{"id":10974,"date":"2019-07-16T18:45:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T18:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/?p=10974"},"modified":"2019-07-16T18:45:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T18:45:04","slug":"have-you-met-the-legend-cyril-kenny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/pub-talk\/have-you-met-the-legend-cyril-kenny\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Met The Legend Cyril Kenny?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"entry-title\">Many bartenders are characters, but few have the character of Cyril Kenny at R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish pu<\/h1>\n<div class=\"vw-post-meta clearfix\">\n<div class=\"vw-post-meta-left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"avatar avatar-26 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-26 photo avatar-default\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/lvn_whtgry_icon_highres-48x48.png\" alt=\"Avatar\" width=\"26\" height=\"26\" \/> <a class=\"author-name author\" title=\"View all posts by by Steve Bornfeld\/Las Vegas Newswire\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasnewswire.com\/author\/sbornfeld\/\" rel=\"author\">by Steve Bornfeld\/Las Vegas Newswire<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"vw-post-meta-separator\">\u2014<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"vw-post-date updated\" title=\"Permalink to Many bartenders are characters, but few have the character of Cyril Kenny at R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish pub\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasnewswire.com\/the-emerald-islander-many-bartenders-are-characters-but-few-have-the-character-of-cyril-kenny-at-ri-ra-irish-pub\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">July 15, 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"vw-post-meta-left\"><em>T<\/em><em>hank you to Steve Bornfield from Las Vegas Newswire for this fantastic article on our great bartender Cyril Kenny.\u00a0<\/em><em>Photo credit to Las Vegas Newswire.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vw-post-meta-right\">\n<div class=\"vw-post-shares\"><i class=\"icon-social-facebook\"><\/i><span>\u00a0<\/span><i class=\"icon-social-twitter\"><\/i><span>\u00a0<\/span><i class=\"icon-social-pinterest\"><\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearright\">R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish Pub bartender Cyril Kenny poses for a photo in his bar Tuesday, July 2, 2019, at Mandalay Bay. (Sam Morris\/Las Vegas News Bureau)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p><em>\u201cThere are few professions whose primary objective is to advance the cause of humanity rather than simply to make money or accrue power. Among this limited group of humanitarians, I would number teachers, nurses, bookstore owners \u2014 and bartenders.\u201d<\/em><strong>\u2014<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>Author Jack McDevitt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are no such things as leprechauns.<\/p>\n<p>This is undeniable right up to the moment you meet one. And he pours you a brew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of customers get me name wrong. It\u2019s Cyril, but I hear everything \u2014 Cyrus, Cereal, serial killer. I say, \u2018No harm, call me whatever you want, I\u2019m your bartender. I\u2019ll take care of you.\u2019 But one thing I don\u2019t like to be called is Paddy. They go, \u2018Hey Paddy!\u2019 Because we\u2019re Irish they think we\u2019re all Paddy. No. Call me Cereal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cue the cutest lilting giggle this side of Kilkenny, Ireland. Which is fitting because, respectfully, we\u2019ll call him Cyril Francis Martin Kenny \u2014 from, yes, Kilkenny, Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>And with due respect to your fellow barflies (there are no finer people on Earth when you\u2019re in mid-imbibe),<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>his<\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>is the ear you want to bend.<\/p>\n<p>The shoulder you want to lean on.<\/p>\n<p>The Irish brogue you want to swoon to.<\/p>\n<p>And a genuine hospitality hero.<\/p>\n<p>Coincidentally, Kenny from Kilkenny was named precisely that when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA, which produces<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Las Vegas Newswire<\/em>), presented the barkeep from Mandalay Bay\u2019s R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish pub with a Hospitality Hero Award earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI come into work and the next thing Mr. Goodman is presenting this to me,\u201d says Kenny, hoisting up the award and gently setting it down next to him, eyeing it like a rare jewel he never dreamed he\u2019d possess.\u00a0 He is still touched and a bit agog at the honor bestowed on him as part of the LVCVA program that recognizes outstanding hospitality workers in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>(Oh, and by \u201cMr. Goodman,\u201d he means ex-mayor\/current LVCVA Host Committee Chairman Oscar B. Goodman, whose favor Kenny curried at the award ceremony when he was asked about his personal favorite beverage and named Bombay gin, famously the preferred libation of our town\u2019s onetime chief exec. Shouted Goodman: \u201cDo we have another award for him?