Bedrock Cafe Belturbet celebrates 20 years in business

The first thing noticed upon entering Belturbet’s Bedrock Café is the hospitable and bubbly welcome. It’s as warm and hearty as the savoury fare being served, and it has been this way ever since sisters Ann O’Reilly and Angela Fitzpatrick opened the doors at the Erne Hill Shopping Centre 20 years ago.

“We’ve gone through good times, not so good times, and now we’re in the now times. People do often ask me ‘how’s business?’ or ‘how was business during Covid?’ But we move on, and this is where we are now,” explains Ann.

“We take things one day at a time, then one week at a time. It’s been that way from the start. Soon you find a year has gone by, and now we’re approaching 20. It’s hard to believe, but incredible when you think about it really.”

The come-what-may attitude, and pragmatic approach, centred on a belief that challenges can be overcome, has being a mainstay behind the scenes at Bedrock Café.

Humble beginnings

Ann and Angela took over the running of the business on October 22, 2002.

Days earlier Irish voters had accepted the Treaty of Nice in the second Referendum on the issue, while in the news, Canadian author Yann Martel scored the prestigious Booker Prize for his quirky fable ‘Life of Pi’ that, ironically carries the moral of Life that humans have the ability and right to imagine a better world for themselves. A light, intermittent rain fell outside, but this didn’t dampen spirits inside. It certainly didn’t deter the steady stream of customers coming through the door.

Neither Ann nor Angela had been self-employed before. Ann had worked in the Drumlane Bar in Milltown, and Angela at the Bedrock under its previous owner, who initially wanted the siblings to take over both the Belturbet business and another similar outlet in Blacklion also.

The sisters though remained steadfast in their resolve. As Ann says, it was important to hit the ground running. “Do one thing, and do it right!”

‘Basics’

“All we had was the basics, and we said to Pádraig [Donohoe, owner of the Ernehill Shopping Centre] and to our families we’d give it our best. What had we to lose? Everything was here. So we just started on day one and have kept going.”

During the boom years, primary custom was a steady stream of builders and construction workers, hungry for their elevenses after a busy morning’s toil. That kept things ticking over nicely until the economy went bust. Fortuitously, construction had begun on the Belturbet N3 by-pass and this, in turn, helped steady the ship.

Throughout it all, Ann and Angela praise the kindness and support shown by the Donohoe family. “Pádraig [Donohoe] was so good to us. We didn’t know what might happen when we first started but he stood by us down through the years - through the good and not so good. We’ll never say bad.”

Sourced locally

Central to Bedrock’s success is how Ann and Angela have never lost sight of the small things. The basis of that pursuit had allowed the local eatery blossom into the hallmark of true excellence it continues to be today.

Dishes are prepared using the finest ingredients, prepared fresh on the premises each day. Meats, beef, chicken and pork products are 100% Irish and sourced locally.

“Our suppliers, we’ve had them the last 20 years. We haven’t chopped and changed. All local. Sheelin Meats, Brian Cunningham, Prior’s, Kevin Fay, Strathroy Milk. We’ve stood by them and they’ve stood by us.”

What’s on the menu?

Trademark fare has always been their mouth-watering breakfasts, with mounds of hot buttery toast on the side, and lashings of hot tea and tasty coffee.

The restaurant boasts an extensive starter menu, and a wide selection of healthy and wholesome, delicious high-quality traditional style home-cooked mains to match.

They also serve a wide variety of hot and cold drinks, snacks, cakes and sweets, enough to tantalise any sweet tooth.

If anything has changed over the past 20 years, it is how food allergies or intolerances have become more commonplace. The Bedrock Café has stepped up to the mark in that regard, happily offering customers with certain requirements a full range of alternative options, and are always ready to adapt.

Traditional

Like anything that has lasted decades in the passing, Bedrock has become a firm fixture in the lives of many, whether from Belturbet, the surrounding areas, or even further afield.

Open six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4:45pm, new business often comes as a result of “word of mouth”.

The café can, and often is, a social outlet for some. “We have people come in here, who maybe live on their own, to call in for their dinner and a chit chat,” says Ann. “They might sit on their own or in with someone else. It might be their only interaction for the day, but it is important they’re recognised, that they’re made feel welcome.”

