More Than 30 New Businesses Open Since Panaban

21st Feb 2019

A new business association has been formed by traders disgruntled with the Cork Business Association and their first action appears to be to claim Cork is dying on it’s feet because seven businesses have closed since the introduction of the Patrick Street car ban.

Of those seven, at least three have clearly stated the Panaban was not the reason they shut up shop but a more important metric is the number of businesses that have opened since P-day or just before it that are still trading.

If you add in places about to open, we make it more than 20. There may be more (let us know ones we've missed via the contact form).
 

Carraig Donn, who surprisingly don't actually sell brown stones. They're moving into Merchant's Quay after some renovations (Planning notice on the corner)

With the end of the donut fad almost upon us Ninja Sushi has replaced Huckleberry’s on Daunt Square opposite The Roundy bar knocking out all sorts of raw fish treats. From their door you can almost spot The Istanbul Barber that has opened up on North Main Street in a building that has been lying idle for many years and you'll also spot Froyo on Castle Street across from the Tabletop game café which isn't far from new gaming lounge Kaiju, also on North Maina. 
 

Vila on Pana: Easily confused with the Premier League club of the same name leading to regular awkward gatherings of disappointed football fans at the top of Carey's Lane.  (Photo taken Monday @ 8.30am).

Over on Drawbridge Street, Salinger’s shop opened up shortly before last year’s Panaban was implemented and has been helping Cork men to seriously snazz up their wardrobes with their high end clobber. Around the same time, in a similar mission to improve the quality of local threads, Danish retailer Vila opened at 83 Patrick Street.

Just when you thought the huge increase in the number of city centre cafés might be tapering off, new ones keep popping up. Pink Moon at the far end of Washington Street near the Kino opened early last year and Café Torino immediately replaced Hassett’s café (who are now instead concentrating on their growing bakery products including expanding into the U.S market).
 

Pink Moon on Washington Street: Perfect for discreetly seeing who's up in court today. And cake.

The popular Bookshelf Café on South Mall opened up another swanky operation at the Elysian on Eglington Street calling itself The Bookshelf Coffee House which, being close to thousands of workers at Bord Gáis, One Albert Quay and City Hall, is as you would expect, flying.
 

They've opened a café by The Elysian.

In the Winthrop Arcade, Cocoa café has opened recently and Joe’s and Bro’s are about to open a small street-side café while Cork Coffee Roasters are opening a second outlet on Anglesea Street too.  
 

New sushi place targetting the ninja demographic.

They weren’t to know it at the time but Gino’s Gelato on Oliver Plunkett St. couldn’t have picked a better time to open last June. Not because some irate traders needed cooling after the introduction of the Panaban but because of the scorcher of a summer we got - Cork tongues wagging for delicious ice cream like dogs in a doggy café.
 

BURNT: New pizza place on Prince's Street. You'll be glad to know it doesn't do what it says on the tin!

What? A doggy café? Do you think we’re barking mad? Nah biy! Bark & Bumble at Langford Row opened just as Panaban Part 2 kicked off last August. Powered by, it appears, coffee and an endless array of doggy puns, the unique café offers pawsecco, pupcakes and pawscotti. You can even book a barkday pawty celebration there. No problems with the Paw-na ban here it seems.
 

Cocoa café in the Winthrop Arcade

Three new Italian restaurants have opened in the city centre since the Panaban. Oak Fire Pizza, who have branches in Bandon and Clonakilty, opened on Prince’s Street with competitors Burnt on the opposite side of the street. While the old betting shop on Maylor Street has been replaced by a great new Italian all-rounder called Bocelli.
 

North Main Street: We need another Turkish bazzer shop, apparently.

In case all of Cork’s new cafés and restaurants have you worried about your waist line, some eagle eyed business brains have spotted the need for more gyms in the city centre. One Life recently opened a sparklingly new premises on Mulgrave Road just off Pope’s Quay. Its lunchtime boxing classes could be a big hit with angry traders, who blame the Panaban for their business woes –we suggest punchbags shaped like a dead horses that Panaban moaners can flog.  

In the coming weeks, Flyefit, a Dublin gym chain, is set to open a flash new “super gym” on Oliver Plunkett Street in the empty former-NAMA building that was centre stage during the Cork occupy movement in 2011.

There will be movement of a different kind there in the next few weeks as fitness fans line the window on various mechanical contraptions providing excellent entertainment for passers-by outside.  
 

