Conor Devlin only wanted to make one change when he took over The Vernon Arms.
The 58-year-old had been manager of the traditional pub in Dale Street for some time, working under previous owners Jimmy and Barbara Monaghan. When Jimmy and Barbara announced their retirement in January this year, Conor originally came out Dungannon, County Tyrone, was a natural choice to become the owner.
Conor, who had been a regular at the pub long before he worked there, wanted to keep things almost exactly the same. But it It may not surprise you that the only change the Irishman had in mind was related to Guinness.
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He told the ECHO: “When I came over from Ireland I was shocked that there was only Guinness Extra Cold – that was very strange and I couldn’t ignore it. In Ireland the starting point is Guinness regular. Then you can catch an extra cold if you want.
“The first thing I did when I came in was I got an extra Guinness tap so we could do Guinness regularly. I wanted to increase the temperature a few degrees – now it’s creamy, thicker and has more flavour.
“If someone walks into the bar and asks for a Guinness, I know who will have a regular or a cold rolling paper.
“If they’re Irish they’ll have the regular, if they’re from Liverpool and a bit older they’ll have the regular. The young ones go for the extra cold – we know what they’re going to get.
“I drink Guinness, so it must be good here. I always watch it.”
As you would expect from any good landlord, Conor takes his beer seriously. The Vernon Arms is renowned for the quality and quantity of its cask ales and has been awarded CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) every year since 2009. Conor is passionate about real beer and wants to maintain that reputation.
He explained: “This is a real traditional pub. It’s exceptional to have something like this in the center of the city as it’s the last of a dying breed to have these types of pubs in the city.
“I have no intention of changing that, it works very well and I want to keep it that way. It is known for its real beer, the CAMRA LocAle price 2024 has just been increased. Above the bar you can see: From 2009 there is a prize every year.”
The pub’s seven hand pumps are always in use, serving beers from all over the country. However, Conor is always keen to support local breweries and Wirral brewery Brimstage always sells extremely well.
He said: “Trapper’s Hat (a session ale) flies out – everything from Brimstage does. Brimstage is one of those breweries that you can drink by brewery.
“I don’t care what the drink is, it’s from Brimstage so I’ll take it. Their Oyster Catcher porter is amazing, they gave that to me exclusively last year.
“They brew it seasonally and stop in April. I tried to convince them to continue because I can sell a porter all year round. Today a porter comes by.
“It’s really important to support local beers. Brimstage would stand up to every beer in the country.
“Supporting the local breweries is crucial, you have to do that. There are some fantastic beers nationally and we get them in, but the local beers are top notch.
“At our core we are a real beer pub and I don’t think you can survive today if you only start selling lager beers. You have to tap real beer.”
The Vernon’s regulars include many cask beer drinkers, who feel right at home in the traditional surroundings. When he took over, Conor didn’t want to do anything that would disrupt that.
“For me it was about keeping it open because it’s really, really important to the community and as a hub for people,” he said. “So I didn’t even want to close the doors for one day. We managed to do that at the end of January, we took it over and kept it open.
“What I really like is that the same faces come in. The same man is sitting there and he comes in at this time of day and sits there. If I didn’t see those people, I would be worried.
“It’s a bit of a home for people, it’s never changed so people still feel very much part of it. The same people who have been coming in for years continue to come in at the same time, order the same thing and sit in the same place. It’s one of those places where you start to worry if that doesn’t happen.”
Conor added: “I looked the other day and there were two couples sitting here. They were in their mid seventies, it was a Tuesday evening and they had a pint of real ale, a Guinness and the ladies had a glass of wine. .
“I just thought: we facilitate that. They sit here, have a nice Tuesday evening and we create that environment for them. That’s really special, you know. Wonderful to do that.”
The Vernon is one of many historic pubs in Liverpool’s business district. Conor values his neighbors and believes they all work well together in harmony.
He said: “Our slogan is ‘Putting the ale in Dale Street’. The problem with this street is that it is the only street in the country that has five bars in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, no other street does.
“You’ve got all these pubs and all in one street. On Fridays a lot of people start at Ship & Miter and then work their way down and then back down again. All the pubs work together and this is an amazing part of the city to have beer drink. For real beer everything would be right.
“That’s something I really wanted to work with. It’s the beer district: the fact that The Ship and The Excelsior are nearby and all do good beer benefits us all. That’s the way to do it, everyone loves a pub crawl.
Being part of a hub of pubs in the center of Liverpool is something Conor has always wanted. Although his route to running The Vernon is far from conventional.
He explained: “I left Ireland over 30 years ago. I went to Belgium – my background is IT and I worked in the European institutions in Brussels.
“I kept coming to Liverpool. Then I moved to London, but I kept coming to Liverpool. It used to drive me crazy, I’d leave on a Sunday but everyone would come out – back in the day when all the families would get dressed up and come on a Sunday afternoon outwards.
“You got every age group, the young ones, the dads, the granddads, all coming out. I left that and went home so it really drove me crazy. So I thought, I’ll move to Liverpool and that’s what I do.” did.”
The landlord does not know exactly how he exchanged his career in IT for the catering industry. But he thinks his family history has something to do with it.
He said: “I used to come here to drink and then an opportunity came up to manage the business so I looked into that. The other day I thought maybe it’s in my DNA because my grandfather, who I never met, actually had a bar in Belfast harbor
“Docks were destroyed in the 1941 Blitz, the whole area no longer exists, but my father grew up in that bar in Belfast, there are publicans on my mother’s side too, so it’s probably in my DNA. Lying there, feeling there not aware of it.
‘Two years ago I more or less retired, I thought I was going to laze around.
“But this opportunity came up to take over, so I fell for it. It wasn’t planned at all, I had no idea I was going to do it, didn’t plan to, but maybe that part of the publican in me was woke up .”
The Vernon’s regulars will be very happy with it.
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