Drink up to new store

WHAT a name for a bar to have to trade and labour under — The Poor Relation Grocery and Pub.

You’d have to go in for a look, and you might come out after a pint or two with a loaf of bread, a cake or even a ukelele. Not only is it going to sell liquor, it’s also going to be part-grocery, and musical instrument shop, a stone’s throw from Cork City’s bus station.

Just renamed, the bar which traded as The Parnell, is being leased by Cliona McCabe and managed by Gordon McKnight. Ms McCabe has family links in the city’s bar trade and is associated with the Rising Sun Brewery which operates the Blackdog Rock & Metal Bar, North Main Street, 6 on Bridge Street and El Fenix on Union Quay.

The Poor Relation Grocery & Pub is the long, new name over the door of the Parnell Bar on Cork’s Parnell Place. That 2,400 sq ft bar, previously Mulligans, sold to an investor in 2012 for c €450,000, and has since had a c €100,000-plus refit.

It was sold to the unidentified investor by Cearbhall Behan, now of Behan Irwin & Gosling, who negotiated the new tenancy with Ms McCabe, and while its terms haven’t been disclosed, there’s likely to be a 10-12% return to its owner.

As the Parnell, it had been leased by publican Liam Barry of the Bodhran, who with partners Rory O’Leary and Ernest Horgan is set to open Goldbergs at the former Marina Bar near the Idle Hour.

The Poor Relation Grocery & Bar will combine licensed premises, grocery store and a musical instrument shop, says Mr Behan “based on the old pub-styled businesses in Ireland over 100 years ago.”

He said the tenants were negotiating with an established music store in the city to sell instruments here, and will open a music venue in the rear, with an eclectic musical mix from Spanish guitar to European jazz — and with Swiss Rolls on sale too.

* Details: Behan Irwin & Gosling, 021-4270007