Fenns Quay restaurant closed

beer enigma

Sad day for Cork as Fenns Quay closed it's doors today. Kate and the crew have worked so hard - I loved the place.

TheDriver

It sounds like its by choice?

Gamb!t

What a shame,that was a great little restaurant

sporina

TheDriver wrote: »

It sounds like its by choice?

from reading the post on fb - her post would imply that it was a forced decision perhaps - like she had had enough of what ever difficulty has been going on.. and the comments would certainly back this up = unless everyone is assuming so

very sad - a great Local restaurant - i brought friends there recently - one being a chef - and they loved it..

opus

In today's Examiner.

Last orders for landmark Cork restaurant, Fenn’s Quay

Cape Clear

Sounds like she lost the will to fight.

sporina

PS

opus wrote: »

In today's Examiner.

Last orders for landmark Cork restaurant, Fenn’s Quay

"death by an thousand cuts" so sad..

with increase in parking fee's, VAT etc.. wouldn't you think that the government would make incentives for such businesses to work - instead of creating such situations and having more people signing on.. something v wrong there

PS did Kate own fenns quay?

FrStone

Sad to hear, but not surprising with all the parking restrictions that have been implemented by the corporation.

mire

FrStone wrote: »

Sad to hear, but not surprising with all the parking restrictions that have been implemented by the corporation.

Yes, because the key to a successful city centre restaurant is clearly car parking.

The best restaurants attract customers if their offer is good enough. Car parking should be irrelevant. And it is. If a restaurant in a city centre is good enough, people will make it their business to go there regardless of access and parking constraints. This is supposed to be a city, not a suburb or a provincial country town.

FrStone

mire wrote: »

FrStone wrote: »

Sad to hear, but not surprising with all the parking restrictions that have been implemented by the corporation.

Yes, because the key to a successful city centre restaurant is clearly car parking.

The best restaurants attract customers if their offer is good enough. Car parking should be irrelevant. And it is. If a restaurant in a city centre is good enough, people will make it their business to go there regardless of access and parking constraints. This is supposed to be a city, not a suburb or a provincial country town.

It might not fit in with your ideology, but there have been 15,000 less cars in the city. If town is difficult to access people will avoid it.

Very few people live in the city, so most customers will drive in.

mire

FrStone wrote: »

It might not fit in with your ideology, but there have been 15,000 less cars in the city. If town is difficult to access people will avoid it.

Very few people live in the city, so most customers will drive in.

Nonsense excuse. By your logic, there'd be no successful restaurants in the city centre.

roundymac

We're starting to avoid the city centre, plenty of places to eat if you look around.

testicles

This post has been deleted.

Ludo

roundymac wrote: »

We're starting to avoid the city centre, plenty of places to eat if you look around.

The closure may be more to do with competition I feel than that list of reasons above. Plenty of places around as you say. Easy to blame the council for everything but there is a lot of competition around now that the economy has picked up and in fairness, Fenns Quay was a little bit out of the way.

beer enigma

mire wrote: »

FrStone wrote: »

It might not fit in with your ideology, but there have been 15,000 less cars in the city. If town is difficult to access people will avoid it.

Very few people live in the city, so most customers will drive in.

Nonsense excuse. By your logic, there'd be no successful restaurants in the city centre.

Fenns Quay was in an awkward place for bus routes so many people drove.

beer enigma

mire wrote: »

FrStone wrote: »

It might not fit in with your ideology, but there have been 15,000 less cars in the city. If town is difficult to access people will avoid it.

Very few people live in the city, so most customers will drive in.

Nonsense excuse. By your logic, there'd be no successful restaurants in the city centre.

Fenns Quay was in an awkward place for bus routes so many people drove.

bee06

beer enigma wrote: »

Fenns Quay was in an awkward place for bus routes so many people drove.

It was a 5 min walk from Patrick Street. I'd say there is nowhere awkward in the city.

We had a few guys visiting from another office this week at work. They went out Tuesday night for dinner and only got a table in the third place they went to because the first two places were full. Another night my manager was trying to book a table for a Thursday night a few days before and rang about 4 or 5 places before he could get a bookin so town sounds plenty busy to me.

