Meet the people who helped MacCurtain Street become the heart of Cork's food scene

One afternoon, in the Palace Cinema (now the Everyman Palace Theatre) on MacCurtain Street, I watched Christiane F, a German arthouse movie about teenage drug addiction in the squalid squats of 1970s Berlin, the city’s bleak nihilism perfectly echoed by a soundtrack of classic David Bowie songs from his own drug-addled sojourn in Berlin.

Usually, upon leaving a darkened cinema, returning to reality can hit with a jolt, especially in day time. Not on this day. MacCurtain St may have a compelling history and may play host to some of Cork’s most compelling architecture, but back then it was so bruised and battered by neglect and decline, so seedy, so edgy, I felt as if the film was still rolling but I was now in it. 

What’s more, MacCurtain Street’s decrepitude lingered on for years afterwards, the unwanted, unloved step-child of the city centre, at best a route that had to be reluctantly negotiated to go somewhere else. I, ever fond of a little grit in my oyster, was always drawn to it, but my opinion was inevitably in the minority.

Next Wednesday evening, 400 diners will sit at a long table running the length of MacCurtain St for an exclusive Cork on a Fork festival dinner served up by a selection of the myriad hospitality establishments now dominating the storied old street and ancillary streets that make up the VQ (formerly, the Victorian Quarter). I shall be among those diners and, I suspect, not alone in finding the whole experience to be quite surreal. 

Though I’ve observed the changes in the area over decades, the recent acceleration in improvements has been breathtaking, culminating in the elimination of two of four traffic lanes, returning space to pedestrians with the creation of plaza-style wide footpaths for al fresco wining and dining, bringing the party out onto the street. 

MacCurtain Street is now the unquestioned centre of Cork hospitality, with a multiplicity of pubs, cafés, restaurants, and hotels, running the gamut from fast food all the way up to fine dining, and there is a newfound and vibrant energy that suggests the best is yet to come.

Cork City Council certainly deserves a share of plaudits and, an infinitely wealthier nation than 40 years ago, consumer spending has also had an impact but, ultimately, the rebirth of MacCurtain Street all boils down to a most remarkable group of traders, led by its indomitable hospitality practitioners, who harnessed the unmatchable power of a community working together towards a common goal.

Michael, Catherine and Philip Ryan, Isaac’s

In 1992, save annual October pilgrimages to The Metropole Hotel for the Cork Jazz Festival, the majority of Corkonians socialised elsewhere in the city so when Michael Ryan, who had cheffed for years in the family business, Michelin-starred Arbutus Lodge, and his wife, Catherine, decided to open a restaurant in a former warehouse on MacCurtain Street, everyone thought they were mad. 

Actually, the Ryans were pathfinders, not just for the city but for much of the country at large. Inspired by a similar dining space in Amsterdam, the Ryans were among the very first to properly practice casual dining in Ireland. 

Excellent food, though not quite Michelin star level, is still innovative, and staid tropes of fine dining, white linen, silverware, stuffy waiters, are dispensed with for bare tabletops and more personable service, every bit as attentive and efficient but a lot more fun. Isaac’s was a smash from day one, then debuting as one of the most buzzing restaurant spaces in the country.

“Isaac’s is the child of recession,” says Michael Ryan. 

“The first Bush war was on, Arbutus Lodge was on its knees, I was a married man with three children, a wife and I was looking for a job. I called down here [Isaac’s] to visit a friend working on a renovation project [of the entire premises, also housing Isaac’s Hotel and Greene’s Restaurant] and walked in and got an absolute rush, a complete physical reaction to it because I went to school in Christians and never knew this room existed.

“I went, oh, my God, this is it. We were so fed up of the stuffiness of Arbutus. I said to a friend of ours, Canice Sharkey, the brightest of all the chef alumni we ever had in Arbutus, that I have a project I think you’d like. At that time, there was nowhere in Cork where you could eat real food at a decent price, or have a single dish if that’s all you wanted.

“The manager of the Metropole said to me, the problem with McCurtain Street is, if it’s a sunny day, people won’t cross [Patrick’s] bridge. They lie down in a park. If it’s a rainy day, they’re definitely not coming across the bridge. So it was a deeply unfashionable street and people said so but it was the room that drew me in. We had no money. We were absolutely on our knees. But we had a queue outside the door from very, very early days, they came in their droves. Initially it was the old Arbutus clientele but after three years, I walked in one night and didn’t know a single soul and I went, yes, we’ve done it.”

Catherine ran front of house for years — “I remember my father-in-law coming in the first day and telling us we didn’t stand a chance. He took that back many times after,” she chuckles — but the couple have now handed over to their son, Philip, who has his own substantial CV in Cork hospitality and he heads up the VQ hospitality steering committee.

