At 23, Caelan McVeigh is manager of the prestigious Observatory bar in Belfast’s Grand Central Hotel. And by his own admission, it’s his dream job:

‘I’m happy at my work, I wouldn’t move for double my salary,’ he told LCN this month.

Although he’s back at his post now, managing the highest cocktail bar in Belfast, the early months of lockdown saw Caelan fulfil a very different role, doing everything from servicing the rooms which were being used by frontline workers to helping formulate new staff operating procedures and complete risk assessments.

Since July 3 though, he’s been back in the Observatory on the Grand Central’s 23^rd floor with new Covid-19 restrictions in place:

‘We’re lucky in that we never cram people into the place at any time and so we haven’t lost that much to social distancing,’ Caelan reports. ‘Our afternoon tea trade has been through the roof and our Friday, Saturday and Sunday numbers are at the level they were at pre-Covid. People still want the product, they still want to come out and see us and our regulars are all returning. That’s what we want to see.’

Caelan’s first taste of the hospitality trade was at Vanilla, the restaurant owned by his family in Newcastle, where he had waited on tables from his early teens. When he was 18, he began a part-time job at the Slieve Donard Resort & Spa where the chance to work during big events such as the Irish Open, convinced him that a career in the trade was what he wanted. He mentioned this to his manager at the time and was directed towards the Hastings Hotels trainee manager programme, which he duly embarked on.

The programme saw him work in a variety of roles in hotels across the Hastings group including the Everglades, the Culloden and eventually, the Grand Central where he was part of the opening team at the age of 21:

‘I really loved it,’ he recalls. ‘When I first went into the [management training] programme, my dream had been to end up at the Grand Central and when I eventually got here, even with the stress of opening, it was absolutely the best thing I’d ever done.’

In August last year, Caelan was promoted to the manager’s post at the exclusive Observatory bar:

‘This is one of the most exclusive venues in Ireland with some of the highest standards and the clientele are willing to spend a lot more money to have a great experience here,’ he says. ‘We’re very focused on quality cocktails and premium ingredients and we have our own high-end cocktail list which isn’t like anything anyone else has.’

Many of those who appear in this monthly column are keen to open venues of their own, but Caelan has his sights set on promotion within the Hastings group where, he says, he would like to become food and beverage manager with the next few years:

‘I totally love my job,’ he adds. ‘Working here has its challenges, but I love my team, we are very close-knit and it’s very rewarding whenever you deliver. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.’

Caelan recommends:

Linenopolis 

(A twist On The Negroni)

Ingredients:

25ml Dark Rum

20ml Aperol

15ml Dry Vermouth

5ml jumping Goat Coffee Liqueur

5ml Demerara

2 Dashes of Bitters

Method

Add the entire ingredients list to a mixing glass or jug and stir them until the jug becomes ice cold. Strain the mixture over rocks in a glass with ice. Garnish with orange coin and coffee beans.

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Now living in Bangor, Hannah Ferris helps look after the cocktail bar at The Merchant hotel in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, but she was living in Edinburgh and reading French, Spanish and EU studies at university when her interest in the trade was first sparked.

Her first post was behind the bar at The Waverley on St. Mary’s Street, a staple of the city’s pub trade. That was one of the reasons that she really wanted the job, recalls Hannah, who admits that she had to overplay the extent of her previous experience in order to convince the owner to give her the job.

‘I just really wanted to work in hospitality, there was something about it that really attracted me,’ she says. ‘I have enjoyed being around people since I was a kid and working behind the bar attracted me because of the interaction, the ability to talk to everybody. It wasn’t that much about drink at that time, it was the atmosphere that I liked.’

During four or five years spent studying in Edinburgh, Hannah worked in a series of bars around the city. She also took a year out and lived abroad in France and Spain:

‘I didn’t work in bars when I was there, but I went out a lot and I learned a lot about the people there and their drinking culture which I tried to being back home with me, it’s very different to what we have here,’ she says.

