Cosy Café: You’d be barking mad not to visit!
Cosy Café has been praised for offering the "best breakfasts" in all of Kinsale.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but few places have proven it to be true quite as compellingly as Kinsale’s Cosy Café.
The family-run eatery has not only perfected the Full Irish, but gone one step further by nailing its vegan and vegetarian versions too — with Trip Advisor and Facebook reviews regularly praising the spot as their go-to for “Kinsale’s best breakfast”.
As well as the love and care poured into each of their dishes, what sets Cosy Café apart is their commitment to showcasing local produce. Their delicious coffee is all from Cork brand Badger & Dodo. The café’s menu, meanwhile, is seasonal — with tasty salads made from fresh greens grown in Kinsale’s Horizon Farm proving very popular during these warmer summer months, while comfort food for the harsher winter weather, such as Cosy Café’s famous seafood chowder, is made from shellfish and smoked salmon from nearby Haven Shellfish. The eggs in their beloved breakfasts are also all sourced locally, from Kinsale’s Beechwood Farm.
Best of all, is the fact that all these ingredients are prepared in the café’s open kitchen, giving customers an insight into exactly how their meal is created — the cherry on top of a true farm to fork experience!
“We offer a traditional Irish menu, all made from fresh, local produce and cooked to order. We just try to do simple things, but to do them well,” explains Sebastien Perey, Cosy Café’s owner and chef.
Sebastien takes great pride in sourcing so many of the café’s ingredients from fellow local businesses in Kinsale. Origins to be proud of are, in fact, a huge part of Cosy Café’s magic. Sebastien is originally from Switzerland while his wife Edyta, who works front of house at the café, hails from Poland.
The couple moved to Kinsale almost 17 years ago, where they’ve been raising their three children since. “Kinsale is perfect for us, especially the size of it,” says Sebastien. “It has everything you need, there’s so much to see and do here, but it’s still small enough that everyone knows each other. There’s a really nice community.”
While this sense of community made Kinsale an obvious choice for raising a family in, it also sold Sebastien on the idea of starting his business here, and moving on to a new phase in his career after nearly two decades of working as a chef.
“Before we opened Cosy Café in 2016, I’d been working as a chef for many years and I just decided it was time to take the next step and open our own place,” he reflects.
“We were already living in Kinsale, and had seen the place become our neighbourhood very quickly, when we decided to just go for it and open the café. We wanted to open a place for them — our new neighbours — that was casual and friendly, a space for everyone.”
This early vision for the café became a reality so quickly that Sebastien himself is still surprised!
“Our ‘regulars’ are all types of people — there are families, tourists, students from the school up the road. There are business people coming in for lunch meetings.. really it’s a mix of everyone in Kinsale!”
To truly be a space that everyone could enjoy, however, Sebastien knew the café had to go one step further by becoming dog-friendly. “We’re delighted to have been open to dogs since 2017. We love dogs, so once they were allowed inside the café under Irish legislation, we’ve been welcoming them in.
“A lot of our customers are very happy about it — they love their dogs and want to spend more time with them. They enjoy going out with their dogs, even just for a quick coffee, to relax without leaving the dog in the car or at home.”
Not having to leave dogs in the car is a particular relief at this time of year, when the summer heat can get quite intense. In fact, as visitors from near and far flock to Kinsale during peak tourist season, it’s not just the sunshine that can be intense!
“Kinsale is especially beautiful in the summer, with lots of people coming on holidays. It’s always a busy time of year for the café,” Sebastien shares.
Then again, every time of year is busy for a spot as popular as Cosy Café — so much so, that both Sebastien and Edyta must have a backlog of annual leave to start burning their way through!
“We’re open year-round, only closed for 10 days over the Christmas period,” Sebastien says, all with a smile that makes it clear he wouldn’t want it any other way.
Sure, with man’s best friend and the town’s best breakfast all at your disposal under one roof in the heart of Kinsale, where could you rather be?
To find out more, visit www.cosycafe.net
