Yet another Cork restaurant is shutting its doors as bosses say ‘profits are non-existent’ due to rising costs and years of changes and hard work have ‘taken their toll.’
The team at the popular West-Café & Wine Bar in Bantry will serve their last cuppas on Tuesday, 28 January after announcing they would be closing their doors for good last night. Owners Chris Heinhold and Emer Kelly say they will keep the regular opening hours up until their final day, and are urging all their regulars to ‘call in for one last treat’ before they bring things to a close.
The venue first opened the Tabletop cafe in Cork City in 2019 not long before the Covid crisis which shut-down the hospitality sector. When the pandemic restrictions finally ended, they decided to head west to Bantry and worked hard to build up a large and loyal following.
However, in a message to their customers today, the owners said: “It is with an incredibly heavy heart that we share the news that West will be closing its doors for the last time on Tuesday, Janurary 28th.”
‘We have had the most wonderful time, working with the best people, and getting to know our lovely locals, many of whom are now good friends. But it’s time to bring things to a close.
We opened West in time for Covid. With the first lockdown, our cafe in Cork City immediately closed and we made the decision to focus our attention on Bantry coming out of it. Years of ducking and diving, changing menus and becoming a shop / off-license / garden bar /takeaway / whatever we needed to be, took its toll.
“Unfortunately, we have been carrying the fallout from all of that, keeping the business running while dealing with the legacy debt and the energy crisis. We’ve come to a point where it can’t continue.”
If it wasn’t for our amazing colleagues behind the bar and in the kitchen we would not have come this far. They’ve been incredible to work with as we’ve moved (literally), pivoted and changed the business to keep things going. They are more than staff, they’re our friends, and they are the best at what they do.
The hospitality business is in our blood, but it’s a very different business today than even when we opened TabletopCork 7 years ago. Margins, always tight in our industry, are non-existent today, and with supplier prices changing constantly it is incredibly difficult to keep producing a high quality product at a reasonable price. Shocks, such as the recent cold weather, take an enormous toll. We love what we do, and this decision has not been taken lightly.”
They are the second well-known cafe business to announce their closure today – earlier – CorkBeo reported on how the Kabin Cafes in Ballincollig and Ballinhassig are to close very shortly, the latest in what has been a very difficult start to 2025 for the sector in the south west.