While students, stroller-pushing moms, and techies flooded Costa Coffee in the main shopping district of Cork, we wandered a few blocks over to the Bookshelf Coffee House (78 South Mall) and found paradise. This little gem has it all: creamy lattes, delicious pastries (some gluten-free), an eclectic, intelligent, and friendly buzz about the place. Surrounding patrons with books and an old library cue card indexing system is a nice touch.
Coffee houses were extremely fashionable in the UK in the 1770s and because of this, Cork merchants brought coffee into the city and established cafes. People flocked to these cafes until the trend faded in the 1880s.
Ironically, the Bookshelf building comes from this time period but was the old Cork City Library (1799) and not a cafe. The Coffee House opened on St. Patrick’s Day in 2012 as an addition to the fast-growing “hospitality” section of Cork.
There is one last thing I’d like to point out about this place: I’m pretty adept at languages, but for the first time ever, I stood perplexed outside the bathrooms trying to figure out whether Fir or Mná meant ladies. Mná *feels* more feminine to me, but I honestly don’t know the answer to this question because both bathrooms looked the same inside.
So, Irish peeps… can you tell me which is which?
