When Barry Carrigan, chef, business co-owner and second-generation hospitality veteran, describes his family as ‘like the Waltons’, he’s not kidding.
Carrigan’s, which was named SLTN Independent Multiple Operator of the Year (4-7 units) at the 2024 SLTN Awards, owns and operates four venues in South Lanarkshire and has three generations of the Carrigan family working in it, from first generation founders John and Philomena through to their son Barry and Barry’s sons Connor and Daniel.
All three generations are actively involved in the business, as well as living near to each other.
“We can’t go out for a meal without talking shop,” John told SLTN. “It’s ridiculous. Maybe a wee bit of football but other than that it’s work.
“To be successful in this trade you’ve really got to eat and sleep it. That’s maybe a wee bit sad, but the success we’ve had has been hard work and total dedication. And loving your job. I’ve said to these two (Connor and Daniel), if you don’t like it, walk away. You’ve got to like what you’re doing.”
It’s safe to say that John and Philomena still enjoy what they do. Philomena was the first in the family to enter the trade, working for legendary Glasgow publican Derry Treanor in the 1970s. John followed shortly after, with Philomena showing him the ropes.
“He couldn’t get the tills right,” recalled Philomena. “Sometimes it was five o’clock in the morning and he was still there.”
The couple opened their first pub together in 1979, and it wasn’t long before son Barry was drawn into the business as well. Barry, who trained as a chef, fell in love with the food side of the trade when he was 14 years old – largely because of his mum.
“It was only restaurants and hotels doing cooking then, but my mum was way ahead of the game,” said Barry. “And this comes from Ireland. We would be travelling over and back because it was like a second home. And there was a particular place we always loved to go and it was just simple things like a stew or a soup, mince and tatties.
“My mum’s a great cook, and I would watch her. She would say ‘Barry, I need to go down and do my shift, can you keep an eye on the mince?’ The kitchen was above the pub and we had a dumbwaiter and would send everything down. And that’s when I fell in love with cooking.”
By the mid-nineties the family business was well positioned to tap into the growing trend towards more casual dining, with an offer based on fresh, home-cooked food.
It’s an offer that continues to prove popular with Lanarkshire customers in 2025. The company operates three Carrigan’s venues – in Blantyre, Hamilton and East Kilbride – as well as Blantyre pub The Barnhill Tavern.
In the Carrigan’s units an extensive food menu includes everything from pub classics like steak pie, scampi, and fish and chips, through to steaks, Mexican dishes, pizzas and pastas.
In fact, Barry said that around 70% of the menu – which is standardised across the three Carrigan’s venues to allow for better deals from suppliers – has stayed the same for the better part of three decades.
“If you took some of these things off the menu there’d be a riot,” he said. “It’s very difficult to take anything off it. But what we do try to do is specials. Seasonal specials, something sustainable, using local produce. And it gives the chefs the chance to experiment a wee bit. Because you don’t want them doing the same thing all the time. You have to let them flourish as well.”
The team works hard to maintain standards on the drinks front as well. John said that he and Philomena have seen a lot of change during their decades in the trade, with vodka replacing whisky as the top-selling spirit and a much broader range of beers on the market.
He said: “When we first started lager obviously isn’t what it is now. Scottish Brewers dominated with their Tartan Special and their light beers. They were very popular. Then lager came in. I think people going to the Continent was another factor there, and then they wanted their beer colder.
“I check my temperatures every week just to make sure everything’s alright. We’ve noticed the difference in temperatures – to look at Guinness, when we first dispensed it, it would be anywhere between 8 and 10 Centigrade. Now we’re down, the Ice Cold, at 2 to 3. This is why we’ve got all the things in the cellars that we didn’t need all the way back then. The extra coolers and the Smart Dispense systems and things like that.”
Technology is no replacement for experience and professionalism, though, and John reckoned the art of pouring the perfect pint isn’t always taken seriously enough by people in the trade.
“We were at a show in America last year and the beer was dreadful,” he said. “And I put it down to people behind the bar just not knowing how to pull a pint. There is an art to it. I think that’s why people like Heineken and Tennent’s are trying to [teach] people. But sometimes it doesn’t get through.
“To be a professional you’ve got to know all these things, to get that proper pint for your customer.”
That dedication is being passed down to the third generation of the family as Connor, 20, and Daniel, 18, work under John and Barry on the bar and food sides of the business, respectively.
Connor, who started in the family business at the age of ten, said: “It was important even when we were younger just to get in part-time just to see (how we liked it).
“I was still at school when I was doing the bar work, to see if it was for me, or if I was going to go to college or university. After a few months I realised I did really enjoy it. And it was something I wanted to continue to learn, and I could see myself in the future doing it as a profession and taking over. It was quite an easy choice for me.
“I’m still learning, of course. Still doing the bar work, but more into the business side and continuing to learn.”
Likewise, Daniel started his hospitality career washing dishes during his school summer holidays. He said: “I just got a feel for the kitchen and started enjoying it. I moved on to the service, doing starters. It’s great seeing people enjoying the food. You get compliments and that makes it all worth it. I really enjoy it.”
The passion for the business doesn’t begin and end with the family. Carrigan’s employs nearly 200 staff, many of whom have been with the business for decades.
John said the team is treated like an extension of the Carrigan family, and the company has worked hard to establish Carrigan’s as a good place to work.
“We had somebody just recently that had been working at another place for 12 years (before Carrigan’s). She put in a really good shift. She was working with me and I saw her here and there and I said ‘that was marvellous. That was fantastic’.
“She said ‘I worked for such and such for 12 years and nobody ever said I did anything good’. That’s terrible.”
As Barry and the boys take the business forward, Carrigan’s looks to be in good shape for the future. But the founders don’t plan on bowing out any time soon. Philomena said that retirement ‘is a bad word’.
John was more blunt: “That’s for wimps,” he said.
