; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.   

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Colin Green, On-Trade Sales Director at Diageo; Casey’s Zach Collins, Adrian Harrington, Eadaoin Collins and James Casey; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

Casey’s Bar & Restaurant in Clonakilty, County Cork, is run by a ninth generation publican and the experience and attention to detail gleaned through the generations is clear to see. With an eye to being the best ‘local’, Casey’s offers local craft companies space to display their products throughout the bar.

The pub fields a knowledgeable staff and a friendly atmosphere. It’s also the gathering place for the local darts team.

The owner, James Casey, is deeply embedded in the local community as a member of the Clonakilty Fire Brigade and is committed to using local suppliers wherever possible, like  Clonakilty Tojo Ale, Galley Head Ale, Clonakilty Sea Breeze Blond, Clonakilty Inchydoney Blond, Fernhill Gin, Clonakilty Whiskey and other products which employ its talented locals.

The pub offers a Bingo Night every Thursday with a percentage of all takings on the night going to local charities.

“Since opening Casey’s Bar & Restaurant back in 2014 we’ve always strived to be primarily a local bar for local people,” says James, “We truly believe in utilising local food and drink producers and supporting local musicians wherever possible and believe this has been an integral part of Casey’s success to date.

“We recognise we’ve a unique place in the community and that brings a responsibility to help out wherever we can by supporting local charities and initiatives for the betterment of our local area.

The pub also offers complimentary Christmas dinner to anyone living alone.

“This came about in 2015 after speaking to some of our more senior customers who’d come in most days for dinner, a couple of pints and a chat. Many didn’t have any family to go to for Christmas Day and as almost everywhere is closed they’d be making do for the day.

“We thought, ‘There has to be something we can do here to help spread some festive cheer’ and thus the idea of having a delicious dinner available free-of-charge to anyone spending Christmas day alone or in need was born.”

This continues to grow each year.

The pub was a runner-up on Cork 96FM’s Best of Cork Awards – voted on almost exclusively by the Cork public – as well as meriting a Tripadviser’s ‘Travellers Choice’.

“We always endeavour to mix traditional and modern elements in our premises ​to appeal to all age ranges and this award is proof for us that we’re succeeding,” says James, “We’ve a wonderful ​team of knowledgeable bar staff here in Casey’s who create the friendly local atmosphere we’ve become known for and an amazing kitchen staff who create our delicious daily food ​menus. This award is a testament to their hard work and dedication.”

 

Best Music Pub sponsored by IMRO: The Porter House, Westport, Mayo

 

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Senior Licensing Executive at IMRO Paul Browne; The Porter House's Larry Martin, Marian & Joe O’Malley, Gerry McCormack and Anne Bentinck; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan. 

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Senior Licensing Executive at IMRO Paul Browne; The Porter House’s Larry Martin, Marian & Joe O’Malley, Gerry McCormack and Anne Bentinck; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

The Porerterhouse in Westport has been over 20 years in business under proprietor Joe O’Malley. The music pub is unique to Westport, having live music seven nights a week with extra early evening music sessions thrown in.

What’s also notable is that there’s no separation between musicians and customers, thus enhancing the atmosphere and the craic.

Monday to Friday sees traditional music sessions in the evening followed by more upbeat, varied live music as the pub moves into the night.

On Summer weekends a third daily music session was added to the schedule to cater for the extra demand.

The two daily music sessions run for 364 days of the year, one starting at 6.30pm and a later session at 9.30pm. These have attracted a global following and the pub was even featured in a Wild Atlantic Way promotional inflight video for Aer Lingus which was shown on all flights entering Ireland.

Apart from hiring local musicians, the pub has one further ace up its sleeve. A number of extremely talented and medal-winning bar staff can be called upon to perform sean nos dancing, songs and music should the need arise – they’ll be happy to add to the performance on any given night.

Thus has The Porterhouse developed a reputation as the ‘go-to pub’ for music when visiting Westport.

In Joe’s opinion what separates the Porter House from other music pubs are the locally-sourced musicians that deliver high-quality performances and banter at each session; the warm inclusive welcome to both patrons and visiting musicians; the extensive and varied schedule of music sessions with two daily all-year round (three daily in the Summer) and finally the longstanding national and international reputation that the pub has earned through much hard work over 25 years.

In fact local company Westport Walking Tours regards the Porter House as providing its clients with a first-rate experience of an award-winning quintessential Irish music pub.

As far as Joe’s concerned, “This award can be seen as a huge recognition of the efforts of the staff, musicians and all those involved in creating the fantastic atmosphere and the national and international reputation of the pub”.

Best Outdoor Space sponsored by Bulmers:  O’Connells, Galway City

 

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; C&C Group Managing Director Barry Sheehan; O'Connells' Bar Manager Dave McCann, General Manager Paul Flanagan and Assistant Manager Ian Booth; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

LVA Chair Alison Kealy; C&C Group Managing Director Barry Sheehan; O’Connells’ Bar Manager Dave McCann, General Manager Paul Flanagan and Assistant Manager Ian Booth; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.

This venue boasts one of Galway City’s best outdoor spaces with a beer

garden that doubles as a smoking and Barbecue area. The beer garden features large picnic tables and wooden decking and is designed such that you could easily forget that you’re in the centre of the city.

The outdoor area resembles a mock street with store-fronts and cobbles leading the visitor from one end to the other. A custom-built outdoor bar was installed as was retro-fitted vintage neon signage to bring the garden smoothly from day into night.

O’Connells offers the complete package, believes General Manager Paul Flanagan who points out the surprise factor of walking through what looks from the outside like a traditional Irish bar then finding oneself in a very large outdoor space in the middle of Galway City.

“The eye-catching designs of the shopfronts and street scene with a large bar, different seating areas, food offerings and DJ sets at the weekends, make it a really nice place to enjoy with a friendly atmosphere,” he says, “It’s also very photo-friendly and these photos of people enjoying their time with us get shared on different platforms and in turn create an interest from others to come join us.”

Obviously the weather will dictate how much O’Connells’ outdoor space gets used but it’s a vital part of the business of being successful and is used all year round.

“With limited capacity indoors, the amount of extra space outside can change the whole dynamic & vibe when being used to its full capacity,” explains Paul, “Late in the season it’s a Winter Garden with Hot Drinks & Seasonal Beers then in Summertime it becomes a cool garden with Cocktails & Spritzes. For the most part, our outdoor space is equally as popular as our indoor bar is with our customers.”

Sample comments on Google reviews from patrons who’ve experienced the outdoor area include:  “Varied selection of beers from all corners, knowledgeable and helpful bar staff..regular glass pick-up and two types of food provided most nights…Five stars for the entire experience and the back outdoor area is reminiscent of Daigon Alley in Harry Potter with an alcohol-tinged twist” – Cathy.

“This is the coolest bar on the square. Amazing pizzas from Dough Bros. The outdoor/indoor courtyard is amazing even in Winter with heaters” – Danielle Heekes.

“An intriguing place and was so much more than your average pub! Definitely something to experience. The atmosphere, food and beer were perfect and it’s a place we’ll definitely return to!” – Taylor Anderson.

As for 2023 the enforced closures put a pause on many plans & projects so there’s always a bit of catching up to be done according to Paul who adds, “We’re working on an additional bar with plans to extend our cocktail offerings in the outdoor spaces. We’re also working with our food partners to see what new exciting offerings they can bring to our customers. With such a large space we can always have fun, experiment a bit and change things in different parts of our space, so we’ll be introducing new elements to the garden this year”.

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