Ghastly or genius? The café where children are banned
AN ENTREPRENEUR is opening up an ‘adults only’ coffee shop that will ban children.
Café chain founder and father, Alan Andrews, who plans to open the cafe in Birdhill, Co. Tipperary in the summer, says adults are entitled to drink their coffee in peace and quiet.
Mr Andrews will open the café in his artisan coffee roastery in The Old Barracks in Birdhill, and said children under the age of 12 will be banned.
He started his coffee educational and training facility business, Coffee Culture, in Dublin back in May of 2009. Before that he ran a chain of cafés with his ex wife.
‘I’m thinking minimum 12 or maybe 14 years of age. I don’t believe that it’s out there. The thought process behind it is, that first of all we are a roastery, so it’s a manufacturing place.
‘Second, I think all adults are entitled to a bit of “me time”.
‘It’s important for life balance that you can go somewhere and you know that there won’t be kids there screaming or running around or spilling stuff on the floor,’ he said.
‘I have kids but I want to know there’s a place I can go to where I’m going to have some peace and quiet and read a book or a newspaper. We want to give people that one hour to enjoy their cup of coffee and get some mindfulness. I think that is really important for people,’ said Mr Andrews.
‘The plan is to open the café before the summer but there has been confusion with a different kind of summer!
‘I need to define what “adults only” means, some people think it’s going to be an Ann Summers shop!’ laughed Mr Andrews, who is from Dublin.
He moved to Limerick in 2001 and was a co-founder of Delish cafés in 2003. His new enterprise in Birdhill works hand in hand with Coffee Culture.
The roastery in the old barracks, which is a 300-year-old building, commenced last month.
The company is exporting a thousand kilos of coffee from Birdhill every week and hope to export into Europe.
It is not clear if Mr Andrews’s plan could run into legal trouble. Currently, bars and restaurants serving alcohol must allow children under the age of 18 to be present on the premises until 9pm if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.
In 2004, a restaurant in Cork which forced a woman and her infant child to leave, was ordered by an Equality Tribunal to provide her and three others with a meal in compensation.
The owners denied she was forced to leave, but said she had been asked to do so because it had a rule of not admitting children under 10 after 7pm.
The Tribunal found she had suffered discriminatory treatment under the Equal Status Act 2000. Along with the meal, the restaurant owners had to pay the woman €100 to cover costs.
‘Some people think it’s Ann Summers’