If you’ve not yet been for a visit – pint or otherwise – to Malzard’s in Stoneyford, consider this both a reminder and a solid reason to put them in your diary.
As of Wednesday night this week, Malzard’s is your National Pub of the Year, courtesy of the 2024 Irish Pub Awards.
Huge congratulations to Malzard’s of Stonyford, Kilkenny, National Pub of the Year at the #irishpubawards 🥳🍾 @IrishPub_Awards pic.twitter.com/arOmoYV08j
— VFI (@VFIpubs) November 14, 2024
Celebrating the very best in Irish pubs, the national awards programme is open to all members of the VFI and LVA in Ireland. It doesn’t cost bars to enter, with regional and category winners picking up some rather generous prize packages.
Malzard’s, a fifth-generation family-run bar and tourism destination in Stoneyford, has transformed itself in recent years. It has grown its Hurling Experience offering and added glamping, gigs, and Airbnb to its bow.
They’ve received plenty of praise too for becoming a model of the ‘pub as a community hub’ model that’s vital to rural livelihoods. Malzard’s were crowned national champion from a field of 70 regional winners, drawn from over 1,000 entries this year.
2024 Irish Pub Awards Category Winners
- Best Food Pub: The Bailey Bar & Eatery, Enniscorthy, Wexford
- Best Tourist Pub: Lowry’s Music & Whiskey Bar , Clifden, Galway
- Innovative Pub of the Year: Mother Macs Public House, Limerick City
- Best Local Pub: The Liberty Belle, The Liberties, Dublin 8
- Outstanding Customer Service: Murph’s, Monkstown, Cork
- Best Music Pub: Gracie’s Bar Sligo, Sligo Town
- Best Outdoor Space: Swans Bar | Paud O’Donoghues Forge, Curragha, Meath
- Best Digital Innovator: The Shelbourne Bar, Cork City
- Best Late-Night Bar: Wrights Café Bar, Swords, Co. Dublin
- Best Match Day Pub: Fagan’s, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Other Kilkenny winners
While Malzard’s was the big Kilkenny winner on the night, other local venues had featured among regional winners announced in September.
For the South East region, Left Bank in the heart of Kilkenny City was named Best Late Night Bar, Christy’s Bar on Upper Patrick St. was named Best Match Day Pub, Pat Carroll’s on Ballybough St. in the city named Best Local, Kytler’s Inn on St. Kieran’s St. named Best Tourist Pub while Malzard’s had made it through to the national decider by taking the honour of Innovative Pub of the Year.
