Athlone restaurants and thoughts about the high street
Even though Athlone is a small town it has a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant (Thyme Athlone) and a good number of award-winning restaurants, which is a huge accomplishment.
Thankfully, my taste is food is budget-friendly and doesn’t break the bank. In fact, my absolute favourite restaurant in Athlone is a very unassuming pizza place called Il Basilico opposite the Radisson Blu Hotel and not far from the train station.
What I really love about this restaurant is that it has a wood fired oven so each pizza is cooked to perfection with a gorgeous charred, crispy finish. The venue in itself is very small and it’s run mainly as a take away. There are a couple of tables indoors and outdoors, weather permitting, but you need to get there early to get a seat.
Cellar Bistro is a nice gastropub that specialises in traditional Irish food such as stews and steak as well as more modern dishes to suit a more international taste.
Rustic Roots has a varied menu that includes some Irish staples such as Guinness beef stew served in a bread bowl and dishes from international cuisines such as Thai and Indian. The menu changes regularly.
I also need to make a bit of space for honourable mentions: these are some of the places I really enjoyed going to but that have closed down.
Athlone restaurant that closed down
I used to love a restaurant called Smoke BBQ in Athlone. It was located near Sean’s Bar and the River Shannon on the left bank.
This restaurant specialised in various barbecue specialties and it also made a delicious seafood chowder.
I probably felt a special connection to this place because it was the first restaurant I went to in Athlone straight after viewing the house that I bought a few weeks later. I thought the atmosphere was very welcoming and the hearty comfort food was just what I needed on a rainy November day.
Another two places that closed down and that I loved were a small cafe called Shannon Crafts overlooking the River Shannon on the opposite side of the river to Sean’s Bar and Genoa Cafe, a brilliant fish and chips shop on the high street that had been around for decades.
The Crafts cafe in particular is an example of the wasted potential for independent cafes in great locations. I had a conversation with the owner a few years ago, who told me that the running costs were simply too high so running a small business had become unfeasible.
People loved to get their coffee and a slice of cake by the river, sitting at one of the outdoor tables.
You see, that prime spot has got so much potential and it has everything going for it: beautiful views over the river, proximity to a car park, an outdoor area and good footfall in the summer as boats moor just opposite. Anywhere else there would be a bidding war to grab that spot; instead it has been empty since 2022.
Untapped potential
Athlone has many ambitions to become a tourist destination but a few things have to happen first.
There are several empty business premises in the town centre and at times they have been vacant for years.
Some cafes had to close down due to rising running costs, particularly rent and business rates. Two examples are Slow Roast, a sandwich shop that used to be on Mardyke Street, and Corner House Bistro, an informal cafe and restaurant on Dublin Gate Street. Both places were on the high street, which had been undergoing a massive renovation that included cutting out traffic, repaving, installing planters and benches. Corner House Bistro’s building went to auction in July 2024 with an starting price of 240,000 euro. The price included business premises plus a one bedroom residential flat.
While the high street has a new look and a pedestrianised area that is meant to attract more footfall, the sight of empty buildings is jarring. One thing that is quite striking about Athlone is that there aren’t many cafe and restaurant chains like, say, Boojum in Dublin. Apart from burger shops like Burger King in Golden Island Shopping Centre, large multinational chains haven’t conquered Athlone’s high street (yet). My guess is that, if Athlone really aims to attract more tourists, it will inevitably become a victim of the “macdonaldisation” of the high street, with food chains popping up as they have the necessary cash investments. This would also mean that tourists would go to them because of brand recognition, potentially spending less money on independent shops.
Unless specific policies and plans dictate what type of businesses can rent premises on the high street, potentially encouraging smaller independent ones, we will see the usual brand names and the high street will lose character.
It was interesting to see that a large betting shop, Ladbrokes, closed down in 2022, in a prime location near Athlone Towncentre shopping centre. The place has been empty since and would make a fabulous shop.
You just need to look at Galway for inspiration: the high street has a mix of different shops that include artisan and craft products as well as independent grocery and book shops.
It makes sense to build on what’s already happening elsewhere in Ireland.
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Recensioni da acquolina in bocca e analisi socio-economica della ristorazione molto accurata. Non sono mai stato in Irlanda, ma attraverso i tuoi occhi e la tua penna riesco quasi a vederla da vicino