John Daly’s moves from creamy pints to ice-cream

When publican Declan Murphy installed the eye catching jigsaw window at the front of John Daly’s, he thought it would be first used to serve pints during the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann this August.

However, the fleadh is one of many high profile events has also fallen victim to Covid-19, while Daly’s and the rest of Ireland’s 7,500 pubs have been closed since March 16 in a bid to slow the spread of the most destructive virus since the Spanish Flu a century ago.

Rather than sit on his hands and ride out the current storm, Declan is one of a growing number of publicans who have got creative during the current crisis.

In conjunction with the kitchen team from the Caribou bar in Galway, which he co-owns along with fellow Mullingar men Hugh O’Farrell and Shane Clifford, Declan has introduced a call and collect takeaway menu from Thursday to Sunday, featuring comfort food such as burgers and fries. The introduction of a food menu was always part of the plan when the pub’s new beer garden opens but it has been brought forward due to the events of the last two months.

Declan said: “The chef at Caribou just happens to be from Mullingar and moved back before the lockdown came. He was willing to get in and get working. We did all our work separately to get up and running. It has been great and has gone down a bomb so far.”

He has also introduced a daytime menu featuring ice cream, crepes, waffles and coffee, which is served from the eye catching window at the front.

“It’s burgers and crepes and all that sort of stuff. It’s probably not something you’d eat two or three days a week. It’s definitely treat food.

“When I designed the pub, I designed it with a jigsaw window on the front. All the pubs in Drogheda were serving drinks out through the front but now I’ll be serving ice-creams out through my front jigsaw window.

“I suppose income is one thing, but I have staff and I want to give them their jobs, to get them back going. I think there were two ways I could have done this. I could have sat down and done nothing. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with that – there are plenty of publicans who are keeping the head down and waiting for the word back – but I’m not that way inclined. I like to think about what opportunities are out there.

“I had a dormant building in the centre of town and we started the food out the back with Caribou. This week we are doing the ice creams and waffles out the front. Both are on the street. At the back, the take away collection is on to the street, you don’t have to walk into the premises, and the front window is designed so that you can walk up, order a coffee, and the queue will be formatted so that everyone will be social distancing.”

While economic activity has nosedived since the Covid-19 restrictions were introduced, Declan says it’s important to able to try to find a way to do business in the current environment. The country may be in lockdown, but he’s a busy man with Daly’s and his other business interests. As much as anything, he says that “it keeps everyone fresh”.

“I also have pubs in Cork and Dublin with the lads, Hugh and Shane, and they are in the middle of getting pizza and growler delivery services set up [for them]. Growlers are jugs that can hold 3.5 litres of tap beer that you can deliver. We are branding them up and trying to get the core staff back on the payroll and back working. We are hoping that we can sustain them and make a living for ourselves out of it.”

Prior to its forced closure in March, the previous six months had gone well for Daly’s following its reopening on the October bank holiday weekend. The popular pub was completely revamped last year after an electrical fire in November 2017 caused extensive damage.

Rather than thinking about what might have been this summer, Declan focused on making the most of the situation. When given lemons make lemonade, or maybe a citrus flavoured IPA.

“We had an almost eight-month building project and had a good start. I think people enjoyed the pub for the few months it was opened and we built a nice customer base again, so hopefully they will come back when we open the doors again.”

While the Vintners Federation of Ireland have put together a plan that it says could see pubs open next month if they can adhere to social distancing guidelines, Declan says that he would prefer to err on the side of caution.

“Our beer garden [which would have a capacity for around 200 people normally] is about 90 per cent complete. We have a big unit between the whole lot, but my take would be just to wait. I’d rather be going with the government guidelines. They have a system in place for good reasons.

“Fair play to the VFI for putting something forward to try and expedite things, but it is all part of the process. They might have contract tracing [in August] and other things that will help bars be a bit more vigilant than what they have outlined for June.

“There is also the financial side of things. No matter what we do, if we open under the circumstances proposed by the VFI, we won’t be making money we’ll be losing it, and will the banks be playing ball at that point, or landlords.

“I understand what they proposed but I just wouldn’t be supportive of the June 10 opening. We have come a hard road and got behind the Chief Medical Officer’s directive to get it to where it is, and I’m not going to jump the gun now.