\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>+++++<\/p>\n<p>Can\u2019t you see that man\u2019s busy? Snapping selfies with customers over the bar. Crowing with them about the soccer success of the British Leicester City team, which Kenny claims won its championship a few years back by overcoming \u201c5,000-to-1 odds\u201d (seems a stretch, but OK). Scurrying over to schmooze a new party of seven he obviously knows from schmooze sessions past. Oh, and serving drinks. Plus, re-hoisting his award and pointing it toward young server Demy Somera.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to pass it along to the next generation!\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"fitvid927163\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/348232084\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s the best \u2014 THE BEST!\u201d Somera answers back as she buzzes behind The Master, balancing a drink tray. \u201cA lot of people come back just to see him, like: \u2018How is Cyril? Where is Cyril? Is Cyril working today?\u2019 He\u2019s very charismatic. There\u2019s not a bad bone in Cyril.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do the math and you might dismiss bartenders \u2014 particularly in a resort city where they flow through the workforce like beer from a tap \u2014 as the proverbial dime a dozen. Get served by Kenny, however, and another math-inspired expression could materialize in your beer foam:<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>one in a million<\/em>. Or, to add a mixed metaphor to your mixed drinks: In the desert of incivility, boorishness and social media sludge through which we trudge these days, leaving us parched for the niceties of yore, Cyril Kenny is a bracing bucket of ice-cold lemonade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot too long ago I had a gentleman come in \u2014 marriage was more or less gone \u2014 and he thinks drinking is going to solve that?\u201d Kenny says. \u201cAfter five or six pints, he starts telling me what\u2019s going on in his life. I think, how can I charge this man for his beer? I try to give him some food, calm him down. That man is still in my mind. I phoned him the other day. And he said he is coming to visit and thinking of moving to Vegas. I do worry about people. Where are they now? Do they still have the same problems?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Within this mini-emerald isle, the consensus among both R\u00ed R\u00e1 patrons and co-workers is that the kindly, 5-foot-8-inch gentleman in the gray buzzcut and librarian-style glasses is the lifeblood of this bar \u2014 and for a fair portion of its customers, their entire Vegas experience. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because \u2026<\/p>\n<p>+ Guests are so enamored of him that they email and phone the bar beforehand to find out his shifts. \u201cEver hear of Evansville, Indiana?\u201d Kenny asks. \u201cI love that little town. Those people will actually fly to Vegas and come see me. I say, \u2018Why, lads?\u2019 I would understand if I was Elvis Presley or something, but I\u2019m just an Irish bartender.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+ He\u2019s a Vegas and Ireland encyclopedia on legs and anecdote-dispensing raconteur. \u201cI love meeting people from all over the world and telling them about Vegas,\u201d Kenny says. \u201cAnd then I talk about Kilkenny, which is my second hometown. But Vegas is my hometown, I never want to leave it. Vegas is my numero-uno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+\u00a0 He could open a small store with all the gifts, cards, football jerseys, hats and other miscellanea that are dropped off for him. \u00a0\u201cI wish people would ask my size before they send me shirts!\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI don\u2019t ask but they give me these things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+ He has been known to show patrons around Las Vegas, drop them off at restaurants he recommends, ferry them to the airport to catch flights, and even visit hospitals when local customers he considers friends are felled by illness. \u201cHe will treat complete strangers like family,\u201d says fellow bartender Wally Lang. \u201cWhen people can experience that type of friendship, it\u2019s a unique quality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+ While he\u2019s a talker by trade, he doesn\u2019t need words to endear himself. \u201cHe has this whistle and it\u2019s not a whistle like anyone else has,\u201d Lang says. \u201cPeople are looking around for some kind of bird. Kids love it, they smile when they hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+ And because the man dubbed R\u00ed R\u00e1\u2019s \u201cpub ambassador\u201d is what pop-culture slang-slingers might call \u201ctotes adorbs\u201d \u2014 or, in grownup lingo, irresistibly cuddly. \u00a0We dare ya to find someone else who utters the phrase, \u201cOh, jeepers!\u201d\u00a0 \u2026 Yeah, we thought not. Although \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Irish have an innate ability to use curse words as if it\u2019s a normality!\u201d says supervisor Scott Sherman, an unabashed Kenny admirer who nominated him for the Hospitality Hero Award. \u201cWhen I hear it, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh no!