By 2014, Hannah was back in Edinburgh and she worked for a time as a supervisor at a pub on the Royal Mile. In 2016, she returned to Northern Ireland and a job at The Dirty Onion in Belfast for which she had been interviewed while still living in Edinburgh. She stayed at the venue for about a year:

‘It was a lot quicker and there was more volume that what I was used to in Edinburgh. In general, I think our culture here revolves around drink a lot more and you have to learn to cope with that, you have to get quicker very fast.’

Hannah moved to The Ivory in Victoria Square in September 2017 – it was her ‘first real cocktail job’, she says. She had learned the basics of mixing cocktails from The Barking Dog’s Michael Conlon during her days at The Dirty Onion, so she wasn’t entirely unprepared for the experience.

From The Ivory she went to The Sagart on Chapel Lane for around a year before the opportunity at The Merchant came up. Now, she and another supervisor, are overseeing the dedicated cocktail bar at the luxury hotel:

‘I’m really loving it,’ she declares. ‘It’s fabulous. ‘At present, we’re looking to update the menu a bit, go down a more modern route with it and it’s really exciting.’

Reflecting on the changing nature of the trade in Belfast, Hannah says that she thinks the standard of bartending here is steadily improving:

‘It’s got a lot better in recent years and is developing a much more global outlook in terms of the drinks being served,’ she remarks. ‘Bartenders are also more knowledgeable, they’re reading up on cocktails and really trying to emulate the best bars around the world. There’s a real drive here to be as good as Dublin, local bartenders are pushing themselves to achieve that and they’re really passionate about it.’

Hannah says that in five years’ time, she’d either like to be managing an exclusive cocktail bar, preferably somewhere outside Belfast, perhaps in France, Spain, London or even Dublin. Or, she’d like to own her own place:

‘It would be quite small and would have a European influence because of the time I spent abroad. It would have a bar and maybe 10 or 11 tables with great cocktails and a selection of wines. That’s what I really want.’

Hannah recommends…

The Lumiere

Ingredients:

30ml Citadelle gin
17.5ml Green Chartreuse
17.5ml St Germain
12.5ml lime juice
3 drops champagne acid

Method:

Add all the ingredients to a shaker with two medium blocks of ice and shake short and sharp to decrease dilution, then add three drops of champagne acid, which is tartaric and lactic acid mixed with water. Enjoy!

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Sean McGuigan was born in Belfast and studying for A-levels when he began to work part-time at the Four Winds near his home in the city. He was around 16 at the time and he stayed at the venue for the next two years.

‘I did fall into it I suppose,’ he told LCN this month. ‘I had friends that worked in the industry, but after a while, I began to enjoy it and it’s been a passion of mine ever since.’

When Sean eventually went off to Liverpool to attend university, he continued with his bar work, finding a position at McCooley’s, a prominent Irish bar in the city, and subsequently, at a number of other venues.

He returned to NI at the age of 22 and began working behind the bar at The Chelsea on the Lisburn Road. The manager, Terry Loughran had been manager during his days at the Four Winds and he stayed there for the next six months before returning to the Four Winds where he spent a brief spell in a management role.

After that, there came a short hiatus during which Sean left the hospitality trade altogether and went to work for the Child Maintenance Service for the next eight months:

‘At the time, I just wanted to try something different and this opportunity came up,’ recalls Sean. ‘But I found that I missed the bar and I eventually went back to the trade and a job at AMPM.

‘That was very much a cocktail-orientated venue and it was during this time that I got a lot of my experience. During the Christmas period, I worked the rooftop bar [The Treehouse] on my own.’

By this time, he was 23-years-old and an eight-month posting at city centre venue, Ten Square followed before he found himself just up the street a little, working behind the bar at Flame restaurant.

‘It’s very busy here and it’s very different from the other places I’ve worked,’ says Sean, who points out that Flame’s central location means that it gets a much higher ratio of tourist customers than many of his former venues:

‘That means we get asked for a lot of different cocktails which you might not normally get asked for,’ he adds. ‘That can be testing and it’s a challenge, but it’s a great place to work and I enjoy it.’

