What do ye want in Cork City?

dudara

The Cafe Costa building in Blackpool is lovely, but their prices are ridiculous. I can get damn good espresso for 80c in the Market (1.30 for a double). I don't want to pay E1.80 - E2.00 for the same elsewhere.

Any tried that new Cafe de la Paix place on Washington Street/Western Road yet? I went there recently, ordered two cups of coffee for myself and the bf, and when they arrived, both were of different strengths. Plus, the lunchtime prices are extortionate. Pity, cause it's got a lovely location.

Hells_Belle

solice wrote:

Im still thinkin that people will abuse the free Wi-Fi. Its a great thing and it will attract alot of customers but it will also attract people who just want to sit down, take up space and put nothing in the till.

Presumably this terror of somehow being taken advantage of is why nobody in Cork offers free wifi. Everyone agrees its a great idea and would make the place popular, so I just don't get this huge fear factor. Its e169 + VAT a month, unlimited upload and download. It's a fixed cost.

As to people coming in and using it without buying anything, it's not going to happen very often. People will camp out with coffee for free wifi. Give an access key password at the till if its that much of a worry, but please don't do that really annoying 30-minutes-for-a-cup-of-coffee thing.

I'd go for "bring your own laptop" over PCs, by the way. A cafe with wifi is a very different thing than an internet cafe. Works for Starbucks.

vector

a monorail around the city
(bus station must be covered, also ucc must be covered to replace the summer tourist income with winter income, and to bring tourists to fitzgeralds park and maybe county hall)

then a normal rail line to the airport (underground tracks if necessary) yeah right!

arctic lemur

Maby have a cafe bookshop like the winding stair, with nice soft lighting and a cool jazz ambience..oh and open late cause its nice to meet your mates in a place where you can actually hear your self talk (unlike pubs!)

Illkillya

artic lemur wrote:

Maby have a cafe bookshop like the winding stair, with nice soft lighting and a cool jazz ambience..oh and open late cause its nice to meet your mates in a place where you can actually hear your self talk (unlike pubs!)

Have to say I'm not a fan of the Winding Stair - you'll get thrown out if you're not swooning over James Joyce with a posh accent. Cork could do with another decent bookshop or two though.

boardy

Is there a Winding Stair type place in Cork?
What kind of books?

Update: Retail space gets snapped up in the city fairly .....err ..... 'snappy'.

dahamsta

Not down in Mahon Point it doesn't. Heh.

DawnMc

What you need, and I cannot stress this enough, is a COMFY cafe serving lovely drinks and snacks. IT MUST BE LATE NIGHT!!! I'm a complete coffee addict and am sick to the back teeth of tribes and gingerbread house,
U will also need a COMFY smoking zone, so important

vector

starbucks? its only a matter of time

saado

Sounds like a really great idea, reminds me of a place in Dingle i used to go to regularily last summer, it was a wine bar/coffee house/pizza place. Had a late license on friday and saturday nights. and was infinitely preferable to going to the nightclub, go for pizza, maybe a beer or two, and relax while listening to jazz, either one of the live bands, or just background music. Great place. Not one for coffee myself, but I could see myself going to this place before i'd go near any of the other ones if i were in the mood for some cake and internet while in town.

boardy

I know that it's only a matter of time before Starbucks comes to town. They are paying 320K in rent (per year) for a small place up in Dublin. That kind of money is hard to compete against.
What I'm hoping for (when they do come to town) is a kind of anti-establishment backlash (like they do in some other cities), and for the locals to give the business to .... well .... a local.

Real estate is expensive enough in Cork - don't think I can afford a smoking section.

turkster

Sounds like a great idea boardy.

I think some live music would be a good idea. Some fairly laid back acoustic jazz, trad, classical etc would be cool and there's loads of people from CSM/UCC music dept would be willing to do that kind of thing for a fairly modest fee .

boardy

Fee??? How about as much cof"fee" as you can drink?

But it's a good idea though. Maybe hold a competition with a cash prize (to help feed the struggling students).