“I’ve worked here on and off since I was a child before I left and did other things,” says Philip, “but I came on board in Isaac’s about four years ago and my dad encouraged me to get involved in the VQ, and there were only six active members.”

The small group decided to hire a director of operations, tapping fellow traders on the street to raise funds to hire Shane Clarke, an urban planner/designer, formerly director of the Nano Nagle Centre, on Douglas St.

“So Shane would action all the suggestions and requests from our meetings each week, and that really changed the dynamic of the group. We now have 85 paid memberships and we’re hoping to get it to 100 very soon. I don’t think there’s another group like it in the city, as united and proactive.”

Philip Gillivan, The Shelbourne

A Mayo man who came to Cork originally in 1987 to work in the Silversprings convention centre, Gillivan bought the then Síol Broin pub, in 1996. 

The Shelbourne is now one of the most popular pubs in the city, its magnificent collection of over 600 Irish whiskeys an attraction in its own right, and a quintessential MacCurtain St experience is enjoying a pint, either inside the pub or out on the ‘terrace’ while dining on smashing fish and chips from one of the street’s newer establishments, the cracking Eco-Fish, across the road.

“All I wanted was to get my own place,” says Philip. 

“I couldn’t afford a hotel but this came up. It had a fabulous clientele but completely outside my comfort zone. There was a great crowd from the Crawford School of Art, you could have a judge, a prisoner, a guard, all having a pint, a lot of the art crowd, musicians, a lot of the gay scene, always very welcome here. I inherited a very lovely business, and I went by the philosophy of, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I remember we were watching the [Irish stage of the 1998] Tour de France on the TV and when it passed Silversprings and was heading towards MacCurtain Street, we locked the pub and walked down with high stools to the end of Bridge Street which was six deep with people and stood at the back on the stools and got a great view.

“Then next door came up for sale and we expanded and reopened as The Shelbourne in the week of the jazz, 1999. The street is so different now, Isaac’s was the main draw before anyone else, they started the change. It was always a great street but we did market research about 15 years ago and they said, everyone who used MacCurtain Street loved it, and everybody else thought it was a waste of space, full of dodgy pubs and strange men in raincoats and the only reason they came up was to get chips and a taxi.

“To me the best thing is we have changed the narrative, we wanted it to be the Portobello road, the left of centre, non retail street and that’s what we’ve achieved.”

Noreen Gannon, Gallagher’s

Gallagher’s pub, at the corner of MacCurtain Street and Bridge Street is a thriving gastro-pub, especially renowned for its Beef & Beamish pie, and is named after the late Rory Gallagher who was raised further up the street.

“When we bought Gallagher’s in 2012,” says Noreen, “we got an incredible legacy and the people asked us to keep the name and I’m glad we did, and since then I learned an awful lot about the music and the food side of things. We have a bronze-cast statue of Rory and people come in and sit there and take pics and when the sun comes back around 7pm in the evening, you have a great view of Shandon, from inside and out. I’m happy with what we’ve achieved, the work that everyone has done for the street and the camaraderie among the traders … we are very proud of that.”

The Metropole Hotel

Designed by Arthur Hill, father of the late Myrtle Allen, and built over 125 years ago on then King Street before it was renamed in 1922 in honour of assassinated Cork Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain, The Metropole Hotel has many a story to tell. 

Originally an upper floor hotel with ‘dry’ status (ie no booze), retailers on the ground floor included iconic Cork sweet brand, Hadji Bey, renowned at home and abroad for its Turkish Delight. Since 1978, it has been the festival club and spiritual home of the Cork Jazz festival, often the only time of year many Corkonians would ever bother to socialise on the street.

“It’s an integral part of MacCurtain Street’s rich tapestry,” says Aaron Mansworth, managing director of Trigon Hotels, owners of The Metropole. 

“We’ve been a cornerstone of this iconic street, which is steeped in history and culture and it has transformed into a cool, cultural epicentre for Cork. The Metropole has played a pivotal role in this evolution.”

Recently departed as hotel manager after 24 years working in The Metropole, Roger Russell, now manager of newly opening Moxy & Residence Inn hotel on the quays, retains memories of MacCurtain Street that will endure forever.

“About 16, 17 years ago,” says Roger, “there were only two street lights on the whole street, but it’s transformed, all sorts of different businesses, but everyone shared a vision and a set of values of what we wanted to achieve, to create a destination street with an eclectic vibe, and support each other with a positive outlook.

“I often started very early, at 7am and on a sunny day when it’s quiet, no cars, trucks, and the sun comes down the middle of the street, there’s a lovely feeling to the place. There’s [an off-street] waterfall [by Greene’s restaurant] and a family of ducks lived on the pond. Every every year the duck would take her ducklings out on to MacCurtain Street and lead them down to Patrick’s Quay to the river around the corner — one year, they ended up in the hotel restaurant! It’s a different kind of street.”

