Closing proves good for business
By Will Kilburn, Globe Correspondent | April 8, 2007
After being granted not one but two stays of execution, Tir Na N?g finally closed its doors last Saturday night. But regulars and newcomers alike can take heart: "The N?g" hopes to return to Union Square later this year, just down the street.
The original plan by co-owners Robert Elliott and Feargal O'Toole was to turn off the lights and walk away at the end of January. But a funny thing happened when word of the impending closure got out: Business boomed.
"We should close more often," said George Crawley, part-time barman and longtime owner of Cambridge's Plough & Stars, laughing. The surge prompted Elliott to consider keeping the place going in a new location, a notion loudly seconded both by regulars and newcomers alerted to its existence by word of its looming demise.
O'Toole was unswayed, but Elliott's plan -- the worst-kept secret in town, according to some of the regulars -- grew more solid when delays encountered by a group planning to open a new bar in the same spot allowed the N?g to stay open through February, then March, before closing for good on March 31.
To outsiders, it may look like a miraculous recovery, but to those for whom the N?g has been a second home for some or all of its 10-year existence, survival was never in doubt. Why? The spirit of the place, say the regulars.
"It's kind of like walking into your living room. It's like 'Cheers,' " said Emma Tobin, 31, a nurse who like Elliott and several of the regulars is a native of Ireland. "You get close to people in here fast. It's not for anyone that's stupid or wants to be a weirdo, it's for people who connect with people, you know what I mean?"
"This has a really strong sense of community, and it's an inclusive community. The price of admission is participation," said Bill Shelton, 59, who describes himself as a semiretired executive and sociologist. Just as important as that inclusiveness, he added, has been its exclusiveness. People for whom drinking and troublemaking go hand in hand, said Shelton, "tend not to come. And also, because the community is so strong, even when indecent people come, they don't act out."
Another big part of the draw was live music every night, usually without a cover charge. This wasn't unusual in and of itself, but what was relatively unique was the active role Elliott took in selecting bands based on how they've sounded live at other clubs, sometimes when they shared a bill with his band, the Johnny Come Latelies.
"I'll always make an effort to go out and see a band, see what kind of a following they have, how loud they are, will they work, will they not work, before I book 'em," he said, noting that while his Irish bar occasionally had Irish music, it also welcomed everything from alternative rock to bluegrass to R & B. "And I'll be straight up with them too. I'll just say 'Look, you're great, but it doesn't suit the room, you should try somewhere else, or a younger age group or something.' "
This method, he continued, almost always works. This, along with an absolute refusal to have the television on, even with the sound off, while bands were playing seemed to suit both patrons and musicians just fine.
"If I could just play here every night, I wouldn't really need to go anywhere else," said Dave Johnston, whose band often played weekly "residencies" at the bar. "People listen here."
While most of the acts playing the N?g were local, the place occasionally welcomed out-of-town acts, and was a favorite of several homegrown bands that also play across the country.
"We tour a couple times a year, and we usually play rooms bigger than this when we're on the road, but when we're in town, we'd rather play here," said Josh Lederman, singer and songwriter with the band Los Diablos. "It's like a neighborhood here. You watch people come in and talk to one another, this is like Sesame Street," with Elliott serving as Kermit the Frog. "People come here, they really want to hear music. It's not people coming in to be cool, to be seen."
The N?g's brand of music and fellowship will be dormant for at least a few months, as Elliott works on getting permits for the bar's new home. (Its website, thenog.com, promises to keep the faithful informed on its progress.) He said he expects to be joined by an eager crew of volunteers while refitting and remodeling the new space for a planned reopening in late summer or early fall.
While Elliott may once have wished for a day when he could get out of the 24/7 business of running a bar, he couldn't bring himself to walk away.
"I was thinking about it, but what am I going to do?" he said. "This is what I do."
? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
