{"id":509639,"date":"2026-06-20T13:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509639\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T13:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:20:25","slug":"highly-anticipated-new-cafe-from-pilgrims-owners-opens-in-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509639\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly anticipated new caf\u00e9 from Pilgrim’s owners opens in Leap"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NEW culinary venture from the couple behind Pilgrim\u2019s restaurant in Rosscarbery opened its doors this week.<\/p>\n

Harnen is Leap\u2019s newest caf\u00e9, deli and provisions shop, run by Mark Jennings and Sadie Pearce.<\/p>\n

The first week has been busy, according to Mark.<\/p>\n

There have been queues out the door, with locals looking to try a taste of Harnen\u2019s freshly baked goods.<\/p>\n

\u2018We haven\u2019t caught our breath yet!\u2019 Mark said.<\/p>\n

The pair are delighted with the support the business has received.<\/p>\n

\u2018Being met with such warmth and support, and just the amount of people coming out has just been amazing,\u2019 said Sadie.<\/p>\n

The establishment has already been visited by food guides John and Sally McKenna, who described it as \u2018world-class\u2019 on their Substack blog.<\/p>\n

The building on the main road in Leap once housed a second hand and antique store and came up for sale while the couple were still running Pilgrim\u2019s in Rosscarbery.<\/p>\n

\u2018When it did come to sale, it popped up a few months before we knew that our lease was ending in Pilgrims\u2019 said Sadie. \u2018So, it was almost serendipitous that it came up on our radar.\u2019<\/p>\n

That was over three years ago, so Harnen has been a long time in the making.<\/p>\n

The remodel from an antique store to a caf\u00e9 with a bakery kitchen has taken around 10 months.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> The building in Leap before the remodel<\/p>\n

By the time I arrive to chat with Mark and Sadie in the afternoon, the pastries and treats have already sold out, but Stone Valley coffee is still being served.<\/p>\n

The transition from an evening-hours, sit-down restaurant to an early morning start in the caf\u00e9 has been quite a change for Mark and Sadie, but one that felt natural with the progression of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve worked in hospitality since I was a young teenager, and have always done nights,\u2019 Mark said.<\/p>\n

\u2018After, when you have two small kids, you pretty quickly realize that working until 2:00 a.m. isn’t very conducive to healthy family life. So, we knew when we were shutting Pilgrims, we wanted to try a day operation.\u2019<\/p>\n

I asked if the couple have experienced any challenges in their first week in operation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Managing a crowd!\u2019 Sadie laughed.<\/p>\n

\u2018it’s not McDonald’s, it’s not fast food, it’s a slow food, So, it will take slower, because we’re not a chain.<\/p>\n

\u2018We’re people-led and we’re, you know, we want to give everyone a smile and say hello, so it will take a bit longer\u2019<\/p>\n

Everything is made in house, from the cinnamon buns to the apple turnovers.<\/p>\n

Harnen is using striving to use only Irish flour, and always organic and stone-ground flour, which Mark explained is double the price of the highly processed flour most commonly used in baking<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s better for the gut,\u2019 Sadie added.<\/p>\n

\u2018We’re coming from a health point as well. It’s not bleached white flour, it’s organic, it’s better for your body, it’s got more nutritional content.\u2019<\/p>\n

The name \u2018Harnen\u2019 comes from a piece of baking apparatus that was used in pre-industrial Ireland, although it took the owners a little while to find the perfect name for the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u2018For us, it like was having to name a child again,\u2019 said Sadie. \u2018We found it incredibly hard to name the business.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sadie\u2019s dad\u2019s partner Pat was a great collector of Irish artefacts, including harnens, and since the couple already planned to hang the harnens on the shop walls, they realized its ethos perfectly matched their mission to promote Irish food history, and decided to name the business after it.<\/p>\n

Harnen is open Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 3.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NEW culinary venture from the couple behind Pilgrim\u2019s restaurant in Rosscarbery opened its doors this week. Harnen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-509639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509639","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=509639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}