TD 1
“It’s a happy coincidence how the whole thing cam
e together. Arran Street East had their kilns in here, which had all the electricity that we would need for the ovens, and the extraction and ventilation was already in here. So essentially, they took their ovens out and we moved ours in. We put in some tables and other bits and bobs, the floors and everything else were all here. It really seemed serendipitous. We just built a counter here, and did a little decorating there. Over here, we have the pastry room, and a cooler. No ovens, obviously, which is important for pastry. We don’t know ourselves with all this space.” It’s amazing what you’ve done with the space. How long did it take you to put all this together? The turnaround was relatively quick, and relatively easy… It all just happened off a chance conversation with Laura Magahy, the owner and founder of Arran Street East. I knew she owned this building, and she is a brilliant businesswoman, with great experience. I wanted to buy another building, further down the road, but the landlord was… I don’t know what sort of language I should use. So we had a backup plan, this other gentleman who wanted to get rid of a building, but he didn’t want to rent, and he didn’t want to sell. We would have been able to move the bakery down there, and move Oxmantown into the building, and not lose any customers. It’s always the landlords… I had been talking to Laura, asking for her advice on how she would go about doing that, and she mentioned she might have 24 something coming up for me. This would have been last November, and the folks in Arran Street East were still wrapping up here as well. So it was around April when we got keys, and then we got to work. And the bakeries are named after your young son? They are! That’s his signature. He’d written his name on the box or something. I saw it and took a picture, so we got it put up here and also in Phibsborough, and on our cups here. You’ve been involved in the artisan side of hospitality for a decade now. How have you seen things change since you opened Oxmantown in 2013? It’s wild how the industry has changed in the last number of years. The public eye toward bakeries, which have essentially become the new coffee shops, means that if your cake game isn’t on point, you won’t go far. I think we’re at a point now where everybody, everywhere would want something with this offering on their doorstep. People have gotten very into good bread. We had a pizzeria, Cotto, up in Stoneybatter, and when I was there I was trying to get a bread program together to be able to supply the Oxmantown cafes, just to provide more consistency. That’s where I suppose the grain of the idea started out. What does this unit mean for the OG Elliots? We’ll be keeping Phibsborough as it is, and seeing what happens here. With the bigger space, the hope is that we’d be able to supply Oxmantown, and we’d like to be in a posi