Cork cafe takeover is dream come true

AUSTRALIAN-born Kate Dempsey fondly remembers the rich café culture she was surrounded by growing up.

“The local café was always a place to socialise. I remember the communal setting with everyone reading papers and relaxing – nice memories,” said Kate.

She is the new owner of Bright Side (previously Pink Moon), on Washington Street.

Her parents are Irish - mum, Pauline and dad, Brian, who hail from Dublin and Wicklow. Her brother, Ian, was also born in Ireland and the family emigrated to Australia when he was two years old, and Kate was born in Perth.

She studied accounting as a young adult and now that her college friends from Oz have seen her new business updates online, they have reached out to remind her, ‘I remember you always loved baking and you wanted to own a café one day!’

“The accounting was a progression on the path, but the end goal was always to own a café,” Kate said.

After her studies, she decided to take a gap year and move to Dublin to live with her granny, Honor. Kate got a job straight away in a café called Tang.

On her first day, the boss said, “I’m told you like to bake?”.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Go out the back and bake a cake then.”

She was allowed to bake any cake of her choice and, from the ingredients she had, she opted for a carrot cake recipe from home. From then on she was the unofficial baker of Tang.

Kate lived the gap year lifestyle for a while with plenty of European city breaks, then she decided to venture down a business path of baking.

“I always had owning my own café in mind and I was thinking of how I could bridge the gap between wanting one and owning one, so starting a small business felt appropriate.”

She began selling miniature cookies online by marketing them on Instagram and selling via a website.

“Eventually, I was really busy and sending them all over the country.”

A Twitter representative got in touch and ordered a massive batch off her at one point for their offices. The appetite for her cookies was strong.

It was around this time that Kate met her partner, David O’Connell, a Corkonian, and ultimately chose to relocate to Cork. With cookies on the brain, she immediately secured a place for herself at the local city markets.

“I thought it was best to stick to one product and do it really well!” she said.

Kate started baking batches of eight chunky cookies at a time from her home domestic oven, which entailed upwards of 10 hours of tray rotation to bake sufficient amounts for her to bring to the market. Her business, Crumb, began, and quickly gained momentum.

She also started working full-time for Pink Moon cafe on Washington Street when she first arrived in Cork, baking cookies in her off time and selling them at the markets on her days off. It was a busy period for her, but she was working towards something.

Grainne Darmody, owner of Pink Moon, was aware that Kate always wanted to own her own café, and Kate was aware that Grainne was considering moving on. Eventually, the conversation was had and Grainne asked if Kate would like to take over the premises.

“Once the conversation was had, I spoke to David and the decision was basically immediate, we said yes and the planning was in motion.”

David came on board as her business partner, and on December 21 Grainne passed the keys over to Kate and the transition began.

Kate and David spent basically every day over the Christmas break in the café remodelling, redecorating and flat out with a thousand different small jobs.

“People have come in now and asked, ‘Have you put an extension on the place?’ Just because the new white paint makes the place feel so spacious.”

Some new furniture and shelving has been added and some artwork is on the way also.

“In my mind, I envisioned the place would be perfect when I opened, but now I’m just happy it’s open and I can keep adding bits and pieces here and there.”

Sounds like Kate has made a dream come true and she can thrive in it now, continuously altering and adjusting, evolving through time and progressing it however her mind’s eye sees fit.

Bright Side’s doors are now open and the place hasn’t lost its welcoming charm at all. Many of the menu items haven’t changed and the coffee is as delicious as ever, but the breakfast menu has expanded, if someone is looking for a laid-back brekkie spot on Washington Street.

The hours are still Monday to Friday with potential for weekends at some point too.

If anyone is missing her jumbo cookies, Crumb is planning its market return too this month.