Independent Business Explosion

12th Oct 2015

While noisy big brands like Superdry, Starbucks, Wetherspoons, Nandos and Holland & Barrett may grab headlines as they bang and boom their way into new premises on Leeside you may not be aware of huge surge in the number of independent businesses springing up like mushrooms around the city. 

MacCurtain Street was one of those areas during the first few years of the financial flop that really took it on the chin. Old favourites like Crowley’s music shop are among those that sadly didn’t survive the brutal recession and the street that was named after our Lord Mayor who was shot dead in his bed by the Royal Irish Constabulary was beginning to edge towards something you’d see in a modern day gun crime capital like Limerick.
 

Feed Your Senses café on Washington Street

When buses passed Crowley’s rows of heads would twist right to stare at their two large windows -  for decades it was festooned with shiny new keyboards, sparkling electric guitars, gleaming drum kits and an array of music books. Their emptiness after its closure was one of the sadder images for Corkonians.

Thankfully the building has now been transformed into an exciting new restaurant called Son of a Bun and we were delighted to see it packed out the door last Saturday afternoon after barely a week’s trading and the burgers are only divine.
 

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

Next door another a more casual barbeque diner called Bad Boys BBQ opened its doors in mid-August and looks to be doing a roaring trade – so along with Gallagher’s on the corner that has built a solid reputation for good hearty breakfasts and brunches, the city’s first and long-overdue sushi restaurant Sakura across the road and the more upmarket can-do-no-wrong Star Ainse a few doors away is starting to really climb out of the hole dug for us by the Dublin trio Seánie Fitz, Fingers Fingleton and Bungling Backhander Bertie among others.
 

Son of a Bun now trades in the old Crowley's Music Store premises

Further down the street another public house casualty of the recession has re-opened as The White Rabbit Bar & BBQ. It’s billing itself as a casual pub-diner with barbequed ribs, chicken and pork belly the order of the day (don’t worry, no fluffy big-eared animals on the menu here) and they’ve a long line of craft beers for your thirsty palette so you can support local brewers rather than letting your hard earned coin escape into Not Cork.
 

The White Rabbit on MacCurtain Street

Langford Row Café and Music Store, like its cousin Alchemy on Barrack Street is the latest addition to the thriving independent café scene in the city. Open just 10 days it stands proudly in a coat of fresh paint on the corner opposite the newly re-opened and revamped Paddy The Farmers. This area of town is being lined up for some serious gentrification with hipsters moving into places like Frankfield Terrace faster than the barristas can pour mocha frappacinos.
 

Langford Row at the bottom Southern Road

Langford Row is a cute suiting room-y space with bouncy couches and piles of vinyl records, second hand travel books and smiley staff. They’re running occasional night time BYOB gigs as well. It should do well out of nearby St. John’s College and the two hospitals. 

Another very positive addition to another area just off the city centre island on George’s Quay is Café Velo – opposite the College of Comm.
 

Café Velo on George's Quay

Open since July this is another example of the strength of independently owned cafés in Cork despite the slightly ominous arrival to Cork of controversial tax-avoiding global chains like Starbucks. The breakfasts at Velo (which means ‘bike’ in French) are wheely good and there’s a bit of an entrepreneurial buzz going on here too with business-to-business meetups like NotWork and ChangeX after hours. 
 

Records & Relics on Washington Street/Lancaster Quay

Not far away opposite Angelsea Street Garda station Sakura have opened a takeaway sushi shop which seems to be ticking over nicely – although traditionally keepers of the carvery flame you’ll know the economy is back on track when you see the boys in blue ferrying trays of uramaki and sashimi across the road! 

Right in the heart of the city The Parlour has opened under the shadow of the Bodega on Cornmarket Street and is churning out big lunches with produce coming directly from their own farm in Ovens.
 

Your mangle comes direct from their farm in Ovens

This is exactly the kind of independent Rebel endeavour that we love to see. A few hundred yards away in the old EBS building at the very top of Patrick Street there’s a planning application for yet another indie café while just around the corner Tara Fashion has opened at 5 Washington Street.
 

Tara Fashion on Washington Street

While this is all good news for those of us living’ in Cork word is definitely getting out. Staff at the Oifig Fáilte on Grand Parade say they have seen a huge increase in tourist numbers this year – throttling towards being nearly 15% up on last year alone with a rise in visitors from Germany being among the more noticeable. With a regular flight from Boston direct to Cork and the recent Purple Flag Award we can rest easy that the People’s Republic will remain firmly the island’s top city.