Sean believes that generally, the standard of bartending in the trade across Belfast has improved many-fold in recent years:

‘I think people are beginning to realise that this isn’t the easy job they might have once thought that it was,’ he adds. ‘Your experience says everything about you…Nowadays, we have these very unique cocktail bars for people to experience and that’s great. New bars are opening up every week and people don’t mind paying that bit extra when they know that staff are putting the effort in.’

As for the future, Sean says that he can certainly see himself at the helm in his own business venture, probably a restaurant:

‘I wouldn’t mind that,’ he remarks. ‘I have the experience, I know how to run the floor in terms of food and beverage, I’ve been there and done that, so I think I could manage it…I think my place would be old-fashioned, a unique cocktail bar with a relaxing vibe, somewhere that you could go for a cocktail and maybe some food with no pressure put on you, you’d be left to your own devices…’

Sean recommends…

The Lola

Ingredients:

50ml Belfast Artisan Gin

50ml pumpkin juice

15ml honey

15ml lemon juice

10 ml ginger extract

Egg white and one muddled cinnamon stick.

Method:

Shake the ingredients and then fine strain them into a coupe class. Enjoy!

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A great many of those who appear in this regular feature have been dedicated to a career in hospitality from a very young age and some of them end-up forgoing a planned career or an academic path in order to follow their dreams.

Such is the case with this month’s subject – the current holder of the LCN Mixologist of the Year title – Seamus Og Birt, bar manager at Portstewart hotel, Me & Mrs Jones.

Originally from the mid-Ulster village of Bellaghy, Seamus Og (25), began his bartending career at the age of 16 when he started lifting glasses at Bryson’s bar in Magherafelt. It wasn’t long, however, before Seamus Og realised that he was particularly at home in the cocktail bar where he admired the skill of the staff.

‘Eventually, I was made up to bar back and when the boys on the [cocktail] bar where getting it tight, I tried to help them out as best I could,’ recalls Seamus Og. ‘And when it wasn’t as busy, I would ask them about the cocktails they were making.’

By the time he was 17, he’d been made up to bartender, working all four of Bryson’s bars with a particular focus on the cocktail bar.

A year later, Seamus Og was off to Belfast to study for a degree in the Irish language at Queen’s. He went for a number of bartending positions in the city but admits that initially, he was ‘knocked back’ from quite a few before securing work at The Cloth Ear in the Merchant hotel.

At 22, he moved to The Tipsy Bird and within three months of arriving, he’d been promoted to assistant manager. The general manager, Roisin McErlean, took Seamus Og under her wing:

‘I learned a huge amount about the drinks trade from Roisin, she has a real passion for it,’ he recalls. ‘And after stepping up into a management role, I found that the running of things could be a big challenge.’

Seamus Og was still at university at that time, in fact, he worked full-time throughout his period at Queen’s. However, he told LCN that he had actually decided during his first year of study that he wasn’t going to use the planned degree for his career:

‘I knew early on that I was going to stay in hospitality,’ says Seamus Og. ‘I just had an absolute passion for it, I loved it, I loved the challenge and I saw an opportunity to grow and to travel and meet people.’

Around that time, Seamus Og participated in the Jameson Brand Ambassador programme, making his way as far as the last round before the final cut was made.

Then, in June last year, he left The Tipsy Bird with the intention of going to work in Scotland with his then girlfriend. However, Seamus Og is friendly with the Menary family who own Portstewart hotel, Me & Mrs Jones. They asked at the start of last summer whether or not he’d be interested in managing the bar there and he went up to the seaside town with the intention of working at the hotel until it was time to leave for Scotland.

In the event, however, Seamus Og decided that he loved the challenge of bar management at Me & Mrs Jones and so he remained there, forgoing the opportunity to re-locate to Scotland.

‘This isn’t the long-term plan for me, but at the minute, the hotel owners are focused on a plan to re-open a bar in Portstewart called The Icehouse and I’m very much involved with overseeing that project.’

