Two new ‘dishes’ on menu

A NEW restaurant, Palmento, is opening in Cork City’s Douglas this weekend, as one of Kinsale’s best-known restaurants, Crackpots, is for sale as a 2015 trading opportunity. Crackpots is offered as a going concern for €700,000.

Palmento, an Italian restaurant, is by Barry’s pub, in Douglas village, in the revamped, former Cashmans bookmakers building on Church Street. Palmento is a follow-on from the acclaimed, family-run, three-year-old La Tana on the city’s venerable Barrack Street. The new suburban restaurant/take-away will specialise in Neapolitan fare and fine pizzas, wines and craft beers.

Owner, Elio Tavolieri, has just shipped over an enormous ‘100% Italian’ pizza oven from Naples, which necessitated taking down the building’s front wall to get it in.

Meanwhile, trading for more than a decade, Kinsale’s Crackpots, the noted seafood restaurant, and wine and piano bar, has had a strong critical reputation, headed by owner-proprietor, Carole Norman.

The restaurant got its name from Ms Norman’s pottery, which is sold on the premises and on which food is served.

Crackpots Restaurant is at no 3 Cork Street, near the Desmond Castle and Wine Museum, as well as close to the truly ancient (1190) St Multose Church, a key Kinsale visitor attraction.

Now, in the Christmas festive time, estate agents, John Downing and Anthony Quinlan, of Downing Commercial, have floated Crackpots on the commercial market, at a bullish guide of €700,000, describing the venue as “renowned and delightful”.

Set near the bottom of Cork Street, it has 65 covers at ground-floor level, along with 20 more in a private courtyard for al fresco summer dining.

It has a fully-equipped kitchen and facilities, and overhead is a recently upgraded, 1,100 sq ft, two-bed apartment.

All-in, the building is 3,000 sq ft. Mr Quinlan says the opportunity to buy in gourmet town Kinsale, which has year-round tourism opportunities and strongly recovered property values, “will be attractive to owner-occupiers who are seeking to escape the rat race of the city and enjoy a more relaxed pace of life.

“Kinsale is world-famous for its culinary excellence and, with a number of recent sales of pubs/restaurants in the town, it is obvious that the market has a renewed appetite for this type of offering.”

The agents add that Crackpots is in a quality building, “offering potential purchasers a ready-to-go business opportunity in the heart of Kinsale”.

Details: Downing Commercial, 021-4271000.