The Nag's Head Pub "Earn It Hospitality"

Patrick Walsh  (00:00)
Please take the floor. Well, it's it's a it's a sharp but sweet one. I mean, I I was just landed in in in the US and and and had made my literally first visit to to Hoboken and I had done the thing thinking I was being strategic, I kind of you know

I got a stack of resumes or C Vs and

said I was gonna go I was gonna go block by block, avenue by avenue. And the first block I hit they they pointed me straight to Irish Row as kind of the the highest density, most likely area for me to pursue and so, know, hot footed it over there I said I'd just go down door to door on on first and a lot of the places were

We're just getting open, Barney's included, but I seen him at the front door and I could just tell by looking at him. He had a he has a real like I don't know if you've ever been to Dublin but he has a real like proper like Dublin head on 'em

You know. I'm sorry. Yeah, he's a real pro he just he's like I know Barney's head like the back of my hand. I I know exactly what you mean. Well, yeah, he's a real head about town is like a is an expression in Dublin where it's like there's a certain look about a person and you just you y you know them and you can spot them a mile off and he had that kind of

you know, part skell, part earnest, part part part whatever. But anyway I seen him, he was opening up. Genuinely he was he was he was opening up and and I went in and and you know, did did the whole kind of like, you know, dog and pwn Yeah, I'm over here, blah blah blah, whatever. And and he he just kinda like cut right through to all the the BS and and for no good reason

He he offered me a shot. Now he offered me a he offered me an opportunity to stand on his door to basically check IDs and stuff like that and and I was not as well fed then as I am now, so I was very I was very I was very you know, not

central casting for your typical doorman. But anyway, I I I was dead I was I was committed to the idea that I was gonna be bartending. So I I kind of argue the point that I'm I'm I'm not the one that you want on the door. But if there's you know if there's if there's bartender work to be done, that's that's my

domain of expertise, that's my my area to shine. And he didn't have a bar gig himself, but he said, Hang on two seconds and he literally got behind the bar and he made two phone calls.

one of which was a place called Ted and Joe's. And he knew them because you know, he had he had worked with them previously. He had his, you know, he he had his his his strongly held beliefs about some of the owners' attitudes, but he loved the

girl who was the manager there, she was a hostess when he was, I guess, working a stick. But long and the short of it is he called her up, he said, I've got this I've got this great Irish guy. He's over from Dublin. Now saying that, he I don't know if he was just doing the thing like you do to be generous and say kind things or if he seen something to me. But either way, he had no reason to be kind to me. I literally had I had just walked in off the street and he didn't know me from Adam. But he did pick up the phone.

to call them and that is the first place that I attended Barn Hoboken. And it was and it was it it was like it was right that I was turned on to kind of First Street as being like Irish Row, but he he was my first introduction in real terms to, you know, that

community where you kind of like look out for each other. And so I didn't forget that. And I probably told that story, you know, as much for the the sentiment of it when I did kind of remind him of this and that. But he and I were were were we're not just bonded because you know we worked on the same street for for many years. And I did frequent that place a lot.

But he he just he kept an eye out for me, you know, in where he had kind of

you know, walk the path a little bit, he had his own eye on his own prize, which was he was gonna come here, you know, do the work that it took to get into business for himself and he didn't just want a ten bar, he wanted a ten bar behind his own bar and that was my dream. So he was living proof that it could be done of how you do it and then I went and done what he did.

I knew you were the guy to call. Yeah. Well that's what re that I mean, that's what really happened. I mean he had you know, you talk about like the things that you had to do to earn your

Turn your free drink. Like he he had he had an attitude that in some ways is counterintuitive to the Irish hospitality, which which is I mean it's not entirely counterintuitive, like everybody knows us to be welcoming, but you go to the local spots in anywhere in Ireland

Whether it's a local place that doesn't get a lot of tourism or whether it's a local place in a neighborhood in Dublin like the one that he came from, there is an earnest mentality. Not earnest but earnest hospitality where you you have to prove you are worthy of your seats or the time of day. And and it's just like that. And you know, he he introduced a bit of that as his kind of like 'cause everybody you know, he like

Every WWE needs a needs a needs a villain or a or a kind of a body. And he just kind of took on that role. He was a very genuinely, you know, I don't want to say sweet but but stand stand up kind of person. And and and you know, I I c I can't say that it was like you know, that that it was universally received, but if you came where we c w where you came from and you could and and you kinda cut through the noise

the signal with him is I've got your back. And so I you know, I I would say that that there's a there's a lot of really positive things to be to be remembered. And and also as you get older, like y you know, you you see kind of life grown up around you. So he had a picture of his son behind the bar and that was a big reason. That was a big part of his why, right? Yeah. And I'm very proud. Like just like like like

irrepressibly proud. Like you know, when you're when you're backing a persona like the kind of that

or the kind of hard scale like we already talked about. it's hard to maintain that and have irrepressible pride at the same time. So you'd see like little chinks in the armor where a light of that pride would come out and I like it endeared him even more to me. And then to see his son like grow from the picture o of a boy into like a man behind the bar or a man playing hurling or a man going to to college or whatever. I hope he I hope he at some point, you know, is able to

be filled up a little bit by by just how how many people thought so positively and highly of a person like his dad and how of all the people that his dad could have chosen that he was most proud of his son. no doubt. And the sentiment like you say,

Tom the producer (08:00)
If you caught a glimmer of sentimentality in him or if you caught his sweetest version, which it really was, I think most of the things he did b he did because he had to be the uncle or the dad of the place and he understood that like he even sorta kind of regulated the music so that the neighborhood of people in community really that you mentioned felt comfortable all the time. It didn't it it wasn't a multi personality bar and it didn't get

You weren't allowed to change his vibe, and that was on that was just understood. And you were responding to me saying that one of the things that made me absolutely love the guy as a bar owner was the a the hoops you had to go through and the extent to which he had to know you, trust you, and respect you to even consider giving you a free beer.

Much less decide yes. I mean just to consider giving you a free beer. And I I mean you never felt more love in your life than Barney buying you a beer And all that's all I'm saying. he didn't give you any free trophies, but damn, when that guy bought you a beer, y y it was Christmas in July.

Patrick Walsh
Stuff, good stuff, yeah. Good to good to think on.

Tom the producer
I appreciate it taking a minute. I'll I'll cut you loose. I know this middle of a work day, but I couldn't help myself. I had to pick up the phone. Glad to connect it to you, Mr. Ritter. All right, take care, man.