Café Lógr, Adare, Co Limerick
David and Petra Hayes have wanted to open their own business for a long time. Last year, the opportunity finally presented itself and, although 2020 was proving to be difficult for business, they used the time lockdown provided to get their space up to scratch in preparation for opening Café Lógr, which they did on 15 July 2020.
“We took on the lease just before the first lockdown, but the space needed a lot of work, more work than we anticipated,” Petra explains. “We didn’t know what would happen when we opened, but it was really busy from day one – I think people were curious about us! We both come from hospitality. For the past 10 years David was working as a head chef and I was in event management.
Petra Hayes has a background in event management while husband David is a chef.
“It was a great combination for the two of us: David in the kitchen and me doing the front of house and marketing.”
With David and Petra’s combined skillset, they were able to open in Adare as not just a tourist destination (2020 likely saw the least amount of visitors to Adare in recorded history), but a community-orientated food hub – a space for locals to congregate and enjoy hearty food and great coffee.
“Everyone saw us on the premise during the first lockdown, we did [most of the work] ourselves before we opened and I think the locals appreciated that,” Petra says. “It was always mentioned after we opened – we thought that was really nice and we’ve gotten a lot of community support. We have a good local base here.”
David Hayes the chef and co-owner of Cafe Lógr in Adare.
They offer all-day brunch on the weekends and breakfast and lunch during the week. They are especially proud of the coffee they sell, which is from The Old Barracks in Birdhill, Co Tipperary.
“We do bistro-style food, with a focus on quality ingredients and local produce,” Petra says. “We offer some classic dishes, but nothing over-complicated.”
Café businesses were among the better off through lockdown as they were already well-suited to takeaway service. While dining in has been affected, Petra says they remained busy up until Christmas.
One of the creative bistro-style offerings from Cafe Lógr in Adare, Co Limerick.
“We’re taking a break for the month of January and waiting to see what happens with new restrictions,” she says. “We want to focus on keeping our customers happy.”
Find Café Logr on Facebook for more information.
Muse Café, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
Sharon and Aidan Quinn own and operate Muse Cafe in the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny.
Sharon and Aidan Quinn left corporate jobs in Dublin when the opportunity to open a café in Kilkenny presented itself. Parents of three young children; Aidan and Sharon have always enjoyed good food and spending quality time with their family.
“If we can get though this year we can get through anything,” Sharon laughs over the phone.
“Opening in 2020 was a blessing in disguise – we knew we were opening in a hard year. We opened fully in August and had a lovely summer, but we knew the lockdown was more than likely coming again so we were able to plan for it.”
Located in the Butler Gallery near Kilkenny Castle; Sharon and Aidan have been able to continue trading safely throughout the lockdowns of 2020 and, now, 2021, through their takeaway service, take-home catering boxes and their window hatch – which is how they’re currently operating.
Muse Cafe offers Cloudpicker coffee, hearty lunches and brunches and has a family-friendly outdoor space.
They offer house-made baked goods, hearty sandwiches and salads and premium Cloudpicker coffee. In normal times, Sharon also hosts wellness days – she is passionate about mindfulness and healthy living.
They offer brunch on the weekends and, aside from making their own menu items, also feature a variety of local producers.
“The first time we did takeaway [during lockdown], it went much better than we could have imagined,” Sharon says.
“We thought this area would be more tourist-heavy, but instead we’ve ended up building a solid local base. That might have taken a bit longer.
The view from Muse Cafe.
“We always had this dream to own a café and then we just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it’,” she continues. “We fell in love with Kilkenny. Our kids are really happy here, so if we ever had a doubt it’s gone, now.
“They love school, have made friends and are so well-adapted. Finding this space was just the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Although their opening year was a success in many ways, there are aspects of business they miss and hope to resume as soon as it’s safe to do so.
“I would love some time to be open and operate in a full capacity,” Sharon says. “I’d love a chance to really get into our stride.
During lockdown, we added our charcuterie and vegan boxes [to the menu]. We did them for the weekends and they were flying before Christmas, so I hope we’ll keep them up using local products. It’s nice to use food to connect to people and I want to build on what we started.”
musecoffeefood.ie
This Is It, Ennistymon, Co Clare
This Is It is located in Ennistymon, Co Clare
Ger O’Donoghue, who was operating a café in Dublin up until the first lockdown of 2020, decided to leave the city and move to Ennistymon, Co Clare, where he opened This Is It with his friend, Emily Jordan. They opened in August, 2020 and Ger made his final move to Co Clare the following month. Now, they offer coffee, baked goods, wholesome meals and a variety of biodynamic and organic wines in their corner café (which, up until recently, was the restaurant Little Fox).
