North Main Treat

1st Jun 2011

It is one of the city’s oldest thoroughfares and its very name suggests its historical importance to Cork but North Main Street in the modern era has been sidelined by bigger showier streets like Pana and Grand Parade. That maybe be about to change however….

It must have been jealous. When newer streets like these were still rivers North Maina was the hub of activity – the centre of the city centre. You can tell by the many little laneways (barely wide enough to fit anyone who wasn’t a famine victim) that act like tributaries to it that the street has always been the main artery in the city.

 

North Main Sweet

As the city’s rivers like those on Patrick Street were filled in commerce gradually drifted east as new but nearby pastures took the limelight.

Since then North Main Street has been, largely unintentionally, sidelined by Corkonians. Neglected is probably a bit strong but like a weak cold child it has been paid less attention than the strong vibrant young fella who’s showing promise in the hurling and football and one day might play for Cork. Everyone wants to be his friend and see his toys.  

 

Milkshake parlour

North Main Streetthough has suffered an image problem ever since wider streets got notions about themselves. We’ll sum it up like this: you would never find many Southsiders browsing the shops there and the amount of uninteresting tat on sale, to be fair, was hardly a draw.#

Yes, we Khan.

On top of that there’s that the strange geographical phenomenon that seems to make North Main Street perpetually cold. Perhaps it was some pre-historic superstition like those who built Newgrange so it would light up on the shortest day of the year. Those who build this street though seem to have positioned it so that a biting breeze is constantly whipping down it.
 

The Daily Bread and the Polish shop next door.

For all its woes and past faults though something positive and very interesting is happening on North Main Street. And we like it. Nobody wanted a recession and still doesn’t but plummeting rents has allowed many smaller quirkier businesses to take up residence on the street and suddenly North Main Street is becoming a fascinating area around which to stroll with your arms swinging on a Saturday.

Cork Vision Centre: pure Cork culture in the middle of it all

Right at the top where Le Chéile bar once lived stand two brand new gorgeous looking ‘sweeteries’: Aunty Nellies and Shaker that curl around the corner from Café Depeche. Further down Louis Yang’s Chinese buffet, Khan’s oriental spices and Tony O’Connell’s Photography (where Cork fanatics can purchase stunning pictures of their city and county) sit alongside the fantastic Italian restaurant Casanova, a Polish shop and The Daily Bread (their spelt bread is the best in Cork).
 

Get stuffed: Louie Yang's daycint all-you-can-eat alongside the appropriately  named Paddy's 'Super' Store

The Vicar’s Town Inn is getting a make-over and then on the corner of Paradise Place a new milkshake parlour called Flirt is about to open its doors. Anyone interested in the city’s history will be delighted about this.
 

My milkshake brings all the boys to the guards.

Not because of the availability of frothy milk per se but because the informative history lessons placed on the wall by City Council is no longer surrounded by a dilapidated building with thirty year old manky peeling blue paint. The sign now sits pretty in the middle of a bright shiny white paint job.

Ristorante Casanova: good flahs and good food.

While still exhibiting a few eyesores including the "burned down" Munster Furniture shop (could we get kids to at least paint murals on the raw wooden hoardings and make it look nice?) and a few scandalously unregulated shop fronts this fine old street is becoming far more interesting than some of its commercial cousins around town.

Long may it continue.
 

Is it silver ye're buying lads? How in the name of the bauld Christy Ring did this get planning? Horrible. Grotesque. Awful. Manky gawks.