The Bedrock has, by virtue of its location formerly along the N3, become tradition too on match days, or for families breaking-up a long journey. “We’ve had the same people coming to us, some who’ve been with us since the very first day we opened,” Ann tells the Celt.

So familiar are Ann and Angela with their customers, that often it’ll require only putting the person’s name on the tab being sent back to the kitchen for the chef to know “they want extra beans, no pudding. Or no turnip, gravy on the side. Some of them will just give you the nod, as if to say ‘my usual’.

“We’ve customers that’ll come in off the by-pass especially for us. I mightn’t know their first names, but I’ve a great memory for faces. Footballers and their fans, golfers heading for the Slieve Russell for other places, people going on holiday to Donegal or maybe to Enniskillen. They make a point of calling by and we love seeing them, time after time.”

Angela bumps through the swing doors separating the restaurant main floor from the kitchen. She pulls up a chair and soon she too soon begins to wax lyrical about how much the sisters enjoy engaging with their customers daily.

“We’re just so appreciative of their support. So, so much. We’ve families who began coming here with their children, and now they’ve grown up and starting to come with their kids. It’s lovely to see, and amazing how the years move on,” says Angela.

“Everyone who comes in, whether it’s a farmer, or a family, a builder or broker, couples on the way to a wedding, or gang of lads off to the match, everyone gets treated the same. Everyone customer is important to us.”

‘Backbone’

Behind every great restaurant is an amazing team. Another sister, Geraldine, “the youngest”, also works at the Bedrock with Ann and Angela. Hugh O’Reilly the chef meanwhile came to cover maternity leave 10 years ago and is still there.

All of the staff at Bedrock has been there several years or more, and these are supplemented by local school and college-going girls - Kayleigh Brady, Aine Mc Kiernan and Saorise Smith who make up the numbers at weekends, or busy holiday periods.

Not including Ann and Angela, Bedrock employs as many seven dedicated staff members on a part and full-time basis.

“We’ve had the same staff, and they’re all local people. We’ve five on every day, and seven on a Saturdays, and they’re all needed. We’re truly blessed with our staff. They really are our backbone. They’ve stuck with us, and we really are delighted to have them working with us,” says Ann.

Fresh start

Covid, and the brief enforced closure, gave Ann and Angela an opportunity to revamp the Bedrock. They retiled and painted the premises throughout. Instead of a tentative reopening, it became a refreshing restart.

“It was a great opportunity in one way to get those kind of jobs done. Turn a negative into a positive,” smiles Ann.

The Bedrock also bought in an indulgent fully equipped ice cream bar, boasting everything from an array of eye-catching sprinkles to a wonderful selection of luxuriously sticky sauces.

It is, Ann admits, her “baby”, and was inspired by being on family days out. “I said gosh! Maybe we’ll look into it. It was expensive, but it has been worth it. The families come by with their kids, it’s their treat on a Saturday, and you should see the smiles as they’re walking away.”

‘Blessed’

Belturbet, as a whole, Ann reflects, is a town now growing in “confidence”. Recovering from the knock that the bypass posed, in recent years there has been plenty of new investment, and more businesses added too.

“It’s a town growing in confidence, and it’s great to see that happening. Even out here on Erne Hill, for years there we were the last unit, but we got a beautician in next door, a printer, Mark [Lawlor] is there, and now a gymnastics studio has opened up. It all adds to the feel of a town and brings new life to a place.”

Ann laughs as she repeats a motto last told The Anglo-Celt when the Bedrock Café were interviewed for a feature celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2012.

“Good food at a good price. I mean, we’re never going to be millionaires, but we’re fit to pay the bills and we’re happy in what we’re doing. Isn’t that a great position to be in given all that’s happened? There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t look forward to coming into work. There aren’t many people who can say that. It’s the stories you hear, the people you meet. Hopefully we’ll be here for a few more years. Things are going well, and I feel we’re just blessed. Blessed for where we are, not far from home, in a great town, with a wonderful community around us.”