I'm still finding it difficult to find a suitable place though. I called 2 auctioneers this morning only to find that the places that I checked out yesterday were 'terms agreed'.

To be honest, due to the frustration of it all, I’ve been in contact with a fellow selling his cool and trendy wine bar in Barcelona, not far from the waterfront.

dudara

There are lots of vacant premises around the city, with nothing at all happening in them. No auctioneer's signs or anything.

Henry Sugar's on Washington Street (but that might still be structurally unsafe)
Bachelor's Quay Bar near the Gate.
Poco Loco on Paul Street

can anyone think of any others? It's such a waste

boardy

How about McCurtain Street, not far from Patrick's Hill? Is that an acceptable location for the type of place that we are talking about?

I think the question is whether you would bother going there since it's 'off' city centre.

Fysh

There's an advantage to MacCurtain street in that there's two call centres within a 2-minute walk of it, so if you do food of some sort (whether it's cake or whatever) there's a good chance you'll get people popping in on their lunch hour for a bit. I know Ger's Deli on MacCurtain street gets a lot of regular customers from Siemens, which helps keep the place going (considering there's a Spar, Centra, and Subway all on the same street also doing the same kind of food).

dudara

I hardly ever venture across the river to McCurtain Street, and the odds of me doing it for coffee are slim TBH

deRanged

I'd be happy to go to MacCurtain st. Being outside the 'city centre' doesn't bother me - Cork is so small it's not going to be much of a trek.

dahamsta

I'll go to McCurtain Street if everyone else is going there (albeit not for coffee). I are teh lemming.

vector

Ken Shabby wrote:

I'll go to McCurtain Street if everyone else is going there (albeit not for coffee). I are teh lemming.

McCurtain Street is off the island, and its also in the "northside",
however is has an impressive footfall, and if the premises is located as west as possible on the street it should lure soome people from patricks st (via patricks bridge) also you'll get the bruce college cohort (the right age profile)

If the premises is too far east it will suffer, no one is going to walk over brian boru bridge from Merchants Quay/Andersons Quay.

boardy

Thanks for the feedback lads. Since I'm not a native city boy (but hail from the county), the information in these posts is very helpful.

I hardly ever venture across the river to McCurtain Street, and the odds of me doing it for coffee are slim TBH

Dudara: even with free wifi?

I understand what a couple of you are saying about McCurtain Street being off the beaten track, but the place I'm looking at is not far from Patrick's Hill (less than 200 feet).

But I'm not sure if this is good enough. Checked out the footfall yesterday and it wasn't great. Is it known to be a troublesome area at night (does anyone know)?

AND by the way, I do intend to reward posters when I get sorted.

dudara

I just dunno. Thinking about it, I don't want to be carrying my laptop over great distances, and that just seems that little bit too far for me. Plus, there can be a skanger element over around the junction with Coburg Street, and again, I wouldn't want to be carrying my laptop through it.

deRanged

I should maybe qualify why I'd be happy with McCurtain st.

I use the train a lot - so it'd be quite convenient for me. (I walked it this morning and was looking at a new cafe place and almost popped in for a coffee). If I'm driving in from home - it's still handy, there's parking around there at night.

I'm not in the least bit interested in using the wifi, so I'm not thinking about laptops.

bungeecork

Towards the end of my 4 month holiday around Europe, my laptop screen decided to go blank when working off the battery, so I had to limit my free wifi use to places that allowed me to use mains power for my laptop. Thank you "The 12th Lock" in Dublin and to McDonalds on Rue Censir in Paris.

If you hide the powerpoints then folks will only stay as long as their batteries last. 'Course the new fuel cell powered laptops are on the way - they'll last for days without mains power.

Starbucks claim their off peak business increases in every store that offers free wifi. Free wifi sites were a lifesaver to me on holidays. Maybe just switch off the wifi if anyone outstays their welcome, and switch it back on once they've left?

Shanannigan

i saw in a café in the uk they had a few board games up by the counter... you could do like a scrabble night or something... or a monopoly league.. ppl don't play board games anymore, and they're always fun