Saturday, September 19, 2020

Hacking back to Macs on Monday

When the regulars get back inside McTernans pub on Monday, they’re not going to recognise some of the place, writes Brian Byrne. More than six months on since the pandemic lockdown closure, much has been done. Not just to meet the needs of coronavirus restrictions, but also giving a substantial upshift in overall ambience.

To some extent, the enforced closure gave Mick and Mary Masterson the opportunity to stand back and look at where they wanted to go with the pub. In the normal day to day rush of running that kind of business, it’s not easy to find the time to take a long view.

“In the first month of the closure, I kind of took it as an extended holiday,” Mary says. “The weather was great, I was able to do a bit of gardening, and though I missed the craic of the pub I did enjoy the time to myself.” But that only lasts so long.

The stage came where she and Mick needed to look at what they wanted to do with the business they had bought two years ago after running it as tenants for 20 years. “We had time to sit back and have a chat about things, and take our time about it,” Mick remembers.  

You don’t fix things that aren’t broken. So the sports ethos, especially racing, remains as a strong part of how things have been rearranged. Also the reflection of the very personal relationships which Mick and Mary and their staff have with the McTernans patrons is still there in the photographs on the walls throughout the premises. There’s a bit more order to them now, and they’re a social history of Kilcullen over decades as much as they are decoration.

New furniture has been installed. The pool table is gone as part of the Covid guidelines of the moment, but that means more table space to spread the customers. “It’s much more open,” Mary says. Like every other pub, it’s going to be table service only for the foreseeable, and customers will have to stay in their allocated spaces while socialising. “We took away a counter, and a sofa,” Mick notes. “That gave us a lot more room.”

The former smoking area has been upgraded to a new seated pub section, with lots of signs, pictures and curios that both amuse and provoke some thinking. Off that there’s a new ‘smoking yard’, taking advantage of previously unused space. “The whole thing is to make sure everybody feels comfortable with us,” says Mick. “The last thing you want is for anyone to think things are a bit crowded in any part. People want room now, they want their own space.”

At the time of writing, the famous all-year Christmas Tree is absent, but Mary promises it will be back. “It’s the Covid Tree now,” Mick quips with a grin.

Everybody in the very family-operated business is looking forward to getting back to work. Back to the chat with the regulars — “they’re friends as well as customers, and some great characters over the years.” Back to the sport, the gossip, the local news. And, of course, relaxing over a pint. “We’ll have up to three people on the floor, two serving up the drinks from behind the bar,” says Mick. “It means extra staff, but that’s how it is.”

It may be a bit fraught for the first couple of weeks, Mary thinks, until everybody settles down after the end of closure. “We’re a little nervous, we want to make sure we get it right, for our customers and for ourselves and staff.” Mick figures there shouldn’t be too much difficulty in their customers keeping to the regulations. “Over the last six months people have got very used to being compliant in other areas, respecting distances, queuing, wearing masks where they’re supposed to. Our customers have been doing that in their everyday lives now.”

The ‘false starts’ for the trade through the summer were frustrating, he admits. “But I have to say that our suppliers were very good, delivering orders and then taking them back when we didn’t get to open on the dates. They were brilliant, they all understood what we were going through.”

It will be the usual 11am opening time through the weekdays, and the regulated 11.30pm to be cleared and closed. “That’s very clear-cut in the regulations, very black and white,” says Mick. “It rules out any grey areas.”

Of course, no music for now. No loud TV, but enough screens so that everyone can watch whatever are the races or matches of preference. And at least another part of downtown Kilcullen comes to life again. In a somewhat different way. But alive. 




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