‘The Brazen Head claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland . . . dating back to 1198 AD when it was first established as a coach house … One of the oldest pubs in Ireland with a rich history and once frequented by James Joyce, who mentioned the pub in his novel ‘Ulysses,’ Jonathan Swift, the author of ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ and supposedly Robin Hood. More recently, it has welcomed the likes of Van Morrison and Garth Brooks.” – from The Drinks Business

I talk with one of the servers, Julia, who just can’t restrain her love and respect for owner Philomena O’Brien. In fact, Julia, along with another Nana’s Irish Pub employee, Jill, won an all-expenses paid trip to Ireland in June of 2019.

The 66-year-old Philomena stressed how these two employees won a contest based not on how much food they sold, but predicated on how much they engendered a sense of confidence and encouragement in the diners to purchase items other than main courses from the menu.

She’s all about customer experience, so Jill and Julia’s ability to impart in their customers a sense of relaxation and being at a home away from home is Philomena’s basic philosophy of restaurant service.

“Food is important. However, it’s how we treat people, and it’s about kindness,” O’Brien says.

This is a typical conversation Philomena has with her staff – one of unbridled equanimity and respect. Julia has been working at Nana’s for almost eight years, having come from Colorado after following her parents out to the Coast.

“What we are trying to do is encourage everyone working here to treat our customers with a friendly and authentic demeanor,” Philomena said.

Public Houses – Food, Drink, Song

I’ve been to some old pubs in Scotland, England and Ireland. One of my favorites is in Edinburgh where I lived for a time. The Sheep Heid Inn (established around 1360) was golden, but there were others that made my list. It is an interesting concept – a traveler’s sense of well-being was to be maintained in the inns and taverns dictated by common law.

The road to Nye Beach and her business is part of the allure Philomena inculcates in her Irish pub, named after her mother, Bridget Clancy, married to Sean O’Brien.

Philomena was born in Ireland and lived near the town of Limerick located on the River Shannon and considered the Mid-West Region of Ireland.

She and her husband left the old country in the 1990s. They ended up in Virginia. The couple opened up a pub, the Irish isle, near Middletown, off highway 66. They raised two daughters and a son for 30 years before their separation.

Before the Irish Isle, Philomena managed a dental business as sort of an HR-comptroller.

Her son Aidan and wife Rachelle migrated to Salem, and so Philomena — who had never been anywhere west of Chicago — ended up in Oregon. That was 2007. She was studying the vibrant, edgy Portland restaurant scene to possibly contribute her own vision of a pub-style restaurant in Stumptown.

“Of all the real estate I was seeing in Portland, nothing exactly jumped out at me,” she said. It was a whim to visit the coast. One weekend in Newport hooked her to the lifestyle, the location, the people. She answered a Craig’s List ad for what is now the East annex of Nana’s.

She moved here, and, opened in January of 2008. She was able to purchase the west part of the restaurant – what was the Nye Beach Scoop. She laughs with trepidation how her life’s savings were put into one bucket at the end of the rainbow when the economy hit a major downturn. The outdoor patio opened up in 2009.

Much of her drive to expand Nana’s was fueled through the good auspices of a patron who gave Philomena the money to purchase the entire footprint to what is now a main anchor business on Nye Beach.

The journey from Ireland to her success in the US was facilitated with that so-called green card. It was just last year, Philomena beams, when she officially became a US citizen. “Everything else was afforded me on a green card, just as it is for you as a citizen … except for voting.”

She just purchased a “little house” on Nye Beach. She explains how her neighbor there just came over one day and helped put up a new fence. It’s that generosity of spirit that Philomena illustrates as one big reason she loves working in her pub in Newport.

“It’s just so nice to live in Newport with 9,500 people living here and another 30,000 in the summer,” she said. “This restaurant gives me an opportunity to serve them. Newport’s been good to me.”

Her pub is a venue for live music, and she hands me a CD from Portland-based band St. James’s Gate, which just performed at Nana’s the weekend of Nov. 9. She also slipped me her cousin’s CD, Siobhan O’Brien is an Irish performer who is doing gigs on the East Coast.

Future plans for Nana’s include converting the upstairs into dining space and building another kitchen. For Philomena, her devout belief in doing good deeds steeped in her Catholic faith. “I try to love people, be good to people, and to be fair.”

From the enthusiasm I glean from staff, to the exuberance of customers coming in as the pub has just opened on a Monday at 11 am, it’s difficult to swallow that saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Especially when O’Brien’s ethos of gratitude for staff and thankfulness for everything she has gained in life imbues not only her total being, but the warm glow inside Nye Beach’s only Irish Pub.

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Read on as this dining guide feature continues at www.oregoncoasttoday.com.

Nana’s Irish Pub is located at 613 NW 3rd Street in Newport’s Nye Beach. For more information, go to www.nanasirishpub.com or call 541-574-8787.