This Is It offers a range of toasted sandwiches, baked goods , Roasted Brown Coffee and biodynamic wines.
“I had another place in Dublin called First Draft, and then Dublin went out of control with COVID,” he explains. “I was friends with the owners of Little Fox and it was a shame [they closed], because what they built was really great. This all happened really quickly; the move to Ennistymon – I had previously never spent a huge amount of time in Clare!
“The support in the town has been great,” he continues. “[Our situation] was very unusual, but it worked and there’s a great local food culture here with lots of producers and artisans. It’s great to be able to meet these people and use their products.”
As they opened in the middle of the pandemic, Ger hasn’t had much of a chance to offer full sit-down service or the level of hospitality he is used to providing his guests. He feels there have been positives and negatives with opening a new business – and joining a new community – in 2020.
“When we started, it was just takeaway so we have those systems in place, but you want to be able to welcome people and feed people and show off your wines and bakes and everything else – that part is difficult,” he says. “This is all I’ve done, professionally, for 20 years.
“But,” he adds, “it’s been great to get to know the locals. [The pandemic] definitely sped up the ‘getting to know people’ aspect of it.”
The atmosphere at This Is It is comfortable; with hearty food offerings and a well-developed pastry menu. Their wines set them apart from their counterparts and they see themselves as taking a more continental European approach to café culture.
“We specialise in low-intervention, natural, biodynamic wines from small producers,” he explains. “I was 20 years in coffee and now I’ve gone down this rabbit hole with wine and the traditional European idea of a café – this is our take on that. We called [the café] This Is It because I didn’t know exactly what we were going to do – [from here on], any mad idea we have, we can throw it in the pot and see what happens.”
Ger offers online orders for their wines and will deliver locally; within a radius of around 20km from the café. They feature Roasted Brown coffee from Delgany, Co Wicklow and offer a selection of toasted sandwiches, curries and other wholesome eats.
thisisitennistymon.com
Café Lógr, Adare, Co Limerick
David and Petra Hayes have wanted to open their own business for a long time. Last year, the opportunity finally presented itself and, although 2020 was proving to be difficult for business, they used the time lockdown provided to get their space up to scratch in preparation for opening Café Lógr, which they did on 15 July 2020.
“We took on the lease just before the first lockdown, but the space needed a lot of work, more work than we anticipated,” Petra explains. “We didn’t know what would happen when we opened, but it was really busy from day one – I think people were curious about us! We both come from hospitality. For the past 10 years David was working as a head chef and I was in event management.
Petra Hayes has a background in event management while husband David is a chef.
“It was a great combination for the two of us: David in the kitchen and me doing the front of house and marketing.”
With David and Petra’s combined skillset, they were able to open in Adare as not just a tourist destination (2020 likely saw the least amount of visitors to Adare in recorded history), but a community-orientated food hub – a space for locals to congregate and enjoy hearty food and great coffee.
“Everyone saw us on the premise during the first lockdown, we did [most of the work] ourselves before we opened and I think the locals appreciated that,” Petra says. “It was always mentioned after we opened – we thought that was really nice and we’ve gotten a lot of community support. We have a good local base here.”
David Hayes the chef and co-owner of Cafe Lógr in Adare.
They offer all-day brunch on the weekends and breakfast and lunch during the week. They are especially proud of the coffee they sell, which is from The Old Barracks in Birdhill, Co Tipperary.
“We do bistro-style food, with a focus on quality ingredients and local produce,” Petra says. “We offer some classic dishes, but nothing over-complicated.”
Café businesses were among the better off through lockdown as they were already well-suited to takeaway service. While dining in has been affected, Petra says they remained busy up until Christmas.
One of the creative bistro-style offerings from Cafe Lógr in Adare, Co Limerick.
“We’re taking a break for the month of January and waiting to see what happens with new restrictions,” she says. “We want to focus on keeping our customers happy.”
Find Café Logr on Facebook for more information.
Muse Café, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
Sharon and Aidan Quinn own and operate Muse Cafe in the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny.
