Dude, Where’s My Car? There’s An App for That

You can drink from the tap, but not from an app. Yet The Nutty Irishman hopes its new iPhone app will prove nearly as useful to the pub-crawl crowd.

That’s because the Irish pub on Main Street in Farmingdale, which boasts a large craft beer selection and a lively roster of live bands, created its mobile app to have utility beyond its bar stools.

“Smart marketing is helpful marketing,” Nutty Irishman Marketing Director Mary Modica said. “You want to be useful and you want to keep your company name on the tip of your customer’s tongue. To do that we said, ‘Let’s make an application that’s useful in all locations.’”

The app, created by New York City-based MetriXfocus, offers the usual fare of bar directions, menus and events. But what makes it a standout is the fact that the Nutty Irishman app also features a tip calculator, car finder and schedules for both the LIRR and Fire Island Ferry (the bar has a Bay Shore location too).

“I think it’s pretty slick how they did that,” said Adam Steinhauser, owner of Huntington-based web applications developer Logic Web Media. “It’s a good idea.”

Modica said the app had a soft launch Memorial Day weekend and replaces one the bar, an early adopter to mobile, had been using for two years as part of a larger marketing push. 

Gone are the days of print ads, Modica said.

“Social media is how you reach people,” Modica said. “It’s really important. And as soon as others businesses realize that I think they’ll see a bigger return. It’s getting the word out. That’s the only way for people to know what’s going on at your establishment.” 

But Steinhauser cautions that an iPhone app can be costly and does not recommend it for everyone. He prefers optimizing websites for mobile. 

“Most of the people I deal with you try to get as much done for them on a limited budget,” Steinhauser said. “They are small businesses starting out or mom-and-pop types. I end up doing a mobile version of the website.” 

Everyone agrees that businesses have to be creative and go where the customers are. That’s on social sites such as Facebook and to mobiles devices. 

The Farmingdale bar's new iPhone app helps get it there. 

“We want to be there for you all the time,” Modica said. “Not just when you want to watch a local band.”