Ludo

bee06 wrote: »

It was a 5 min walk from Patrick Street. I'd say there is nowhere awkward in the city.

We had a few guys visiting from another office this week at work. They went out Tuesday night for dinner and only got a table in the third place they went to because the first two places were full. Another night my manager was trying to book a table for a Thursday night a few days before and rang about 4 or 5 places before he could get a bookin so town sounds plenty busy to me.

But it is not on the way to anywhere really. You have to make a conscious decision to go there. And as you say, people wonder around trying places...you are not going to go to Fenns Quay when doing that..you stay more central. Yes it may only be 5 mins...but there are loads of closer places you would try first. They would miss out on passing trade.

bee06

Ludo wrote: »

But it is not on the way to anywhere really. You have to make a conscious decision to go there. And as you say, people wonder around trying places...you are not going to go to Fenns Quay when doing that..you stay more central. Yes it may only be 5 mins...but there are loads of closer places you would try first. They would miss out on passing trade.

That hasn't changed in the last 20 years though.

Ludo

bee06 wrote: »

That hasn't changed in the last 20 years though.

The amount and variety of competition has.

sporina

they were v busy at night but probably not during the day...

such a pity as i loved the food there.. and like i said before - it was local and good food etc.. shame in light of all the muck we are being offered these day sin town what with dougnuts and more asian stuff that the chicken flew over as oppose to ending up on the wok etc

the beer revolu

sporina wrote: »

and more asian stuff that the chicken flew over as oppose to ending up on the wok etc

Wha???

sporina

the beer revolu wrote: »

Wha???

as in dishes that have a tiny amounts of chicken in them.. thought that that would have been oubious

Oafley Jones

Ludo wrote: »

The amount and variety of competition has.

This is essentially their problem. Fenns quay is probably the same distance (if not less) from Daunts Square, than the length of Patrick's St. So it's not like they were in the middle of no-where.

sporina

Oafley Jones wrote: »

This is essentially their problem. Fenns quay is probably the same distance (if not less) from Daunts Square, than the length of Patrick's St. So it's not like they were in the middle of no-where.

its not about distance - its about location = it would not have the same passing trade

lostinsuperfunk

Fenns Quay was in an awkward place for bus routes so many people drove.

I think that this is not 100% right, but it is on the right track. Although it was only 5 minutes from Patrick Street and located on the 205, one of Cork's most heavily-used bus routes, Fenn's Quay did have the benefit of plentiful street parking nearby on the Mardyke and around the Mercy. That's quite unusual for a city centre restaurant. It's possible that a lot of the regular evening clientele were used to driving in and finding a (free) parking space nearby.  When the Council started to charge for evening parking, and some parking places were taken away for bike lanes and stations, they lost that advantage.
I'm sorry to see it go. I only visited a few times, but it was always very good.

Oafley Jones

sporina wrote: »

its not about distance - its about location = it would not have the same passing trade

I'd buy that as an excuse for a coffee shop, but not for a restaurant that had a bit of a name. Sure it's going to impact business, but a good restaurant's reputation should ensure that it's able to cope with being (every so slightly) off the beaten track.

Again, I think their issue was a lack of ambition if anything. There was more and more food offering/cuisines springing up and they never really seemed to up their game. It just seemed a bit dull to me. If they'd being chasing awards and pushing up the value chain things may have been different.

Cape Clear

I think the way we consume food has moved on dramatically in the last few years. We have a city full of burger bars/ street food/gastro pubs etc. The top end of the market appears to be squeezed.

Oafley Jones

Cape Clear wrote: »

I think the way we consume food has moved on dramatically in the last few years. We have a city full of burger bars/ street food/gastro pubs etc. The top end of the market appears to be squeezed.

I'm not sure I follow. How would they impact the top end? I'm not even sure we have a top end to be honest.

Cape Clear

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I'm not sure I follow. How would they impact the top end? I'm not even sure we have a top end to be honest.

people are going for cheaper options at the expense of traditional/top end restaurant. The market hasn't grown but the customer has shifted.

Looks to me like they just want out of the game.
Went there once, was grand, was never tempted to go again.