\u2019 But the people hear it and think it\u2019s the best thing on Earth!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adds Kenny, sheepishly: \u201cI do say things, oh gosh, yes. I might have my head down working on cocktails and I might let the F word come out. I don\u2019t realize that I\u2019m close to people. But that\u2019s part of our lingo, our culture!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>+++++<\/p>\n<p>A former \u201ctelephonist\u201d (American translation: telephone operator) for the Ireland Department of Defence (\u201cprobably where I learned to talk so much,\u201d he quips) and frequent presence on \u201cthe other side\u201d of most bars, Kenny transitioned into the work he loves when he relocated to England and called out numbers at a bingo hall.<\/p>\n<p>Slight problem: Players were marking off the wrong numbers because they couldn\u2019t make out his accent.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the manager moved him behind the bar to pour out pints of Guinness instead. \u201cIt became a calling,\u201d Kenny says. \u201cI spent so much time watching bartenders work. Some of the bars I used to go into in Kilkenny, they were storytellers, fantastic characters. They weren\u2019t just tending bar, they were making people feel welcome into their premises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twenty years ago, Cyril and his wife, Angela Grogan, emigrated to America, and bounced between North Carolina, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland and Indiana before landing here at Vegas\u2019 R\u00ed R\u00e1 eight years ago. Here\u2019s the kicker: While Angela assumed responsibility of chief operating officer for R\u00ed R\u00e1\u2019s corporate entity, Buzz Hospitality, her spouse remained happily ensconced behind the bar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could never do management, I had to be bartending where I meet people,\u201d says Kenny, who has also been known to turn away tips or buy patrons drinks when he thinks they\u2019ve tipped too generously. \u00a0\u201cSometimes they\u2019re a little over-inebriated and not in the right frame of mind,\u201d Kenny says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne man gave me a hundred dollars because I was from Kilkenny and his family dates from Kilkenny. It\u2019s embarrassing. I didn\u2019t do anything to deserve that tip. So he put it back in his pocket \u2014 and gave it to another bartender!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As \u201ctotes adorbs\u201d as he is, even Kenny realizes that occasionally, patrons get the grumps. \u201cI had a full bar one day, I\u2019m talking with everybody, but one man is eating with his head down and he looks up and says, \u2018Will you ever shut up for five minutes?\u2019\u201d Kenny recalls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Sorry sir, I\u2019m only doing me job, but I will give you that wish and not talk to you for five minutes.\u2019 And when he was ready, I said, \u2018Is it OK now sir?\u2019 and he said, \u2018Thank you very much.\u2019 The customer is always right!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With deference to that service-sector truism, we offer a contrasting view: You don\u2019t ever want Cyril Kenny to stop talking.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: Leprechauns exist. One is refilling your glass right now.<\/p>\n<p>And his personality is a pot o\u2019 gold for the soul.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHospitality Heroes\u201d is a program created by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), in conjunction with the U.S. Travel Association\u2019s National Travel and Tourism Week, celebrated annually in May. The LVCVA (which produces\u00a0<\/em><em>Las Vegas Newswire<\/em><em>) and its tourism partners honor employees who deliver superior customer service. Since the program began in 2008, nearly 600 \u201cHospitality Heroes\u201d have been recognized in Southern Nevada.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To offer feedback on this story or suggestions for future stories on Las Vegas Newswire, contact Managing Editor Steve Bornfeld at &#x53;&#x42;&#111;&#114;&#110;f&#x65;&#x6c;&#x64;&#64;&#108;vc&#x76;&#x61;&#x2e;&#99;&#111;m.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many bartenders are characters, but few have the character of Cyril Kenny at R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish pu by Steve Bornfeld\/Las Vegas Newswire\u00a0\u2014\u00a0July 15, 2019 \u00a0 Thank you to Steve Bornfield from Las Vegas Newswire for this fantastic article on our great bartender Cyril Kenny.\u00a0Photo credit to Las Vegas Newswire.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 R\u00ed R\u00e1 Irish Pub bartender [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[186,187],"class_list":["post-10974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-pub-news","tag-cyril-kenny","tag-lvca"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10974"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10979,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10974\/revisions\/10979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rira.com\/las-vegas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}