Orso go for Pembroke

“WE’VE enough on our plate for the moment,” says foodie Conrad Howard, one of an entrepreneurial trio that opened its third Cork eating house this week.

He, his wife Judy Howard, and their business partner Tracey Corbett, are cementing a 20-year career in the hospitality business in London and Cork cities, adding Orso to their business tally that includes the brewery Elbow Lane, the Market Lane Restaurant — which employs 46 — and The Castle (another 28 jobs here) at Blackrock Castle.

Not bad for a downturn, and since redundancy loomed for Conrad Howard back in 2007 when the Bodega, which he’d managed, changed hands, prompting thoughts of going it alone.