Bars and barbers open again in Mid Cork area
AS IRELAND REOPENS BUSINESSES ACROSS CORK ARE ADJUSTING TO THE NEW REALITY
“THE tourist season is gone. All our regular events - the traditional music session on Saturday night, the social dancing on Sunday, the set dancing on Wednesday - they’re all gone.”
That was the bleak assessment of Micheál Creedon, proprietor of Ballyvourney’s Abbey Hotel, as he surveyed the much shortened and restricted tourist season which lies ahead as his premises re-opened at the start of the week.
“Our big advantage is that we have plenty of space here,” he said. “I can see events coming here - the likes of funerals and birthday parties - but the crowds will be much smaller, 50 to 60 people rather than 150.”
The hotel restaurant and carvery was open since Monday with workers from local firms calling in for lunch. It was a slightly different experience as now they were ushered to a table and shown a menu and asked to make their selection rather than queue at a hot food counter and take their meal from there.
When I called into The Mills Inn on Friday, before the reopening, the team were participating in a training session for waiting on customers when the premises reopened.
Don O’Laoire was upbeat about what lay ahead but said rigorous protocols would be in place to ensure the safety of staff and customers.
“When you come in through the Mills door you will be met and shown to your table, a trolley with your cutlery and condiments will be brought to the table and you will lay your own table - after that your experience will be as normal.”
Walk-ins will be welcome and booking in advance won’t be essential. “We have the space here to accommodate that,” said Don. “If you do come and there’s no space immediately, we’ve prepared a waiting area where you can sit while a table is being vacated and cleaned for you.”
All through the lock-down, the Mills kitchen has been kept ticking over with a brisk takeaway service, especially at weekends when their Sunday roast was popular. The shop selling clothes, gifts, cakes and other delicacies was also opened recently and that helped guide Don and his colleagues as they prepared for this week’s reopening.
In Macroom, the Castle Hotel was also busy as it reopened on Monday. Its Next Door Cafe had a ‘maitre d’ service, guiding you to the table where you waited to be served.
Although there were less tables in the actual cafe space, the doors to the hotel bar were open to accommodate crowds who would be expected at peak times.
By the lakeside in Gougane Barra, the hotel reopened yesterday and already bookings are brisk for tables at the restaurant overlooking one of Ireland’s most iconic views.
Neil and Katey Lucey kept busy during the lock-down as with the help of their children they launched a series of You Tube cookery videos which have attracted hundreds of thousands of views and published an ebook of their best loved recipes.
While the Summer season is now spluttering to a start, hotels and guesthouses in Baile Mhúirne and Macroom are being kept relatively busy, thanks in no small part to the demand from the many workers employed on the Macroom bypass work on which is ongoing at several sites at present.
One business which has relied very much on tourists in the past is gearing up to attract local visits this Summer. The Toy Soldier Factory in Cill na Martra is inviting groups to take part in ‘socially distanced’ workshops which they will be hosting at their factory shop.
In the meantime, when I called in to the shop on Monday, the finishing touches were being put to the figurines of Cork and Kerry footballers.
They are now wearing masks in anticipation of their forthcoming Championship encounter.