{"id":468363,"date":"2026-05-26T20:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468363\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:16:12","slug":"east-cork-bakery-opens-its-doors-after-20-years-of-dereliction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468363\/","title":{"rendered":"East Cork bakery opens its doors after 20 years of dereliction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Cottage Kitchen brings coffee, cakes and community back to Ballynoe<\/p>\n

16:43, 26 May 2026Updated 20:08, 26 May 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once the local shop, Eleanor and the community of Ballynoe brought it back to life <\/p>\n

A once-derelict village shop in Ballynoe has been transformed into a bustling new caf\u00e9 – after years of dreaming, baking and community support.<\/p>\n

Blue Cottage Kitchen officially opened its doors this week, and owner Eleanor Warnes says the response has already exceeded every expectation: \u201cIt\u2019s been amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been steady all day long from when we opened and it\u2019s still busy now. It\u2019s fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Eleanor, the launch marks the beginning of a completely new chapter after decades working as a pastry chef and baker across Ireland and abroad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The before of Blue Cottage Kitchen<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a worry when you invest so much,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBut the weather has been amazing, there are lots of people around and the support has just been incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The caf\u00e9 sits at the heart of Ballynoe village, a place Eleanor says has always had a strong sense of community despite having few local amenities left. The building itself holds deep memories for locals. Around 20 years ago, it closed as the village shop after once selling \u201ceverything\u201d, before falling into dereliction.<\/p>\n

Eleanor and her family had originally been considering another property before deciding Ballynoe was calling them back: \u201cIt\u2019s like a dream,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no stress in it. Everything just seemed to fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eleanor and daughter Molly <\/p>\n

The project became a true community effort, with local tradesmen and craftspeople rallying behind the restoration.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a huge community here,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople really wanted to see this building brought back to life. The tiler is booked out for years ahead but he still made it happen for us,\u201d Eleanor laughed. \u201cThe plasterer is in his 80s and he did the most wonderful job.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that many involved wanted to see the \u201ciconic building\u201d restored for the village itself, not just for the business.<\/p>\n

A local graphic designer, Claire, also helped shape the look and feel of the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been greatly encouraging,\u201d Eleanor said. \u201cThey believed in us, and that was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The local community rallied together to help Eleanor achieve her dream <\/p>\n

The venture has been a family affair from the start, with Eleanor crediting her husband Simon affectionately nicknamed \u201cMr Google\u201d by the family – for helping navigate the business side of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe invested everything into it,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it didn\u2019t work out, I would have gone back to what I was doing and maybe we would have turned it into apartments. But thankfully people love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the menu is focused on coffee and cakes while the team settles into the rhythm of caf\u00e9 service. Coffee is supplied by Youghal-based roasters Boardwalk Coffee, whose beans Eleanor describes as \u201cfabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The sweet treats on offer in Blue Cottage Kitchen <\/p>\n

But the long-term vision stretches far beyond coffee and sweet treats.<\/p>\n

Eleanor, who is coeliac herself, hopes to eventually turn Blue Cottage Kitchen into a destination spot for gluten-free food.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of customers are coeliac too, so I want to develop lots of recipes and food for everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to make it a destination point for coeliacs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her journey to opening the caf\u00e9 has been decades in the making.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

Originally trained as a pastry chef nearly 40 years ago, Eleanor worked in hotels in Killarney before spending several years training in Germany around the time the Berlin Wall came down. She later continued training in the Cayman Islands and England, where she met her husband before eventually returning to Cork.<\/p>\n

Back home, she converted her garage into a bakery kitchen as demand for her cakes and bakes steadily grew: \u201cPeople kept asking me to make things,\u201d she said. \u201cThen it got too small and I didn\u2019t have room anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past 12 years, she has also run a popular stall near her home, giving locals a taste of what would eventually become Blue Cottage Kitchen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eleanor in her new kitchen at Blue Cottage Kitchen<\/p>\n

Now, after years of building the business from her small kitchen, Eleanor says she still hasn\u2019t fully processed what has happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even recognise it yet because I\u2019ve been so busy,\u201d she said. \u201cI think when I take some time off this weekend it will finally hit me. It\u2019s a mad idea opening a caf\u00e9 in the middle of nowhere but the people here believed in us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Cottage Kitchen brings coffee, cakes and community back to Ballynoe 16:43, 26 May 2026Updated 20:08, 26 May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43164,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-468363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-east-cork","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}