![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5133753_5_articleinlinemobile_IMG_0450.jpeg.jpg\" "\\"Blue")
Blue Cottage Kitchen in Ballynoe<\/p>\nIt takes a village to raise a child – and it takes a village to raise a business.<\/p>\n
When Eleanor Warnes wanted to open a caf\u00e9 in her home village of Ballynoe, she called on the local community to chip in.<\/p>\n
The result is the recently-opened Blue Cottage Kitchen in East Cork, in the premises of what was once the village shop.<\/p>\n
When I arrive on a summer\u2019s morning, it is beautifully decorated, bright and spacious.<\/p>\n
Mum of three Eleanor doesn\u2019t believe in doing things by halves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m up at 5am every morning!\u201d she says. \u201cI get great satisfaction from making people happy. I bake 60 scones every morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tells me about the teamwork that helped her achieve her dream.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAll the local people rowed in and got behind us with the renovation and decorating work,\u201d says Eleanor.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThe painter, the tiler, the graphic design artist, were all local.\u201d<\/p>\n
She supports local as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe brew Boardwalk Coffee from Youghal,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cAnd I try and use as much local produce as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleanor is very appreciative of all the help. \u201cMy brother, Edward, did all the heavy lifting. Pat, the gardener, was a great help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone who rowed in was part of the community where Eleanor and her nine siblings had grown up – she spent years living in various parts of the world before coming back to Ballynoe to settle down with her husband Simon and their family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fabulous,\u201d says Eleanor of the renovation. \u201cReally, it went seamlessly and was stress-free. Meeting people I knew years ago and meeting new people was just brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teamwork ethos extends to the staff in Blue Cottage Kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a great team here working with me,\u201d says Eleanor, who travelled extensively around the world when she left school after doing her Leaving Cert.<\/p>\n
Among the staff is her son, Billy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was at a bit of a loss as to know what career path to take. A lot of this is for him,\u201d says Eleanor.<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 is also a tribute to her late sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were ten of us in the family,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cMy younger sister, Julianne, passed away in November, 2024. We were very close. This was for her too. We bought a scrap of land just across the side street outside as well as this premises. That is going to be a memorial community garden dedicated to Julianne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleanor and her siblings lost their father when she was nine years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was hard on mum and hard on us,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cWe were brought up on the farm with good healthy food. Mum was a great woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleanor went to school in Fermoy. It didn\u2019t sit well with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not academic at all,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cI lived in the clouds!\u201d<\/p>\n
Her life changed when she landed her first job in a deli in Fermoy when she was 19. From there, she went to Killarney for hotel work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved it,\u201d she says. \u201cI loved the whole process of cooking, baking, testing, eating!\u201d<\/p>\n
Working in a restaurant in Germany gave her taste buds other elements for the trade she would work in for over four decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. I learned to speak German. In the restaurant, the owners made their own wines, dressings, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleanor came back to Ireland briefly, which was then in recession, before she headed for the Caymen Islands. That location must have been exotic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was, for sure,\u201d says Eleanor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy flight was paid for through the company. I was cheffing, preparing and cooking a lot of shellfish.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI lived on a resort and there were lots of nationalities working there as well as the natives,\u201d says Eleanor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned how to dive! The Irish Catering Federation had a strong connection with the Cayman Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Big Smoke then beckoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took off to the UK where I worked in a hospital,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cAnd I bought a house in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hospital was where I got into pastry cheffing. I made huge batches of pastry every day, really large amounts, and I fed up to 400 to 500 people a day. A lot of cooking!<\/p>\n
Romance was brewing too. It was a slow burner.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friend Tracey, with matchmaking in mind, had been trying to get her friend Simon and I to meet up for two years!\u201d says Eleanor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got together on his 30th birthday. We got married and have three children, Molly, Billy, and Issy. \u201cWe\u2019ve never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Simon a chef too?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, he\u2019s into tech. Microsoft, then Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon has another name. \u201cMr Google!\u201d says Eleanor laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were renovating the derelict building here in Ballynoe that had been idle for 20 years, Simon was wonderful being hands on and offering support and advice, seeing the project through with me. We had a dream and we made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have their dream cottage too.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we did up the cottage when we came back to Ballynoe,\u201d Eleanor says. \u201cIzzie was six months old when we bought the cottage. We like projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
They like travelling too.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe lived in the USA from 2011 for five or six years. It was interesting.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Working as a pastry chef and baker for over four decades across Ireland and abroad, Eleanor always adds that special ingredient to her baking.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of love goes into it!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
What else makes for a light fluffy sponge cake or a light flaky pastry?<\/p>\n
\u201cPatience, and doing it with ease,\u201d says Eleanor.<\/p>\n
She was always hands-on, and when she returned to Ballynoe, she set to work on her passion from the family\u2019s cottage.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy garage was my kitchen attached to the cottage,\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cI baked all kinds of cakes, for occasions, for events, for weddings and for funerals. I had a market stall outside my gate. I sold my home-made jams and chutneys, giving people a taste of what I do, and I sold cake by the slice. It was a great experience, and I got a lot of orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Cottage Kitchen in Ballynoe<\/p>\n
She then decided to open the caf\u00e9 because, in her words, \u201cI got itchy!\u201d<\/p>\n
Now she has her own little slice of heaven. With her natural gift of being a people-person, Eleanor greets all her customers by name. The walls of the caf\u00e9 display artwork by talented local artists and schoolchildren.<\/p>\n
Kerry, another vital part of the team, works here, and her home-made scented candles are on display alongside Eleanor\u2019s fruity preserves and sweetmeats.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome into the kitchen,\u201d says Eleanor. There I meet other members of the team, Sinead and Cathal.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinead is my right-hand woman,\u201d says Eleanor.<\/p>\n
Back inside the caf\u00e9, I look around at the tables where friends are chatting and teens are laughing together. A man at one table calls out to Eleanor to say his morning scone and home-made jam make his day<\/p>\n
There is nobody on their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t it wonderful?\u201d says Eleanor. \u201cPeople are meeting up, catching up, and enjoying a coffee break outside in the sun. Fabulous!\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside, in the patio area, Eleanor\u2019s herbs will grow along the borders of the square.<\/p>\n
She is full of plans. \u201cI\u2019m going to be doing Airbnb upstairs, letting three bedrooms out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there enough time in the day for this industrious lady?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It takes a village to raise a child – and it takes a village to raise a business.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,24941,4257,426,61,60],"class_list":["post-527098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cafe","tag-cork-business","tag-food","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527098","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=527098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}