Rosie McNerney – The Cottage Café
Originally from Howth, Rosie McNerney runs three cafés around Fingal – The Cottage Cafés in Swords and The Naul, and Seomra Tae in Malahide. Each has its own character but like any proud mother, Rosie won’t be drawn on her favourite offspring.
Her first experience in hospitality was helping out a friend who had a restaurant in Howth, first on the admin side and then front of house. Seeing the business from both sides made Rosie realise how important it is to understand every aspect of it. That was a valuable lesson which she never forgot.
Her original career was in IT and specifically market research where she worked for six or seven years before realising that wasn’t her passion. Instead, Rosie reverted to her childhood love of food and cooking inspired by her mother. An excellent cook, her mum was also a businesswoman who set up her own catering company – and enlisted her children to help of course. Rosie’s solution was to enrol on the world renowned Ballymaloe 12 month course where she became totally immersed in every aspect from milking cows to baking. She revelled in the experience and the quality of teaching from Darina, Rory and Rachel who are household names throughout the land. She loved cooking and particularly baking at which she excelled.
It’s difficult to see where Rosie found the time, but while at Ballymaloe she began a Business Studies and Marketing degree building on the business acumen she had inherited from her father. Almost immediately her course finished an option came up to lease a café in Swords and somehow, she couldn’t resist the challenge of taking it on. The first Cottage Café was born and nearly two decades later Rosie has never looked back.
In 2013 she expanded and opened a second café called Seomra Tae on Malahide’s main street. When another opportunity arose in The Naul at the Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, it seemed like serendipity that it was already called The Cottage Café. Once more Rosie rose to the challenge and took on her third enterprise. Her husband Alan was roped in to help a few years ago ‘just for six months’ and swiftly became part of the close knit team which now numbers 35.
Baking has always been an escape valve for Rosie, a sort of therapy in a quiet kitchen with the radio playing in the background. She still does all the baking for the three cafés except breads which another excellent staff member has taken on. Christmas is of course the busy period, and she reckons her mince pie count hit an impressive 3,000 last December.
Each of the three cafés is very different and has its own loyal clientele. The Naul stands out a little from the other two situated in a very traditional building, an arts centre where events are regularly run. Evolving to co-ordinate with these events the café has taken on the challenge of everything from barbecues and Italian nights to TradFest supper clubs.
Rosie loves to see regulars come in the door and over the years many customers have become true friends. She watched children come in with their parents, grow up, find partners and then bring in their own babies. Now her own son is helping in the business, just as she did with her mother. The wheel of life keeps turning.
