Top Beer Garden Tips For Your Irish Pub

A beer garden is a great addition to your Irish Pub, to help your customers enjoy the best the summer has to offer. We offer you some tips to create an authentically Irish Pub Garden atmosphere to increase your turnover.

1. Lighting should be decorative in keeping with the style of your garden, not glaring. Tea lights can be hid in plants for effect, or wooden beams can string lines of lights across the sky. Add an Irish street lamp or soft lights glowing ‘green white and orange’ for the ‘extra’ Irish effect.
2. Large pieces in the garden will have an impact: the Bernard Shaw Pub in Dublin has an infamous beer garden because of the double decker bus connected to the pub that has been converted into a seating area, with tables and plush seats. Striking creative items have an impact and are memorable to punters.

3. Actually ‘create’ a garden by incorporating plants. Build seating around trees or incorporate climbing vines over and around beams. Try something unusual, growing shamrocks or a potato patch.
4. Use the façade of your building that faces the garden to create a mural or to embellish your name across the wall. For example, If your pub is Molly Malone’s than consider a replica of the statue, or paint the story of the lyrics on your walls. Furniture should be arranged to facilitate conversation, and use decorative throw cushions to liven up the theme.
5. Beer gardens are popular during the warm days, but consider the temperature drop in the evening. Instead of huge heaters outside, try to create an authentic Irish fireplace outside with peat briquettes and a pot hanging over the fire. Never underestimate the power of smell, and the rich smell of turf lends to the authenticity of your Irish Pub.
6. Consider leaving exposed brick or stone from your building for the rustic garden setting look. Perhaps make the side of your pub look like an Irish cottage, complete with some thatched roofing.
7. Sound can have a huge impact on the popularity of your beer garden, can you hear traffic from your outdoor space? If so, consider a water feature or a distraction to replace noise.
8. To divert traffic outside your pub, create a special drinks menu for summer available in your beer garden, like cocktails with chunks of fruit.
9. Having a beer garden where other passers by can see the atmosphere creates a real buzz, but if you can’t create that space on the ground, consider moving a beer garden to the roof. If your garden isn’t visible from the street, make sure a sign is visible to your customers telling them that a summer beer garden is available.
10. If your climate is variable, consider coverings for the garden, like the Snail Bar in Dublin, which attracted a lot of attention with covering their outdoor beer garden with a circus tent, with small hanging lights. Doing something different creates attention, which is what will attract your customers to your outdoor garden, as opposed to anywhere else.

Source: Máire McDonnell, Irish Pubs Global

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