Cork's newest café 'a dream come true' for young owners

Cork’s newest café has been described as “a dream come true” by the young couple who opened their doors for the first time at the weekend.

“All of my life, I wanted to open a coffee shop, and now we are open for business, so it is a dream come true,” said Dennis Turcanu, who is running Kora, in Sunday’s Well, with his girlfriend, Ioana Zloghin.

Ioana said some local residents had told her they used to gather there every Wednesday for coffee and cakes in times past, and now they can’t wait to revive that tradition.

Kora has opened at 85a Sunday’s Well Rd, in the Old Post Office building, next door to what locals hope will remain the current post office.

For several years, the building was home to Vikki’s Tapas and Wine Bar, a multi-award-winning restaurant which featured in Lucinda O’Sullivan’s Black Book of Great Places to Eat in Ireland.

In 2023, Vikki’s changed hands, and the property became for a while to Tugas, a Portuguese tapas restaurant, but the business never thrived, and it closed in 2024, briefly reopening in 2025 as Farol Tapas Bar, before shutting its doors again last December.

Denis and Ioana said they moved to Ireland from their home in Moldova six years ago and they had hoped to open a coffee shop for a long time.

“We had not been lucky in finding a place for a long time, but when we got this place we were so, so happy,” Ioana said.

“We still can’t believe it. Saturday was such a nice day, we really did not expect to have so many people here for our opening day, but everybody was so kind, they really made us feel very welcome.” 

Denis said that local people had said they were delighted to see that the café will serve sandwiches, pastries and cakes.

“They said they were really happy because there was no place local they could go for a coffee for a long time,” he said.

They added that they intend to open the premises upstairs garden once they are established.

The new café is good news for Sunday’s Well, where the future for Kora’s neighbouring post office is currently looking uncertain, with An Post saying it is hoping to find a new postmaster to keep the service going.