Seamus Og will be managing the bar once it opens in late October and he says he’s very much looking forward to that:

‘It’s going t be something totally different for the area,’ he reveals. ‘It’s taking what you’d expect to see in the city and putting it up on the north coast. It’s going to be a comfortable, informal bar with a focus on Latin spirits.’

And as for what Seamus Og calls his ‘end game’, he says that he’s very focused on finding a way in which he can work in the USA, either as a bartender or as a brand ambassador for Irish whiskey.

Seamus Og recommends:

The Gatekeeper

Ingredients:

50ml The Sexton Single Malt Irish Whiskey

20ml Anam Irish Citrus

15ml Avocado Pit Orgeat

10ml Rejuvenated Cordial

10ml Rooibos Tea Syrup

3 dashes Fernet Branca

Method: Stir the mixture over ice and strain it into a chilled Nick & Nora glass with orange peel expressed around the rim of the glass and rested on the lip. Enjoy!

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Glenn’s mum, Marie, worked as a waitress all her life and it was she who had introduced him to hospitality during her time at McKevitt’s Hotel in Carlingford. But Glenn says that he’d always known he wanted to more with his career than cook:

‘I’m a people person, I always have been, I like to be in front of people, talking to them and listening to the craic. That’s more me.’

Glenn made the move into bar work, departing for Salou where he stayed for three years:

‘It was good fun, but it was hard work,’ he recalls. ‘I learned a lot about the trade, especially dealing with pressure when you get hit by a huge volume of people very quickly.’

At the age of 26, Glenn was back in NI where he immediately landed a job managing the Quayside Inn in Newry. He stayed there for almost five years.

‘When you’re working as a chef, you really have to move from one place to another in order to learn the game, but in bar work, it’s not the same,’ remarks Glenn. ‘Newry isn’t a big town and if you move around a lot, you’ll find that you soon run out of places to work in.’

The move to Cobbles came in 2013. Originally, he looked after the bar but when the manager moved on, Glenn was promoted to fill the gap.

Cobbles, at The Mall in Newry, is a bar, restaurant and weekend club venue that pitches itself at a fairly upmarket and slightly older crowd.

‘It’s very busy, I’d say it’s one of the most popular bars in town,’ says Glenn. ‘We’ll run anything from 35 to 40 live music sessions a month in here along with karaoke on a Thursday night and the club, which is open all weekend.

‘Making sure that we are able to stage all that live entertainment is a large part of my job. We have live bands and DJs here 52 weeks in the year, so there’s a lot to keep an eye on. The best way to do it is to have a look at what’s up and coming. I keep track of what’s happening in places like Belfast and Bangor and that’s my guide.’

In terms of priorities, Glenn is focused on remaining competitive in the marketplace and maintaining the quality of the customer service at Cobbles.

‘That’s what people expect, so that’s the main goal,’ he says. ‘You need to watch what everyone around you is doing and you need to be sure that you’re offering value for money, that’s a big thing.

‘We run promotions every week and we’ve recently launched industry nights on Mondays for people who are working at the weekends. That gives them the chance of a night out and it does really well for us. It’s in the very early stages, but I think it’s going to grow.’

As for personal ambition, Glenn is like many of his colleagues that feature in this column, he would love to own his own place:

‘I’d like to open a small bar and restaurant, but it’s all about the location, you need to be very aware of where you are opening up. Fifty per cent of those venues that close, do so in the first year and it’s because of their location.

‘I’m not really sure what I’d like the place to look like though. I think you have to go with the trends and suppose it’ll depend on what is popular when I get around to doing this.’

Glenn’s recommended tipple

COBBLES SIGNATURE G&T

Ingredients:

35ml Sixling Cloudberry-Infused Irish Gin

3 Raspberrys

3 Blueberrys

Slice of Pink Grapefruit

London Essence Classic Tonic

2 drops of Peychauds Aromatic Bitters

Edible flower for garnish

Method:

Take a large balloon gin glass (chilled) and then add 35ml measure of our gin. Then add the raspberries, blueberries and a generous slice of pink grapefruit topped with tonic to your taste and garnish with some edible flowers. Perfect!

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