Jewel in the Crown

Danny Rice sees his purchase of The Old Inn at Crawfordsburn as the pinnacle of a successful career in hospitality. He’s transformed the 400-year-old venue in the years since and now works with his two sons to ensure the business’s continuing prosperity.

Danny Rice deliberately didn’t oil the squeaky front door of the Trocadero when he owned it so that he could be alerted to the arrival of customers while continuing to work at a host of tasks elsewhere in the busy venue.

It was a trick he had learned from his mother who was also a publican.

And it’s a work ethic that seems to have found its way down through the generations to Garvan and Paul, Danny’s two sons, who help him run the idyllic Old Inn in Crawfordsburn which celebrated a remarkable 400 years in business during 2014.

Danny has been proprietor of the ancient old hostelry on Main Street since 1983. When he first took it on, it was an ailing and ungraded 16-bedroom inn with just eight en-suites although Danny says that at no time did he ever regret the decision to buy:

“This was the jewel in the crown for me after a lifetime in business,” he declares. “A hotel with real history in a well-regarded area on the edge of Crawfordsburn Country Park and Helen’s Bay. This is where royalty used to come to holiday and even though Bangor town may be in need of some revival these days, life here couldn’t be any sweeter.”

These days, the Old Inn is a four-star establishment with 34 bedrooms. Well-known as a popular high-end wedding venue, it’s the only hotel/restaurant in Northern Ireland to have consistently held on to 2 AA rosettes since 2000.

In all that, says Danny, the family dynamic has been an essential ingredient:

“Lots of people laugh about families working together,” remarks Danny. “They think it must be some kind of hell, but you only have to ask other families in the industry here, the likes of the Hastings, the Bradys or the Macklins and they’ll all tell you that it’s the most rewarding thing in the world…You develop a really deep-seated respect for each other and in an industry that’s known for its fickleness, your family won’t ever let you down.”

Danny Rice is a man well-known to most in the trade. The winner of LCN’s Industry Achievement Award in 2010, he has enjoyed a successful career spanning more than six decades during which time he worked as a publican, a hotelier and even a commercial construction fitter.

To many 80s revellers, he’s known as the man behind popular Belfast bar, The Joxer but he truly found his niche three decades ago when he bought the then down-at-heel property that was to become his crowning glory.

He regrets none of what he’s done. Hospitality, he says, presents a “terrific opportunity for those who consider themselves quite normal to excel at what they do”:

“There’s an art to it, but it’s changing and the industry today isn’t the same as it was when I was making my way,” says Danny. “You can’t work your way up serving pints and packets of crisps any more, you have to treat this trade with respect and even if you don’t know a Bordeaux from a biscuit tin, you still need to embark on a journey of knowledge and passion.”

The Old Inn is just at the end of a series of initiatives designed to create an improvement roadmap for its staff. It combines product training and personal development:

“Be nice, be efficient and be honest,” Danny advises. “If you’re built that way then hospitality is for you and you’ll be able to learn the rest.”

Frustrated by the burdens of compliance, he rails against red tape and against long sick lines and ambulance-chasing solicitors yet he always hangs on to the trademark optimism:

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he says. “We look inwards at ourselves a lot and we think about how we can be better and smarter and leaner. We raised our game a long time ago in the face of these challenges and we brought in systems that were ahead of their time which is paying dividends for us now.”

Looking into 2015, Danny is excited by the prospect of opening the new £1.3m Verina Suite at The Old Inn in May – there are already 23 weddings booked for that month alone:

“We only host one wedding each day so that number is pretty impressive – and music to my ears,” he remarks. “All of us have big smiles on our faces during a busy wedding period. I know what you’re thinking but it isn’t just the ringing tills that makes us smile, we’re genuinely happy to be able to facilitate customers on their most important day, there’s great satisfaction in something like that.”

Danny aims to develop staff who can multi-task in the mould of his mother:

“It’s not about in-your-face selling or pushing guests into the restaurant when it’s perfectly clear they would rather explore the nightlife in Belfast,” he continues. “What we want is to have staff that people will remember precisely because they were honest and helpful.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the success of the business comes down to the people that work here. You get the people part right and the rest is easy. We’ve had to make some very tough decisions in the last four years, we’ve had to tighten our belts and lean on our suppliers to ensure that we weathered the storm and kept the doors open.”

Is he ever likely to retire? Danny says that he has no plans.

“I intend to go on having fun up until the day I die,” he declares. “Working with my family is fun and interacting with or customers is fun. Dealing with suppliers if fun. Are people suggesting that I should take up golf? I’ve not heard too many good things from the players I know so I’ll give it a miss.”

That said, Danny passed full control of The Old Inn to Garvan and Paul some years ago:

“Perhaps the transition was so smooth that no-one noticed,” he jokes. “My hopes for the business are the same tomorrow as they were yesterday and I know that Garvan and Paul will run the place with vigour, passion and enthusiasm. They’re always striving to make the place better and they know that their efforts will always have my undying support.”