Ohana Café closes due to Covid impact
TUCKED away on Harper’s Lane just off Crescent Quay, in the year and a half since it opened Ohana Café had become a real hidden gem for coffee lovers in the town.
Having scooped a couple of awards in the relatively short period she was open, owner Ann Marie Kinsella from Crossabeg was heartbroken to have to lock up the café and hand back the keys to her landlord as, almost overnight, Covid-19 had rendered the business unviable.
A small shop at the best of times, in a new ‘socially distanced’ society, it seems that keeping Ohana open was simply impossible.
‘I’ve only sixteen seats in the shop,’ Ann Marie explained. ‘There wouldn’t be three metres in the whole place with people inside. The way things were working out, I’d have all the same bills to pay, but only two tables. It simply wouldn’t pay me.’
As a result, Ann Marie was forced to bid a sad farewell to the building on Harper’s Lane.
‘To be honest, I can’t stop and think about it,’ she said. ‘You put in a lot of hard work to build the business and we’ve won a couple of awards and things like that, only for this to happen and it all to go down the drain. It’s not like I failed or the business failed; Covid-19 failed me.’
Not one to give up easily, however, Ann Marie is now on the hunt for a new premises and harbours ambitions of opening in a new location on June 29.
‘It’s a big gamble,’ she said. ‘I’m looking at a few premises at the moment, one of which is just outside of town, but will my customers come with me? Essentially it feels like you’re starting all over again. It’s really tough.’
Ann Marie is trying to remain upbeat, however, and hopes that she and her sister Josephine, who works alongside her at the café, will be welcoming customers at a brand new location before long.’