WHAT'S a guitar player to do when his band is off the road and out of the studio, leaving him with little to do except twiddle his thumb-pick? Limerick guitarist Noel Hogan has found something tasty to occupy his time while The Cranberries take a sabbatical from the treadmill of pop stardom, their first full break since 1991.
He and his wife Catherine have just opened a new restaurant called Portlys in Limerick's Little Ellen Street.
Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan and her husband Don Burton visited the 36-seat restaurant sometime before its official opening on Wednesday. The chefs are another husband and wife team, Jeff and Siobhan Gloux, who have been cooking for over a decade. The menu features specialities from around the world which Noel came across while on tour.
Noel and Catherine will have plenty of time to nurture their culinary baby, since there are no immediate plans for The Cranberries to step back into the rock `n' roll madness - no recording sessions or concert dates have been pencilled in for 1997 so far.
Dolores is reportedly resting up and recovering from the exhaustion which forced the band to cancel most of its European tour, and she and her Canadian husband spent Christmas with Dolores's family at the couple's house in Ballyferriter, Co Kerry.
