Retail Sales: The owner of cult epicurean store, Donnybrook Fair on Morehampton Road, Dublin 4, has bought Murphy's newsagent and delicatessen on 13 Upper Baggot Street in a private sale for an undisclosed amount, believed to be in the region of €4 million. Edel Morgan reports.
Joe Doyle acquired the four-storey building - which has a 186 sq m (2,000 sq ft) retail premises currently operating as a newsagent, convenience store with a food counter and a post office - from its owner, businessman Fred Murphy.
He says he will leave the premises as it is now while "deciding that to do", but says it is likely to be transformed into a gourmet convenience store similar to Donnybrook Fair.
Doyle bought Donnybrook Fair 14 years ago but turned it into a boutique style convenience store in 2000 by expanding into Quinlan's cake shop next door, which he had acquired three years earlier.
After researching top food stores in Paris, London and New York, including Zabars in Manhattan and The Villandry on Great Portland Street, London, he embarked on a €3 million revamp of Donnybrook Fair, installing an in-store deli stocked with home-cooked produce and an off licence as well as a patisserie, sandwich bar and hot and cold food bar and fresh meat counter. Murphys newsagent is likely to get a Donnybrook Fair-style overhaul.
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