Mountain Warehouse are currently renovating the old Lifestyle Sports store on Pana.

The PROC has a confession to make: We’ve never interfered with our eyebrows in any way shape or form therefore we will recuse ourselves from judging the current trend of people wearing what appears to be small black tadpoles above their eyes.
 

Froyo on Castle Street.

As a result of this overwhelming demand to place amphibious off-spring on one’s upper face, there has been what seems like at least twenty thousand businesses in the city centre doing this work that must surely have come to the attention of conservationists by now.

Popular ‘pub emperors’, Ernest Cantillon and Benny McCabe have both recently spoken out about how trade is up in all their city centre venues because of the Panaban so it’s not that surprising that the number of new pubs has been rising faster than the cost of Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
 

Dwyers: opposite the Courthouse, feen.

O’Sho on Barrack Street, Dwyers of Cork on Washington Street, Impala on Liberty Street and Crawford & Co. on Anglesea Street have all opened their doors of late and sport swish instagramable interiors to snap while you take a tipple. Nana's bar on Douglas Street also opened in March 2018. 

Just off Pana, the PROC was particularly delighted to see Dali nightclub and venue open up on Carey’s Lane – the slow death of the nightclub in Ireland and Britain has been well documented but this gang are bucking the trend so far. Cyprus Avenue’s huge renovation project on Oliver Plunkett Street almost doubles the live music venue’s capacity – another massive vote of confidence in the city centre.
 

Brow Bar on Drawbridge Street (behind Easons): You might have thought this was going to be a pub frequented by Irish-Americna hip-hop fans but you'd be wrong...bro.

 
In the last week the heads behind the Cotton Ball bar and brewery in Mayfield have been granted permission to put a nano-brewery and bar into Thompson House on MacCurtain Street – that’s the glass building frontage opposite the El-Door bakery that opened just before the Pana ban last year.
 

Kaiju gaming lounge on North Main Street. Always remember: gamers are people too.

Dublin suit retailer Louis Copeland is about to open a store on Academy Street shortly and a few yards away Mountain Warehouse are currently renovating the unit formerly occupied by Lifestyle Sports on Patrick Street (who moved into the cineplex on Grand Parade last year).

There may appear to be some dereliction in the Cook Street area but Penny’s have been acquiring properties in the area over the last few years and are planning a massive extension that will transform that area and create a ton of jobs.

Cork city centre is thriving.


List of businesses that have opened since or just before the Panaban that are still open:

1. Ninja Sushi, the donut fad has
2. Istanbul Barbers on North Main St.
3. Pink Moon Café on Washington Street
4. Vila Cork opened just as the first Pana ban came into force
5. Gino’s Gelato’s, Oliver Plunkett Street
6. Sailnger on Drawbridge Street
7. Bark and Bumble, dog café
8. Bookshelf Café at the Elysian
9. One Life Gym just off Pope’s Quay on Mulgrave Road
10. Café Torino, Washington St.
11. Crawford & Co, Anglesea Street
12. O’Sho on Barrack Street
13. Dwyers of Cork
14. Burnt, Prince’s Street
15. Oak Fire Pizza, Prince’s Street
16. Bocelli’s, Maylor Street
17. Dali, Carey's Lane
18. Nana's, Douglas Street
19. Froyo, Castle Street
20. Cocoa Café, Winthrop Arcade
21. Kaiju Gaming Lounge on North Main St.
22. Bleu bistro
23. JFM Manscaping Lounge
24. Ramen, Carey's Lane
25. Soba, Carey's Lane
26. Da Mirco, Bridge St.
27. Bauhaus, Cornmarket Centre
28. Swoon, Grand Parade
29. Asian Market, Dalton's Avenue (off Cornmarket St)
30. Tom Winter's Barbers, North Main St. (@ Skiddy's Castle)

Announced and about to open soon:
31. Nano Brewery at Thompson House
32. FLYEfit gym on Oliver Plunkett Street
33. Louis Copeland on Academy Street
34. Mountain Warehouse on Patrick Street
35. Joe’s and Bro’s in Winthrop Arcade
36. Cork Coffee Roasters on Anglesea Street
37. Penny’s extension on Prince’s St.
38. Carraig Donn, Merchant's Quay

And:
39. to 40,000. All the eyebrow places

If we missed one that isn't an eyebrow bar us know.