136 Fenaghy Rd, Ballymena BT42 1EA
The poet whose mind reduced everything to a ‘green thought in a green shade’ would have felt very much at home in McKendry’s Bar in Ballymena. Go into this lovely old pub in Broughshane Street and it’s like entering a cool shady garden on a hot summer’s day. Lime greens, emeralds, forest greens, sea greens, all the shades of a garden arbour greet you and welcome you to the repose of the soft blue upholstered snugs.
The chances are that you’ll have been attracted in the first place to McKendry’s Bar by its beautiful old shop front, unchanged for generations, and boasting stylish gold embossed front windows touched in with floral designs. You don’t need to ask how old this bar is, the evidence is below your feet in the mosaic of the floor of McKendry’s, “Established 1909”. Below your feet too is the welcome mat bearing the owner’s name, and this same title appears on two original and valuable bar mirrors – ‘James McKendry, Ballymena: Special Old Irish Whiskey’ and ‘James McKendry, Ballymena: Importer of the Finest Wines, Brandy and Gin.’
An absolutely huge mirror at the farther end of the pub, about six foot by four, advertises McConnell’s Old Irish Whiskey, as though to prove that the whiskey drinking customer did have a choice. The aforementioned James McKendry can be seen in a hand coloured photograph at the end of the counter. Also worth your attention round the walls are some exquisite paintings, one very old indeed entitled “Catherine Jane’s Bird”, and another, depicting Napoleon’s return from the Island of Elba. On your left as you enter, is a quaint little enclosed, timbered snug with the tiniest table you’re likely to see in a pub – you certainly couldn’t set too many pints on it!
McKendry’s has been extended recently to include a second little bar, in what used to be the old yard, but nothing has been done to spoil the character and appeal of the pub. It’s an “over 21” bar which requires neat dress of its customers, and seemly behaviour. The embroidered picture behind the bar counter seems to sum up the peaceful, almost meditative but very friendly and relaxing mood of the place: “Come in soberly, Drink moderately, Depart quietly, And call again.”