Does Kilnaleck café have a winning recipe?
Celebrated as Cavan’s ‘Best Newcomer’ at the recent Irish Restaurant Awards 2022, Kilnaleck’s Súil Eile believe they’ve hit upon a recipe for success that can be replicated anywhere across the country.
The community and volunteer-run café quickly established itself at the heart of the village.
They first opened their doors almost 16 months ago as a way to remedy the loss of a regular meeting place for their Cúpla Focal Irish speaking group during Covid.
“Our idea from the start was that it would be run voluntary, within the community, and for the community,” explains Eugene Farrelly, one of the driving forces behind Súil Eile, along with his partner Monica McCormick, and local businessman Eugene Kiernan.
Monica, well known for her culinary and creative talents at farmers markets, runs the café, with all profits reinvested back into the community.
Most recently they donated over €1,000 as bursaries to local families sending their children to the Gaeltacht last summer, and they hope to do more in future.
So successful has Súil Eile become that the café expects to have tens of thousands of euro to share with other local community initiatives going forward, such as the development of a local organic garden.
“We’d like to support a range of ventures in the town. It is all for the community and we really believe we can build something really special here going forward,” Eugene tells the Celt. “The first year we couldn’t put as much as we maybe would have liked, but next year and after that with everything now paid off, we hope to be able to do more.”
With street life in rural towns and villages across Ireland dwindling, Eugene believes that the simple blueprint Súil Eile has adopted can be replicated elsewhere, stemming the tide of further “decline”.
The building in which Súil Eile is situated is a former hardware shop and pub, disused for many years but revamped once the new enterprise came about.
The café is used regularly by comhrá gaeilge, and also by a local knitting group. Eugene feels it important that people have such places to go where “rural isolation” continues to pose a major problem, especially for those living on their own.
It wasn’t long ago that Kilnaleck boasted 14 pubs, two banks, a post office, two hardware stores, two butchers, a drapers, cobblers, and a fair every Wednesday.
“What we’ve been able to do shows that this is a model that does work, and can work in communities, not just in Cavan, but across Ireland. It creates employment, a sense of place, and gives something back as well. It has become a social hub in its own right.”
The biggest overheads incurred by Súil Eile are rent and rates. Regarding the latter, Eugene feels the council should do more to alleviate the pressures faced by businesses such as theirs, whose charter is about giving back to the community directly.
“We’re hoping we can come to some agreement on it,” said Eugene in relation to ongoing discussions with the local authority on the issue.
The Ulster Regional Final of Irish Restaurant Awards 2022 took place in the Slieve Russell Hotel in August.
Other winners included Corleggy Cheeses, Silke Cropp as Local Food Hero; Olde Post Inn for Best Sustainable Practices, Best Wine Experience, and Best Emerging Irish Cuisine; Shades Bar & Grill in the Free From category; Lubomir Kosturik of People’s Restaurant as Best Restaurant Manager; Hard Boiled Egg Cafe as Best Café; Chilli Lounge for Best World Cuisine; The Anglers Rest in Ballyconnell as Pub of the Year; Oak Room Restaurant for Best Customer Service and Best Casual Dining; McNean House And Restaurant in Blacklion as Best Restaurant, Best Hotel & Guesthouse Restaurant, and Carmel McGirr as Best Chef; Murph’s Gastro Pub as Best Gastro Pub.