CAFE CULTURE: Another little outpost of Ireland has pitched up in New York, and this time it's of the chocolate and coffee variety
‘TWO YEARS AGO, I didn’t know how to make a cappuccino – and here I am with a cafe, my own business, in the heart of New York.” Cathal Queally is a success story at a time when success stories are few and far between. In March 2009, he opened the first Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Café in the US.
The cafe itself is a small, beacon of Irishness on Bryant Park in mid-town Manhattan. On a mid-winter afternoon, the warm, chocolatey air (not to mention the vast selection of goodies) was a welcome respite from the biting cold of the city streets. Visitors choose from hot chocolates, coffees, mochas, accompanied by chocolate-fudge slices, croissants and, of course, a selection of Lily O’Brien’s chocolates.
The clientele is a mixture of US tourists and the Irish. For the Americans, it’s just another cafe and, although they recognise the branding as being just that, it offers an antidote to the Starbucks-isation of every street corner.
“I need to differentiate myself from the regular coffee haunts, so I focus on customer service – my staff are all friendly, polite, here when they need to be here, helpful.”
How did a young man from Naas, Co Kildare, suddenly decide to up sticks and move to New York? “I had always had an idea of opening a Lily O’Brien’s Café. My father and Mary Ann O’Brien, the founder, have been business partners for 15 years, so I had the connection and I found myself suddenly approaching 30 and in a position to do it, so I thought, why not?
This was in June 2008, and Queally gave himself three months to see if it was a viable plan. “I realised that I couldn’t expect to open up in business here without being on the ground.”
Getting into business in a foreign country is not easy, and Queally soon discovered he needed support and advice from someone who knew what they were talking about.
“Most people don’t realise that there’s an Enterprise Ireland office in most major cities worldwide,” says Queally. “So my first port of call was to give them a ring and say, ‘listen, here’s the idea’.
“They gave me a tonne of support. Not financial, but they pointed me in the direction of which banks to use, which areas to check out, and a lot of practical resources.”
Watching his idea come to fruition began with a business plan and an office. “Crucially, they provided me with one – in the Business Incubation Centre, and I could use their facilities for basic things like photocopying and faxing, which was a great help.”
“I got a cafe consultant here in the US to help with layout and logistics,” he says. “Then I took on a manager, who dealt with the permits required to set up here – employee permits, health and safety permits – there’s so much work that goes with it. To have somebody from New York involved was critical.”
Despite the Irish connection, Queally was always determined to avoid the traditional route of the Irish business abroad. “A lot of people come in and say: ‘Don’t you have a liquor licence?’ They find it strange that the Irish can produce something that doesn’t involve potatoes or booze. The thing is, a lot of Americans are surprised that the Irish do a premium chocolate,” says Queally.
Chocolate and coffee – it’s a fail-safe combination (although probably not for your cholesterol) and although it might seem a familiar one to us, for the US audience, it’s a distinctly “European” idea.
“I’ve stayed away from doing soups, paninis, and so on, to give it a very European ambience: a good chocolate and a good coffee, while it’s something that we all recognise, here in New York that’s really different.
“Opening in March 2009, we missed the key chocolate times – Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter – so it has been a really hard slog,” he admits. “Now we’re hoping to draw people in from the street with the displays and keep them here with the chocolate. I just love it when it feels like people are discovering something new, something special.”
Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Café, 36 West 40th Street, New York
