The MET hits right note at jazz festival’s spiritual home
Drum roll please — the grand dame of Cork hotels has unveiled a new bar, restaurant, and tea-room just in time for the city’s jazz festival which is expected to inject up to €35m into the local economy.
And the Lord Mayor dropped by the new MET at the Metropole Hotel, the spiritual home of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, to sample the plush surroundings.
The new area is the latest phase of the historic hotel’s €2.5m refurbishment ahead of its ambitious €50m expansion next year.
The MacCurtain St hotel’s 108 bedrooms were already refurbished earlier this year as part of the initial investment, which has created five new jobs.
The first Jazz Festival was staged in the Metropole 41 years ago and the hotel has been at the heart and soul of every festival since.
However, hotel manager Roger Russell said he was delighted last night to unveil details of a new VIP package for this year’s festival.
It will entitle people to experience smooth jazz sounds in an intimate seated lounge venue in the hotel’s Beckett Suite.
The platinum package will include a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne served to your table on arrival with a chef’s charcuterie board, complete with tapas and oysters.
You will be entitled to table service, with drinks served until midnight, and you will be entitled to access all of the other jazz lounges in the hotel that evening. A table for two or four costs €75 per person.
We have four nights of jam-packed jazz entertainment at the hotel from Friday, October 26, to Monday, 29 October,” said Roger.
The Metropole is part of the Trigon Hotel Group, which has 334 rooms across its three hotels in Cork — Cork International Hotel, Cork Airport Hotel, and Metropole Hotel.
Trigon’s group general manager, Aaron Mansworth, said they can’t wait to show off The MET during this year’s festival.
“The new MET really is a superb addition to the vibrant MacCurtain St and Victorian Quarter,” he said.
“We are seeing very strong visitor numbers to Cork and we had a good summer across our three hotels.
There is a real ‘Cork feel’ to the new menus at The MET with a number of signature dishes included on the menus.
Meanwhile, up to 40 jobs have been created at a new late-night bar on Washington St which will celebrate its official opening with a VIP bash tomorrow night.
Grand Central Social, which is housed in the former Bailey, is set over three floors and includes two bars and takes its design inspiration from New York’s famous meeting point — Grand Central Terminal. It will be open Wednesday to Sunday.
It is the sixth business venture from the team behind The Voodoo Rooms, An Bróg, BarBarossa, Barbarella, and Alibi, which adjoins Grand Central Social on Washington St. The group employs up to 200 people across its portfolio of venues.
Bar owners and hoteliers on Leeside are now gearing up for what’s expected to be one of the busiest jazz festivals in recent years.
Nearly 1,000 jazz musicians from over 20 countries are flying into Cork for the bank holiday weekend, with headline acts including China Moses, Laura Mvula, Blind Boys of Alabama, Nnenna Freelon, Stanley Clarke, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and The Maria Schneider Orchestra.
There will be free entertainment too in more than 70 city venues including pubs, hotels, restaurants, galleries, public buildings, and club venues as well as on the streets.
One of the free highlights will be the Dia De Los Muertos’ jazz parade — a New Orleans-inspired parade of the walking dead — through the city’s streets next Thursday evening.
Festival director Sinead Dunphy said the festival has the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world.
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