For €2m, busy Bantry restaurant and bar may be a snug fit for buyers

Snug Bar and restaurant Bantry.

ONE of West Cork’s busiest restaurant/bars, The Snug in Bantry, is for sale with a very strong turnover and daily ‘covers’ of as much as 400 and 500 meals a day underpinning a substantial asking price of €2m.

The proposed sale of The Snug comes as owner and chef Maurice O’Donovan retires after 34 years in the business. It bookends an over 45-year hospitality career that started with Cert at age 15, and later working in Galway’s Tavern on Eyre Square, the GSH Rosslare and Switzerland, before taking on The Snug in 1991 and building a substantial trade and top reputation.

Mr O’Donovan said: “300 covers in a day would be considered a quiet one.”

The Goleen, West Cork native later amalgamated a second Bantry property into his thriving business at the expanded Snug, which he operated with his wife and front of house partner Colette for a number of years.

“I was happiest out of sight in the kitchen,” Mr O’Donovan said this week, ahead of an October 26 official closing — adding that Colette (nee Gleeson) had passed away in 2017.

At busy times, The Snug employed 14 to 20 staff, and while the decision to sell was a hard one, after “an incredible journey”, it was time to embrace retirement, he added.

It’s understood offers from others in the sector, both locally and nationally, to lease and take over The Snug have been made but the preference is to sell for a clean break. The Snug is now for sale with estate agent Sam Kingston of Casey & Kingston, who says it is turnkey, in immaculate condition, fully certified, and in a high- profile setting near the bay, square, and quays in the heart of the West Cork town.

The 5,500sq ft set of buildings has a ground-floor restaurant and bar, a first-floor restaurant with seating for 30, and outdoor seating for 62, along with scope for two upper-floor apartments.

The sale offer comes after the famed O’Connors Seafood Restaurant went to market in Bantry last year with a €825,000 AMV, now understood to be reduced to €695,000 with Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill. While interest had been shown for non-food uses, it is understood that current interest is to reopen it for hospitality.

Mr O’Donovan said Bantry had a dwindling number of pubs and restaurants, down from a heyday of 50, many years ago, and said his business was now predominantly food driven specialising in seafood — with a range of other support dishes for local and tourism trade.

Stating that the trade at The Snug is exceptional, agent Sam Kingston said the restaurant/bar “offers a cozy, inviting atmosphere with rustic charm and modern amenities, making it an ideal opportunity for aspiring publicans or hospitality investors.”

Meanwhile, the same agent is also selling the former suburban Cork City bar The Outpost in Bishopstown as a development opportunity for long-time owners Desmond family.

No longer trading, The Outpost is guiding at €975,000 on a quarter acre site.

DETAILS: Casey & Kingston 021-4271127