Restaurant offering lets The Countryman shine

Restaurant offering lets The Countryman shine

Now a hospitality institution in Ballymena, the Countryman Inn’s acclaimed food offering has helped the venue prosper despite continuing difficulties for licensed premises in NI’s rural areas. Now, the venue is looking towards further investment…

Like most market town across Northern Ireland, Ballymena boasts an eclectic array of well-established bars centred mostly around its busy commercial heart. Moving out towards the settlement’s northern boundary, however, you’ll come across one of its most enduringly popular venues.

The Countryman Inn is immediately appealing to visitors thanks to its greenfield location. An almost total lack of commercial activity in the immediate vicinity means that while the bar benefits little from passing shoppers’ custom, there is little competition for space in the expansive car park adjacent to the bar.

First opened in 1975, the bar was, for a time, in the ownership of publican Brian Montgomery, He is well-known locally as a former owner of The Thatch bar in Broughshane, which changed hands again earlier this year.

The Countryman’s current owners – the McKenna’s – took the bar on 21 years ago. They already owned another of Ballymena’s most prominent venues, The Grouse, on Ballymoney Street in the town centre, which they bought in the early 80s.

When they acquired The Countryman, Eugene McKenna, who looks after both bars, dispatched Grouse barman, Paul McAllister, to the Grove Road to manage the new charge – and Paul is still there today.

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The bar itself is neatly split in two, one half housing a comfortable public bar offering pool, televised sports events and a bar snack menu while the other is home to the venue’s fairly extensive restaurant operation.

The public bar has capacity for around 100 people at a time and Paul says that these days, the clientele are predominantly from the surrounding area. That hasn’t always been the case, however:

“Three or four years ago, we did entertainment on a Friday and Saturday nights and they came here from all over the place,” says Paul. “But I think that really, they just started to go elsewhere to places like Magherafelt, Derry, Portrush, where they have bigger clubs. It did hit us a bit, people were going where the crowds are, but we have adapted to it well.”

A key element in The Countryman’s continuing prosperity has been its consistently popular food offering. With capacity for around 150 covers at full tilt, the restaurant-cum-lounge bar is always busy. The head chef is local man, Martin Buick, who champions a seasonally-led menu.

“I think our restaurant appeals very much to families and perhaps, to a slightly older clientele,” says Paul. “We have an easy-going, happy atmosphere, something I always try to impress on the staff, and we get lots of kids. Families will say that they’ve come up here because the kids wanted to go to “Paul’s place” and that’s great. Customers tell us that they love the way they are looked after by the staff and that makes you feel good, it lets you know that you’re doing something right.”

In the 21 years that Eugene McKenna has been proprietor of the venue, The Countryman has undergone three renovation programmes. The most extensive of those was in 1996 when there was significant investment in the restaurant element of the business.

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General manager, Paul McAllister is pictured with head chef, Martin Buick.

Now, more improvements are planned. The Grouse on Ballymoney Street is due to be entirely refurbished this summer and then next year, The Countryman will get the same treatment. Around £1m is earmarked to be spent on the work in total.

That’s good news in a town where more than 1600 jobs are set to go within the next couple of years with the closure of manufacturing operations there by JTI and Michelin.

“So many places have closed in Ballymena lately, but touch wood, our business hasn’t been affected,” says Paul. “We’re very confident going forward. Even when things are tough, people still like to get out for a wee bite to eat.”

As for priorities now, Paul says that they are focused on ensuring that customers stayed engaged with the venue:

“We try to change our menus every four months or so when we take the worst-selling three or four dishes off and put new things on,” he adds. “Our head chef, Martin, has been with us for 16 years. He was at The Templeton and The Ross Park before he came here and he’s great and very accommodating with the customers. People will often ask for things that aren’t on the menu and if he has it, then he does it. He also has a good team of chefs around him and that’s at the heart of a good a restaurant.”

The focus for 2016 is squarely on expansion and improvement, “We’re looking forward to that big style,” says Paul. “We’re also looking at the space outside the bar, we want to do something there, maybe create a beer garden around the side of the building and move the cars further back. It’ll be another challenge for us, but everything is sitting in a good place at present despite the recession and we’re very confident about the future.

“I’m glad to say that I’m very happy to come to work,” he adds. “I was a welder before I came to work here and now, I love coming into work. First and foremost, that’s because of the staff, they are all very competent and likeable here, and the people that come in to see us are great. I don’t see many of them as customers any more, I class them as friends.”

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