Historic Days Bazaar name returns

The historic business name Days Bazaar has returned to Mullingar and the man behind the change, Brian Pierson from Tyrrellspass, intends to offer something a bit different to customers.

The Pierson family have a long history in the hospitality sector in Westmeath, one that Brian, his wife and their children are continuing. His father was general manager of the Greville Arms in the late 1960s and early ’70s and they ran the hotel in Tyrrellspass (now Browne’s on the Green) up till around 1998.

“So, we’ve been around. I worked in the Greville myself, around 2000,” Brian told the Westmeath Examiner, “it’s a long, deep career in the hotel business.

“I got the opportunity to lease the Urban Forge and the first thing to do was put it back to its original name of Days Bazaar. Everyone in the town still knows it as Days Bazaar, it’s been Days Bazaar since 1879. I have a Fisher-Price fire engine, stored somewhere, that was bought here in the 1970s. When I was at boarding school in Ballinasloe, I remember buying the school books in here, off Jim O’Donnell and Jo Macken.

“So I’ve always enjoyed coming in, especially when Adrian turned it into a coffee shop. So when the opportunity came up, I jumped at it, and the first thing was to change the name back. We brought the book shop theme and the year [1879] into the logo, designed by Mary Deegan from Tyrrellspass.”

Having started with returning the name, Brian and his team are working on how they want the business to run. He has retained the staff who were there under Urban Forge, and with his chef, Ger Tully, is putting the focus on local ingredients. The two worked together some 17 years ago, and have now joined forces again.

Their offering will have Westmeath jams at the front counter – at the moment from Pat Dempsey and Helen Kelly of Lough Bishop House, who is also supplying tea cake and ginger cake – and a small number of tables where customers can have a quick bite.

Their breakfasts will feature products from Pigs on the Green in Killeigh (Tullamore), processed in Tyrrellspass. “I’ve known Fergus [Dunne] for years, and the quality brings the extra bit of flavour to it. Then for lunch, our bread is coming from Magico [Bakery] in Athlone – fabulous bread and cakes. Our eggs are free range, from Ken Greene in Rathowen.

“We have an Italian trained pizza chef, Marcel, who makes his own dough, it’s light, proper flour and so far our lunch size pizza is very popular.” They will develop their lunch menu in the coming weeks, and in December, all going well, they will open on Friday and Saturday nights offering what Brian describes as “Irish tapas”.

“It’s all about sharing – tear and share pizza boards, charcuterie boards, sharing platters. The concept that is you can sit for an hour or two, we’ll have a good selection of wines, you’ll enjoy your wine and your board, so not a traditional restaurant, something different.

“It’s not based on anybody else’s concept, it’s more of what we enjoy ourselves, so we’re going to have to develop it.” Brian describes what they want to achieve as the feeling of not wanting to cook on a Friday evening, but also not wanting to dress up to go out for dinner.

Other plans are to develop the yard at the back to accommodate groups who would come in early for food and then go out on the town.

Brian’s wife Margaret and daughter Ellen work at Red Earth, so are supporting the new endeavour from there, and the couple’s other children, Peter, Neale and Alice, will be working at Days Bazaar.

The Chimera Gallery is staying upstairs, and Brian is happy that it blends in with his plans.

On the question of high costs, he plans to use his years of experience to control them as well as he can, and says the working atmosphere is vital to retaining the staff, who are sporting new uniforms from local company, KC Sports.

“I’ll be here full time – with these small businesses, you need to be hands on, and being hands on helps you to retain staff. If we can get through this year and next year, stay in business, keep the doors open, then things will start to come back again, and hopefully costs will go back down and we can get stronger.”