KC Peaches is a new restaurant open on Pearse Street in the Trinity Enterprise Centre. The manager and founder is Katie Cantwell (pictured right) who along with three Irish investors established the restaurant four months ago.
Katie, an American originally from Seattle, spoke about those initial months of the enterprise. “We definitely had our teething problems. We had to learn about the Irish mindset for food and the Irish palette, what it likes and what it doesn’t like. It’s not been challenging but more interesting than anything else.”
The restaurant takes special pride in the food that they offer and use only the best natural ingredients. “We’re all whole foods,” says Katie, “which means we don’t use any additives or preservatives or colourings. None of that is used in our foods. Everything apart from a few of our breads is made on site everyday so you’re always going to get the freshest items.”
At the moment the restaurant offers take-away meals and eat-in meals and the customer base comes equally from those two sectors. Katie, though, would like to see more trade come in through the ‘take-away’ side. “I’d really like to see people bringing items home for their family. Business comes primarily from the offices around the area but we’d like to see the balance shifted and get more residential people from the apartments coming in for their dinner and so on.”
The restaurant is also a wi-fi (short for ‘wireless fidelity’) hotspot which means that after making a purchase you can have free wireless broadband access. So, using a laptop with a wi-fi connection inside the restaurant you can go online, check your e-mail and browse the internet all for free. Katie believes that this service will help drive business. The restaurant also features disabled access.
As the next few months progress many more items are to be made available at the restaurant. It is an exciting and adventurous time for Katie and her staff. “Overall it’s going well,” she concludes “and we’re excited to be here, to be part of this community. Toward the upcoming holiday season I think you will see a lot of changes here at the restaurant. It’s going be an exciting time for us all.”