Introduction

We’re proud, long-term sponsors of the Innovative Pub of the Year category at the prestigious Irish Pub Awards. We spoke with a previous winner to discover what they did to take home the award a few years ago.

Andy’s Bar and Restaurant in Monaghan proudly brought home BOI Payment Acceptance’s (BOIPA) Innovative Pub of the Year category at the Irish Pub Awards in 2022. Since then, the establishment has gone from strength to strength. In 2023, they added the Irish Gin Bar of the Year Award to their well-populated trophy collection. Additionally, Andy’s moved into their fourth decade of trading as a family run business. Over that time, Andy’s has experienced booms and recessions, along with major fires and a global pandemic.

Innovation keeps business in good spirits

With pubs and restaurants facing 2 years of uncertainty when they closed their doors before St Patrick’s weekend in 2020, the hospitality industry suffered a resounding economic blow. Redmond and his team moved rapidly to turn potential catastrophe into a catalyst for new business income through a new product offering.

Like many pubs, Andy’s offered their customers the opportunity to purchase takeaway food and drinks. However, the pub was firmly placed to differentiate themselves being one of the first to recognise a growing trend towards specialty gin in 2014. By doing so, Andy’s had already refined the pub’s gin offering and, when the pandemic occurred, they could offer their customers premium pre-batched cocktails and compound gins in beautifully-designed take-home products. Sourcing the grain locally made it a Monaghan-based product, along with having it exclusively available only from Andy’s Bar.

“We worked closely with Stephen Murphy, our local distiller from Old Carrick Mill. He exclusively supplies our gin and whiskey for our products. We place our 200ml gin bottles at the bar counter. This has been key to sales. Customers can see the products, pick them up, read the labels, ask questions and get a free sample!” The seasonally-informed gin proved a massive hit.

Winning BOIPA’s Innovative Pub of the Year

As a university lecturer in Entrepreneurial Studies, Redmond is no stranger to doing things differently. However, the experience drove him and his team to push their limits even more.

“We found our customers really enjoying what we were doing, gained new regulars and, ultimately, an increased profit margin. Along with that, we have created a very distinct identity which got people talking.”

With this in mind, Redmond set his sights on the Innovative Pub of the Year Award. To win it, a pub must demonstrate how innovation significantly improved their business, either through increased revenue, an increase in customer numbers and/ or cost savings.

The pub’s submission included over 24 separate examples of innovation. This included a whiskey passport, where customers could get their document stamped each time they experienced a new whiskey at Andy’s, and a bauble with Andy’s Christmas edition sloe gin. The latter idea managed to get their product onto hundreds of Christmas trees and into homes across Monaghan and beyond.

Andy’s submission left the judges in no doubt that, through a mix of industry and creativity, Redmond and his team had nailed the innovative brief and were deserving winners of the crown.

“For us, as a small, family-run pub from Monaghan, to take on the biggest in the country and finish on top was phenomenal.”