Andy Ferreira, Cask

When Richard Evans, proprietor of Greene’s, another MacCurtain Street stalwart, tapped up Andy Ferreira to open a gin bar next to his restaurant, in 2017, Ferreira nudged him in the direction of cocktails, specifically, seasonal cocktails based around foraged Irish produce, then entirely new in Ireland. 

Soon, the eminently stylish bar was a national multi-award winning bar with an international reputation.

“From the very beginning [of Cask],” says Andy, “there has always been a great relationship with the other traders on the street, The Shelbourne, The Glass Curtain. For years we’d go down to the White Rabbit to use their smoker. We’ve done collaborations with Brian in the Glass Curtain, all these little relationships really enhance the experience of working on the street from a professional point of view, and having The Everyman across the road is wonderful, crowds appear before the show, booked in for food and drinks. It could be a Tuesday, it could be a weekend. And they might come back for a little nightcap. 

"And we get lots of tourists, often from the Metropole and the amount of times I see our lads writing local tips for maybe the Corner House or Gallagher’s for the pie on the back of napkins or into phones, tourists just appreciate that so much. I know I do when I go to different countries and you really can enhance people’s experience of your city and your area just by being kind with your time and being considerate.”

Brian Murray, Glass Curtain

Brian Murray always had a soft spot for MacCurtain Street and his Glass Curtain, which opened in 2019, very soon established itself as one of the best restaurants in Cork.

“We’d come to Crowley’s Music Store [where Rory Gallagher bought his first guitar] and sit and play guitars, every Saturday for the entire summer all through secondary school, pretending we were about to buy,” says Brian. 

“I remember going to The Metropole for the jazz. When I found [the Glass Curtain], the premises, the building, the history, it felt right, it was a general nostalgia I had for the area, not particularly food. But back in 2019, people were saying anything below Isaac’s towards the train station is dead and dark on both sides of the street down as far as where The White Rabbit used to be. I remember asking the landlord about the lack of lights on the street. Now our end of the street is really happening.

“It’s an amazing spot to be, with bars, restaurants, hotels, every one on the same page even though there’s different offerings. I walk down the street and 20 people will say hello to me or any of my staff. It feels like the right place to be.

“It has different energies throughout the day. In the morning on a nice day, there’s a lovely gentle energy, people around, getting a coffee before work, a solitary meditative experience before a busy day. At 5pm sunset, sitting outside the Wine Cellar or 11pm Friday night after work, it is like a night club, vibrant energy, people are totally different. On a Friday evening when service is in full flow, dockets mounting up, energy peaking, I have the kitchen behind me, a full restaurant in front of me and I can see people outside the Wine Cellar with glasses, and down Harley St and across the river, it’s an awesome experience.”

Trudy Ahern and Sean Gargano, MacCurtain Wine Cellar

One of the loveliest new additions to the street is MacCurtain Wine Cellar, a gorgeous restoration of a high-windowed corner premises, owned and operated by husband and wife team, Chicagoan Sean Gargano and his Cork-born wife Trudy Ahern.

“I have always loved MacCurtain Street,” says Trudy. “My mum is from up by the barracks and my uncle worked for Thompson’s bakery so I was always around here. It had a different kind of a feel than the rest of the city. I brought Sean down here about 16, 17 years ago, it was really rundown then, dodgy.”

“She was talking about opening something on the street,” says Sean, “and I said, no way, are you out of your damn mind!”

“But I just knew that it was going to be cool,” says Trudy. “Slowly, other businesses came in and changed the vibe. The Glass Curtain made a massive change.”

“For me,” says Sean, “the groundwork was laid by guys like Philip from The Shelbourne, I can’t thank them enough. We had zero budget but the community is amazing. From day one, they all came in offering help. It was fantastic. We’d come from Dublin where we didn’t really see that happening. Also, they were all owner-operators which really creates an atmosphere of community, because not only can we have real one-on-one relationship swith customers, we can also have them with other business owners.”

Shane Clarke, VQ director of operations

“There is a very strong sense of community, for the most part they are owner occupiers and entrepreneurs, either there a long time or new arrivals, and they get on very, very well,” says Shane.

“The recent public realm improvements prioritise the pedestrian. We’re doing a new plan, a slightly more strategic plan. Kent station is going to get a lot busier and there is all the new development along Horgan’s Quay and we know the City Council has exciting plans for the riverside.

“It is one of the finest nexus of educational establishments in the country — primary, secondary, third level and international language schools — and we want to make more of that. Heineken [also in the VQ] have come on board as sponsors and we are planning heritage and community projects, urban greening projects.

“It’s a fabulous, diverse community — that’s a winning ticket, it feels comfortable and natural, it’s not trying too hard. But there is so much more to come.”