After a snag with its licence, a Donegal hotel decided to offer something different - a booze-free bar. Could dry venues be the next big thing?
FROM THE OUTSIDE of the Carrig Rua Hotel, in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal, everything seems normal enough. The site comes at the end of the once-bustling fishing port, offering commanding views of the surrounding area, including Killahoey Strand, where a US air force Flying Fortress landed in 1943 after running out of fuel. Across the bay is Horn Head, a natural heritage area, offering the village protection from the worst of the Atlantic seas.
The 23-bed hotel, which had been closed for a number of years, is now expanding in line with the majestic views around. Like many former fishing ports, the town was slow to adapt its business model from trawlers to tourists. While Dunfanaghy has always attracted a certain number of regional tourists, its proximity to Donegal Airport (40km, or 25 miles, away) is expected to see the town attract far more foreign visitors and reignite commercial activity in the area.
Against this background, Ann Sweeney took over the running of the Carrig Rua Hotel several weeks ago, having already owned and operated a successful restaurant, bar and shop in the town. Two days into her new venture though, gardaí raided the premises and removed all alcoholic stock.
Delays in transferring the bar licence from the previous owners to the new management meant that the hotel had been operating without a bar licence since its opening. With 46 employees, mostly local, working at the hotel, and hefty weekly outgoings, things looked bleak for Ann and her staff. Surely, a hotel without alcohol would be doomed to failure in a country where the average consumption of pure alcohol per person is 13.4 litres, well above the EU average.
Ann Sweeney takes up the story: "We opened up the bar on the understanding that the licence was close to being transferred, and that turned out not to be the case at all.
"On Monday July 7th, at 7.15pm, two sergeants and two big vans came and all our alcohol was confiscated from the premises. Many of the staff here have worked for me previously and after the raid I was sitting here thinking 'what am I going to do' - some of these staff had given up jobs to come and work for me."
After two days' meditation, Sweeney says she came upon an idea. "I have a bar nearby, and following government legislation in relation to drink-driving and smoking, the rural pub trade has been decimated. So I thought why not look at things another way and perhaps there is now a market for an entirely different experience."
And so, on July 17th, the Carrig Rua Hotel opened its doors as an alcohol-free hotel, inviting Kerry councillor Michael Healy-Rae to do the honours. At the opening, he remarked how there was "much talk and little real action in Ireland in addressing the problem of alcohol abuse".
The gardaí, he said, "have unwittingly provided an opportunity to demonstrate if we are mature enough to be comfortable with the idea of a hotel that provides good quality accommodation and food, without having to have an endless supply of booze on tap."
So, how does it all work out, and is the future really fizzy? Visiting last week, hotel staff were at pains to talk up the positives of working in a dry hotel. Raucous singsongs have been replaced with one-on-one life-coaching sessions. Nature walks are being promoted and encouraged, while afternoon salsa classes are growing in numbers, even among staff.
In the bar itself, manager Stephen Ferry from Letterkenny, is training a new staff member on how to make the perfect skinny latte, as a newly-installed Slush Puppie machine whirs away in one corner. Herbal teas have replaced high-end whiskeys. Smoothies are the new shots. Several alcohol-free beers are on offer, as well as alcohol-free red, white and rosé wines. Ginger beer and home-made lemonade inhabit the fridges. The shelves carry a hugely-impressive range of soft drinks. For the non-drinker, it's sort of like going back into the garden and giving Adam a proper heads up before he bites into the apple. The only problem, though, is that it's 7.40pm on a Tuesday night and the place is empty.
"A pregnant lady was in earlier," says Mr Ferry, "she liked the fact that she could come into a bar where she didn't feel under pressure to take a drink. She could sit here with her kids and not see people drinking, or falling around the place."
With home-made pastries dotted along the counter, the bar has now rebranded itself as a continental-style cafe, open from nine in the morning until 10 at night. Diners in the hotel restaurant are allowed bring wine with them, albeit with a hefty €7.50 corkage fee per bottle.
"The response so far has been very good," says Ferry. "Often when people go to a restaurant they are stuck with what's on the wine list, but here in this hotel they can bring their own. Of course, we do have some customers who come into the bar and ask for alcohol and there is a look of fright on their faces when I have to say we have none."
AS THE EVENING PROGRESSES, locals begin to wander into the bar area, attracted by well-known folk singer Roy Arbuckle from Derry, who sets up on stage. One couple, Séamus and Betty McQuade, order a large pot of tea and sit near the door. Both are teetotallers, and have been coming to the area for over 30 years.
"We never drank or smoked in our lives," says Séamus, "and it's enjoyable to come in to a bar like this without the hassle of people knocking glasses against you and being rowdy and noisy. I've nothing against drink, but it can get out of hand. Even though people can bring wine in here, it's not the same as people drinking spirits, that's when things really get out of hand."
The couple say it's hard to get tea after 9pm in most bars, so the Carrig Rua duly obliges. One local, with a foot in both camps, arrives with a bottle of wine in one hand, and a bottle of Ballygowan in another. Others arrive into the bar after dinner, including Charlie and Kate Hill who are finishing off their bottle of wine before switching to alcohol-free rosé for the rest of the evening.
Once the band starts, the atmosphere is not unlike any other hotel bar, and whilst the staff are not run off their feet, they're not standing around either. By 10pm, the bar fills up and, during a break, the singer Roy Arbuckle says he could get used to playing to a sober crowd.
"It's not that unusual," he says, "the great folk tradition of the 60s in New York came out of coffee houses. I suppose in our culture we have grown up over generations thinking that pubs are patrons of the arts, such is the link between traditional music and drink. In terms of atmosphere, I prefer when it is sober - people are more inclined to be attentive to the music rather than drink and themselves."
Next morning, Ann Sweeney breezes through the lobby, taking names for a music workshop she has organised for the afternoon. There are plans to open children's playrooms and an old-style games room at the back of the hotel and she is also considering hiring more staff; such has been the demand over the past week.
"IT'S AMAZING, we will have five waiters in the bar today as well as a manager and they will be flat-out doing coffees and latte and herbal teas all day," she says. "Our takings are roughly the same."
She says she has taken enquiries from AA groups and alcohol treatment centres, looking to book in. Three weeks in, and the hotel has yet to take out a single advert. The premises has proven especially popular with young families who would not normally be allowed have their children on a licensed premises after 9pm, while the evolving range of events on offer in the bar helps keep everyone occupied.
She's now not pushed on getting her licence back. If things continue to develop, she may not need it. "The ironic thing," she says, en route to meet a lady about Reiki classes, "is that over the bank holiday weekend, the cafe here in the hotel took in double what my licensed premises around the corner took in. So why change a successful business model?"
