Killough’s Chris is Bar Person of the Year

Chris Feenan shows off his trophy and certificate after winning the title of LCN Bar Person of the Year 2014

This year’s Licensed & Catering News Awards were probably the most successful and widely enjoyed in the four-year history of the event – but of all 17 categories at the 2014 gala evening in the Europa Hotel recently, none came close to generating the same levels of excitement and interest as the battle for Bar Person of the Year.

In the end, Chris Feenan of the Saddle or Sail Inn at Killough took the title, although he was pushed hard by two other contenders in the finals of this year’s event – Chris Leonard from The Anchor Complex in Portstewart and Aaron Murphy of the Europa Hotel.

Chris’s win took the tiny village of Killough by storm – in the days after he took the title, he received email messages of congratulation from as far afield as Australia, Canada and America and he welcomed dozens of well-wishers who called at the bar to commend him on his win – including a former owner of the Saddle or Sail, Jo-Jo Sowerby, who had sold the premises in 1974 but had read about Chris’s success in the local paper.

Forty-five-year-old Chris says that for him and so many of the bar’s customers, winning the LCN title has been “absolutely massive”:

“A lot of people have been coming in to see us and all of our customers are just over the moon, it’s as much theirs as it is mine,” he says. “They’ve been saying, “We won”, and they are rightly very proud.

“Awards like this are very important,” he adds. “In this business, you have lots of ups and downs and an award like this is great, we’re seen by the public to be doing something right and there’s great excitement among everyone.”

Chris is bar manager at the Saddle or Sail – known locally as ‘the SOS bar’. He got involved in 2009 when owner, Martin Ross, unexpectedly passed away a short time after taking on the premises. Martin’s daughters, Martina and Laura, asked Chris – their uncle and a former fisherman – to come into the bar at that time and see what he could do get the business on its feet.

“I would have to say that to me, the bar was not in great shape,” he recalls. “It was very quiet, it was really just a case of opening the shutters in the morning and hoping that people would come in. I knew that it had to change…the days of just hoping that people will come in are at an end and we had to turn the corner and give them a reason to visit the bar.”

With that in mind, Chris re-introduced competitive sports to the bar – the Saddle or Sail now has two skittles teams that play every week, a ladies’ darts team and a pool league.

“It all helps with bar receipts but the weekends still had to be filled,” continues Chris. “There was very little or no entertainment in the bar at that time, but we now have perhaps six good bands who play in here regularly and the entertainment schedule for the rest of the year is almost complete.”

Physically, Chris has done little to the bar other than upgrading the décor, although a yard area has now been cleared and transformed into a useful beer garden which is perfect for a round of skittles on a sunny summer afternoon.

He’s also dropped the price of a drink in the bar for the over 60s. The pensioners’ rate – which applies every day – sees shorts selling for £2. And for the younger clientele, there’s Sunday Madness, when bottles of beer are £2 and a vodka and Coke is £3.

“I would say that we are the pinnacle bar in this area right now,” adds Chris. “People come here from Downpatrick, Killyleagh and Ballynahinch to drink here and they come from a 15 or 20-mile radius. I counted 45 people from Ardglass alone in the bar the other night when we had a band on.

“I would put much of that down to the loyalty of the customers, because you wouldn’t need a bar man if you didn’t have them and we’ve built a very good and loyal customer base here over the last five years.”

As for long-term plans, a small extension is planned at the bar in order to increase seating capacity. A ‘snug’ area is to be added that will accommodate 24 customers in six groups of four. Work should begin on that around September or October.

A folk festival is also scheduled at the Saddle or Sail for August 24 when singer-songwriter, Cora Kelly, who played her first gig there, will be on the bill alongside Celtair and perhaps, County Down performer, Triona Carville. Four hours of music from student performers are also planned for the afternoon session.

“Our priorities now include filling the rest of the year’s entertainment schedule, which is almost complete, and making sure that our extension plans go ahead without a hitch,” adds Chris. “We’re also hoping to carry out some work on four flats that are above the bar which we will be able to use for private let.

“All in all, the win has been great for the bar, we’re all just really delighted,” he adds. “When something like this happens in a village like this, it’s massive. We’ve had such great feedback, we couldn’t ask for more and now we’re just looking forward to getting on with making things even better at the Saddle or Sail.”