When Bean in Dingle opened in June 2015, it was so slammed from the get go that it ran out of coffee on the first Saturday. Justin Burgess, the 24-year-old barista who had opened the business, rang his older brother Luke, a graduate of UCC’s Bachelor Degree in Business, and said: “I think you’re going to need to quit your job in Dublin and come back to Dingle to work with me.”
Almost 15 years earlier, the Burgess brothers and their sister Georgia had moved to Dingle from Oxford with their parents Alan and Jackie, when they were 11, 13 and seven years old. Alan is a barber and Jackie is the manager of a nursing home. When Alan received an inheritance a few years ago, he wanted to invest it in his children’s future so the family put it towards financing Bean in Dingle, where the siblings now work together.
Luke and Justin are full-time throughout the year, while Georgia joins them in the summer when she’s not in college, and as a reinforcement when the going gets tough, such as for Dingle Food Festival or the recent Other Voices weekend.
Their mother Jackie did the interior design for the cafe, which is tasteful urban chic with plenty of personality. The Burgess’ grandparents followed the family to Dingle five years ago and now the Burgess’s can count their grandmother, Nanny Anna, as one of their suppliers – she bakes the carrot-cake muffins and lemon-drizzle cakes that adorn the cafe’s pastry bar.
Next to Nanny Anna’s baked goods are locally sourced treats from Blurini Blasta, a bakery run by Michelle O’Sullivan who supply breakfast fuel muffins and pork sausage rolls. Bean in Dingle also sources crumbly sausage rolls (€1.90) from the award-winning Ashe’s Annascaul pudding, stuffed with their delicious white pudding and served with a sweet chilli jam.
Orla Gowen’s Bácús Bakery supply the Burgess’ with its fantastic cinnamon rolls (€2.50), thin strips of light dough laced with sweet cinnamon and rolled into a tight bun, the edges of their layers lightly caramelised. Also on offer is creamy porridge served by the bowl, with a generous DIY topping bar stuffed with crunchy granola, fresh fruit, honey and maple syrup (€3).
Though this food offering is not to be sniffed at, coffee is the main focus of the café. Justin caught the specialty coffee bug when he started working as a barista for Murphy’s Ice Cream in Dingle aged 17. He went through their barista training programme and was head barista of their Dingle store by 19, before moving to Dublin for two years to oversee the coffee in Murphy’s Dublin branches.
When the family took on the premises on Green St, Justin reached out to Brock Lewin from Cork-based coffee roasters Badger & Dodo. Together, they created a blend especially for Bean in Dingle, made up of 50 per cent Brazilian Ipanema, 25 per cent Guatemalan San Juan and 25 per cent Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. “We wanted a smooth blend that would suit a wide range of palates,” says Justin.
They’re introducing customers to the idea of V60 filter coffees and are hoping to add guest espressos soon. “Even in the last year and a half, I’ve seen people’s attitudes to coffee change,” says Justin. “When we opened, Sarah Dolan from Crinkle Stores down the road was the only one doing specialty coffee in town. Now we’re seeing way more specialty coffees on menus, such as Idás restaurant serving Cloudpicker as their after-meal coffee.”
So what’s changed? “I think customers now understand that coffee isn’t just a necessary drink to get you through the day,” says Justin. “It’s actually something you can enjoy.”
