Dukes Coffee Company

Dukes has become something of a Cork city institution, serving coffee and casual food in their branch on Carey’s Lane for well over a decade. In an age when there are so many chain restaurants entering the market, it’s a delight to see a local place serviced by local suppliers. Buy a chicken wrap here, and the chicken comes from Tim Mulcahy of the Chicken Inn, in Cork’s English Market. Their ploughman’s uses Carrigaline cheese from East Cork. Children love their stuffed baked potatoes, and Dukes is especially welcoming for families.

Cool Cork local knowledge, however, is in finding their little corner, upstairs in the Golden Discs store, on Patrick Street, just around the corner from the Carey’s Lane cafe. This is where their seriousness about coffee is truly on show. Grab a corner booth upstairs in the vinyl section that sells the day’s brew – using beans from Cork’s starry cast of classy coffee roasters, including West Cork Coffee, Golden Bean and Badger and Dodo. You can choose to buy one of the Brewista Smart reusable mugs. Sit in one of the two brown leather sofas plonked in the middle of the vinyl section, or sit at the window and watch the comings and goings of Patrick Street, listening to the cool sounds played over the sound system.

There is a third branch of Dukes outside he city centre, in Mahon, with a large plaza, where they host summer barbecues.