Sharon and Aidan Quinn left corporate jobs in Dublin when the opportunity to open a café in Kilkenny presented itself. Parents of three young children; Aidan and Sharon have always enjoyed good food and spending quality time with their family.
“If we can get though this year we can get through anything,” Sharon laughs over the phone.
“Opening in 2020 was a blessing in disguise – we knew we were opening in a hard year. We opened fully in August and had a lovely summer, but we knew the lockdown was more than likely coming again so we were able to plan for it.”
Located in the Butler Gallery near Kilkenny Castle; Sharon and Aidan have been able to continue trading safely throughout the lockdowns of 2020 and, now, 2021, through their takeaway service, take-home catering boxes and their window hatch – which is how they’re currently operating.
Muse Cafe offers Cloudpicker coffee, hearty lunches and brunches and has a family-friendly outdoor space.
They offer house-made baked goods, hearty sandwiches and salads and premium Cloudpicker coffee. In normal times, Sharon also hosts wellness days – she is passionate about mindfulness and healthy living.
They offer brunch on the weekends and, aside from making their own menu items, also feature a variety of local producers.
“The first time we did takeaway [during lockdown], it went much better than we could have imagined,” Sharon says.
“We thought this area would be more tourist-heavy, but instead we’ve ended up building a solid local base. That might have taken a bit longer.
The view from Muse Cafe.
“We always had this dream to own a café and then we just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it’,” she continues. “We fell in love with Kilkenny. Our kids are really happy here, so if we ever had a doubt it’s gone, now.
“They love school, have made friends and are so well-adapted. Finding this space was just the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Although their opening year was a success in many ways, there are aspects of business they miss and hope to resume as soon as it’s safe to do so.
“I would love some time to be open and operate in a full capacity,” Sharon says. “I’d love a chance to really get into our stride.
During lockdown, we added our charcuterie and vegan boxes [to the menu]. We did them for the weekends and they were flying before Christmas, so I hope we’ll keep them up using local products. It’s nice to use food to connect to people and I want to build on what we started.”
musecoffeefood.ie
This Is It, Ennistymon, Co Clare
This Is It is located in Ennistymon, Co Clare
Ger O’Donoghue, who was operating a café in Dublin up until the first lockdown of 2020, decided to leave the city and move to Ennistymon, Co Clare, where he opened This Is It with his friend, Emily Jordan. They opened in August, 2020 and Ger made his final move to Co Clare the following month. Now, they offer coffee, baked goods, wholesome meals and a variety of biodynamic and organic wines in their corner café (which, up until recently, was the restaurant Little Fox).
This Is It offers a range of toasted sandwiches, baked goods , Roasted Brown Coffee and biodynamic wines.
“I had another place in Dublin called First Draft, and then Dublin went out of control with COVID,” he explains. “I was friends with the owners of Little Fox and it was a shame [they closed], because what they built was really great. This all happened really quickly; the move to Ennistymon – I had previously never spent a huge amount of time in Clare!
“The support in the town has been great,” he continues. “[Our situation] was very unusual, but it worked and there’s a great local food culture here with lots of producers and artisans. It’s great to be able to meet these people and use their products.”
As they opened in the middle of the pandemic, Ger hasn’t had much of a chance to offer full sit-down service or the level of hospitality he is used to providing his guests. He feels there have been positives and negatives with opening a new business – and joining a new community – in 2020.
“When we started, it was just takeaway so we have those systems in place, but you want to be able to welcome people and feed people and show off your wines and bakes and everything else – that part is difficult,” he says. “This is all I’ve done, professionally, for 20 years.
“But,” he adds, “it’s been great to get to know the locals. [The pandemic] definitely sped up the ‘getting to know people’ aspect of it.”
The atmosphere at This Is It is comfortable; with hearty food offerings and a well-developed pastry menu. Their wines set them apart from their counterparts and they see themselves as taking a more continental European approach to café culture.
“We specialise in low-intervention, natural, biodynamic wines from small producers,” he explains. “I was 20 years in coffee and now I’ve gone down this rabbit hole with wine and the traditional European idea of a café – this is our take on that. We called [the café] This Is It because I didn’t know exactly what we were going to do – [from here on], any mad idea we have, we can throw it in the pot and see what happens.”
Ger offers online orders for their wines and will deliver locally; within a radius of around 20km from the café. They feature Roasted Brown coffee from Delgany, Co Wicklow and offer a selection of toasted sandwiches, curries and other wholesome eats.
thisisitennistymon.com
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