Mayo pub wins 'Innovative Pub of the Year' at Irish Pub Awards

A Mayo pub has been recognised for their work with the 'Innovative Pub of the Year' at the Irish Pub Awards.

Nevin's Newfield Inn from Tiernaur has scooped the prize and owner John Nevin was over the moon, when speaking to The Mayo News after the ceremony:

"We're very happy with this because it's a prestigious award. We're very grateful to get it. Through a lot of hard work by myself, my family, and all the staff and all the work we have done over the years to achieve this award."

John Nevin is very proud of his staff. Without them, this award would not have been possible.

"We employ a lot of local staff and they have been with me for a good few years. They're very well trained and they run the business with me as if it was like their own."

The John Nevin took over the pub in 2001. Back then, it was a small grocery shop and a bar.

A lot has changed since then. 

"We changed to more food based, we built a kitchen, started serving food. And we did a few rooms also, accommodation. So that was the beginning of it. Then we built a function room after that, to cater for bigger groups, and maybe smaller weddings, and so on."

And then COVID came along, and Nevin's built some outdoor areas. And basically, the outdoor areas that they built were supposed to be temporary, but now they're on a permanent basis. 

"When you talk about innovation", John surmises, "it's basically moving with the times, the times that we're in, and moving fairly quickly. And also across the road, we've put in camper van stops for camper vans with electricity, water, Wi Fi, and so on. We also bought the house next door called Newfield Lodge, and that has increased our room capacity by about seven rooms."

The latest development at Nevin's is a little helipad, a landing pad for helicopters.

And then there are the robots, helping out with bringing the orders to the tables.

"The robots came about a number of years ago. We saw them on a video, and we contacted the company, and they had a kind of source in Ireland. So, we contacted them to come down with the robots."

They came down one Saturday, and John could see how the robot operates on the floor. For a week, the little helpers were on a trial run and then, John had them returned for now, just to mull things over.

"But then the following week, I got phone calls from customers, saying 'we're going down there Saturday night, and we'd like the robot to sing happy birthday'. And it wasn't just one call, it was many, many calls. So, basically, at that stage, it was out of my hands. This is what the customer wanted."

It is a great attraction for not just young people and kids, it was for older ones as well. So Nevin's ended up actually buying two of them. A third one is actually on its way. 

"In terms of innovation and the award we won now, the robots would tie into that as well, because, we're up for the challenge and we're willing to jump in and try things out."

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