Duffy Making Return Trip To New York In Quest To Be The Best

Marty Duffy stands behind the bar at the Cellar Peanut Pub on Monday, just hours after finding out he would take part in the New York City Food And Wine Festival.

Marty Duffy stands behind the bar at the Cellar Peanut Pub. (file photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Just off the beaten path in Oskaloosa resides one of those once little-known secrets that, in the past couple of years, has become less of a secret and more of a destination.

Some of that success comes from the philosophy of the husband and wife owners of the Cellar Peanut Pub, where they want everyone to feel welcome. “We’re not your quote, typical bar. We’re a place you can come and have a conversation, listen to good music, drink good drinks in a really cool atmosphere. “We respect all. We don’t care if you’re gay, black, white, Chinese. It doesn’t matter. If you respect us, we respect you. That’s what we want here.”

The Cellar Peanut Pub made the move two years ago from its old location on North Market to its current location in the old Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad depot building. Marty and his wife, Betsy, have owned the business since 2002.

The secret was out of the bag, as well, this past year when Duffy made his first appearance at the New York City Food And Wine Festival. This year the contest is to be held at the Midtown Marriott and is hosted by The Food Network.

Participants were chosen by a vote of the people in an online voting. The Duffy’s have a strong social media presence, and they leveraged their strong customer loyalty, social network and word of mouth resources to make that return trip. “To be able to go to New York City and showcase something we have in this town of 11,000 people and be honored by it, is huge.”

Marty and his employee Morgan will be ready to make 800 bloody marys for the big event. “It’s going to be cool. We’re excited,” says Duffy, “A little nervous. Morgan’s a little bit more nervous than I am, basically because I’ve already dealt with it before.”

“I just want to bring home the gold,” says Duffy, who last year brought home the ‘Absolute Most Original’ trophy for his creation. “Being I got second place last year, and being able to go two years in a row is shock and awe.” Duffy hopes that experience will pay off for him this year, as he’s the only returning participant from the previous year.

“I want to thank everybody for helping us get here. We couldn’t have done it without everybody’s vote,” says Duffy.

The winners of the competition are chosen by TV personalities and by attendees of the event. The participants of the event have tokens they use to vote for their favorite bloody mary.

On the subject of serving 800 drinks in 3 hours, Duffy replied, “it’s pretty much like RAGBRAI on steroids.”

Duffy admits that all of the attention has helped him grow his business. The Duff’s picked up another endorsement, of sorts, when they were chosen in the top 25 in CraftBeer.com’s Great American Beer Bars.

“On the weekends, we’re noticing that we’re not just getting local people from Oskaloosa. Were getting people from Des Moines, Grinnell, Pella, Ottumwa, Iowa City; all around the doughnut of Oskaloosa,” said Duffy.

If you would like to know more about The Cellar Peanut Pub, you can visit them on their Facebook Page to keep up with their progress in New York.

 

Posted by on Oct 14 2014. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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