Cork businessman: 'I wanted a Marbella beach vibe at my café by the sea'

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside, especially when the weather is good and the living is easy.

However, Cork man Bill Pedder’s latest venture by the coast is attracting people in all weathers.

“We are always busy, even on rainy days!” says Bill of Soulmates, a café, wine bar, and bakery he has opened up just over the Waterford border, on the main street of scenic Ardmore.

The business is an accompaniment to Bill’s already thriving Shipmates business, which opened in Ardmore 14 years ago as a takeaway. The Cork man also runs Five Roads, a take-away in Ladysbridge, which opened pre-covid, and he operates a mobile coffee truck, as well as hosting outdoor parties and functions.

His new premises, Soulmates, also has a sauna in the garden and Bill explains: “I wanted the Marbella beach vibe.

“The bakery, the coffee, the wine bar, the dining area, the outdoor seating area and the sea sauna experience out in the garden lends itself to that holiday beachy atmosphere,” says Bill. “We roast the pig on the spit.”

The smell of baking permeates the salty sea air.

Bill always appreciated his Nan’s baking.

“She baked lovely scones!” says Bill. “As a kid I can remember her homely kitchen and the lovely aromas coming from it when you went inside the front door. It always felt so good.”

Bill got the culinary genes and the grá for cooking.

“I worked in Burgess outside Killeagh when I was 14. Kathleen Fitzgerald was the chef there. She was a lovely lady.”

He joined the army as a gunner aged 23 and served with the Irish army in Kosovo and at other war zones overseas.

“I did a couple of tours with the army before taking time out to go cheffing again,” says Bill. “I will say that the army straightened me out! I learned a lot.”

He liked cheffing in the officers’ mess at Collins Barracks in Cork, and during a stint abroad with the army.

“I learned how to improvise using short rations,” says Bill. “I could feed 400 to 500 people a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner!”

No mean feat?

“No, but the kitchen was a change of scenery and I really liked it,” says Bill.

“When I took a year of absence from serving overseas, I ran Murph’s in East Ferry for a year.”

He learned more.

“I learned from any mistakes! It was my first attempt at business, and it was also the year of the ‘Beast from the East’. There were very bad storms that year.”

Bill served his time in the best of kitchens.

“I worked in Ballymaloe learning about the produce grown in the garden to use in the kitchen. Finin’s in Midleton was also a great stomping ground for cheffing.”

Bill eventually wanted his own stomping ground.

“I was passionate about my ambition,” he says. “I was all in. When the opportunity came to open Shipmates, I went for it.”

Was he a sole operator?

“I was half-single!” says Bill laughing. “I have 17 staff working in Shipmates. It took off from the start.”

He took the road to Ladysbridge and opened Five Roads five years ago.

“I was driving through the village and saw the empty premises after Tasty Bites left. I rang my friend Roger Harty in Cloyne who owned it.”

What was the plan?

“I wanted to open an upmarket takeaway serving restaurant food,” says Bill.

“Gourmet burgers, fresh fish and chips, pulled pork, brisket of beef, as well as breakfast rolls and good coffee.

“I revamped the interior and Billy Aherne, who is my friend, and who is an experienced top-class chef, is my head chef there.”

Bill and his head chef Billy are on the road a lot catering for outdoor events.

“It is a busy operation,” says Bill. “I think outdoor dining became even more popular during covid. We do a lot of birthdays at people’s own homes.”

Then Soulmates on Main Street in Ardmore became available.

“It was previously a coffee shop,” says Bill. “Owned by Bill Perks, he was happy to lease the premises to me and helped with the drawings and architecture.”

They already had a connection.

“I gave Bill’s daughter Hannah her first job in Shipmates!”

Bill had help from his soulmates.

“My managers Romeo Silverman, from Nice, France, and Lauren Fitzgerald, from Youghal, helped me to revamp it and give Soulmates the beachy relaxed vibe. They are both very artistic people and are both great workers.”

How did Bill create all these successful enterprises?

“I stayed single!” he jokes. “Seriously, there was a lot of hours and a lot of investment involved. You need the passion, the drive, and the power.

“Having the health and the wherewithal to manage all the elements of business and being hands-on in the business is hugely important.”

There is another important element.

“Getting in two or three good staff at the beginning; the pattern evolves from there. The staff follow my lead.”

Romeo likes his role as manager.

“It is my first big boy job!” he says.

“I love the place and the people,” Lauren adds.

“Romeo and Lauren were here with me when the garden was still a bog and the concrete outside was still setting,” says Bill. “It wasn’t exactly paradise!”

But it had potential.

Now Daniel Callaghan, from Midleton, is in his own piece of paradise out in the garden, taking care of souls by the sea at the sauna.

“People come from the Cliff House in Ardmore, they come up from the beach,” says Daniel, who has created a little piece of heaven in close proximity to the sandy beach.

Everyone likes the ‘Marbella’ vibe.

“Walkers use the sauna. Sometimes, after a sea swim and a circuit on the beach, we have a yoga session and coffee from the truck on the decking.

“The plan is to have access to the sauna via a pathway from the beach. The plans are in the offing.”

Why does Daniel think that the sauna experience in the back garden of Soulmates has proved so popular.

“Whether you come alone or with friends, the goal is simple,” says Daniel. “Everyone feels better than when they arrive.”

Sharing a freshly brewed coffee and home-made scone in the garden with Bill and Daniel, getting the feelgood drift, I can well imagine that I am in paradise or in Marbella despite the Irish wet mist.

Bill doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet.

“There are plans afoot to make the bakery premises here out back join up with the main restaurant so that it’s all one. It will happen.”

Bill, 45, an entrepreneur with his crew on board and his soulmates on board, has already made great things happen.

“Come back for a cold plunge,” says Daniel on my departure.

Indeed, I will. It’s just a matter of dusting down the bikini.

Good for the body and the soul!