With an operator chosen, councillors wonder when the – next – launch of tearoom in Palmerston Park will be

Fine Gael Councillor David Coffey sounded more than a bit confused.

He had submitted a motion for Monday’s South East Area Committee meeting, asking when Dublin City Council would grant a licence for the new tearoom in Palmerston Park.

But before the local councillors were supposed to discuss their motions, the granting of that very licence was listed on the meeting’s agenda.

“We need to approve it,” Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey said, not looking overly impressed.

Somewhat bemused, Coffey threw his hands up. “Well,” he said. “I would like to see a licence granted in Palmerston Park for a tearoom?”

There was a pause. Then, the chamber moved on, and agreed to grant a 10-year license to the provider, Coffee Crowd Limited.

It seemed a bit crazy that the council had been negotiating an agreement with an operator until now, said Lacey, at the 9 June committee meeting.  

Given that the tearoom was – sort of –  launched last November, Lacey said. “These are the sorts of things that should be done in parallel.”

The tearoom had been launched by Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan, who was then Lord Mayor, on 21 November, eight days before the general election, shows his Instagram page.

“What an exciting day,” says Geoghegan in the video. The footage scans an almost empty space and a countertop with cups, coffee dispensers and jugs of milk. And later, “so exciting to see it opened here today”.

But not a drop of coffee or tea has been served to the public there yet.

A council spokesperson said on Tuesday that works had been completed substantially between late last autumn and early winter, at which stage the process to market the property was initiated.

But, though the whole process has taken longer than anticipated, the terms have been agreed with the preferred operator, they said.

The council still doesn’t have a timeframe for when Coffee Crowd Ltd will open the facility up, the spokesperson said, but they “hope to have the operator in situ as soon as possible”.

It’s a step in the right direction but it would’ve been good to have this open in the summer, said Green Party Councillor Carolyn Moore on Tuesday. 

“To have a new facility like that open close to Christmas, a year after it was officially launched, it does seem like a wasted opportunity,” she said.

Overall, and despite the delays, Lacey said on Tuesday, this is good news. “This is the development of a new cafe, new toilet facilities in a public park.”

Something definitely was launched last year

Councillors approved a Part 8 planning application by the council’s Culture, Recreation and Economic Services Department to redevelop the 1970s park depot as a tearoom in June 2022.

Costs rose. Unforeseen structural issues added about €30,000, according to documents released by the council to journalist Ken Foxe on 27 March.

The eventual cost of conversion came to almost €683,000, an increase of nearly €127,000 on top of the contract amount of €556,000, those documents show.

On Tuesday afternoon, the bright interior of the cafe remained empty, and the steel green gates in front of the automatic doors remained locked.

At the meeting on 9 June, councillors in the South East Area Committee were provided with the terms of the council’s 10-year lease grant to Coffee Works Ltd.

Coffee Crowd Ltd is a small company, which manages a small chain of cafes, Copper + Straw Speciality Coffee in Wicklow and Dublin, according to its website.

As part of the lease agreement, the council will charge €34,000 per year in rent, albeit with a reduced rate in the first three years.

Under this agreement, Coffee Crowd will also be responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the toilets, with these being for both the use of customers and the general public.

Elsewhere with other operators, the council has struck agreements for public use of cafe toilets on paper but that access was not clear to passersby.

In any case, Coffee Crowd is also expected to ensure that their packaging is sustainable, and aim to eliminate the use of single use-plastics, according to the agreement.

No coffee for Coffey just yet

But, while this was a step forward for the as-yet unused tearoom, there is still no clear timeline for its next official opening.

The terms of the lease have to be voted on at the next full council meeting – which is July.

There was the big “hoo haa” when it was launched by the then Lord Mayor, James Geoghegan, back in November, but when is it actually going to be open? asked Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu. “We’re talking about after Christmas?”

There was that launch alright last year, Lacey said. “But I’m not too sure if it was the launch of the tearooms. It might’ve been the launch of something else.”

Cathy Cassidy, a senior council staff officer in planning and property, said that after the full council approves the terms in July, the lease will be brought to her department.

Then it goes straight to the council’s legal team, who contact the company to sign the lease, she said. “But since it is a 10-year lease, there’ll be a little more legal work involved in it.”

Cassidy said she couldn’t say how long it would take the solicitors to negotiate this.

It’s an absurd process, Lacey said. “The system is just daft. Absolutely daft.”

The committee approved the terms, and Lacey said he looked forward to a proper opening “by some Lord Mayor somewhere in the next four years”.