Corner Shop at Cyprus Avenue going from strength to strength

Many local restauranteurs and owner chefs across Northern Ireland turned creative in order to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and Richard McCracken and the team at Belfast’s Cyprus Avenue, were no different with their ‘Corner Shop’ launched within their Cyprus Avenue-based restaurant in April 2020. Initially the intention following the first lockdown last year, they sold a limited amount of products alongside coffee and wheaten bread through a window at the restaurant offering a much needed route-to-market for many small/micro suppliers.  

At Christmas they launched the ‘Corner Shop’ hamper, selling 4,000 hampers, some as far as Belgium. According to Richard, much of the success of the ‘Corner Shop’ is due to the overwhelming support of local consumers keen to support their independent stores: as he explains:

“Our Christmas hampers proved to be very successful and we plan to follow up with a range of Valentine hampers. We have gradually increased the range of products available in the shop including baked goods, in-house ready meals as well as a wide variety of dried and chilled products from suppliers across Northern Ireland”.            

Richard plans to continue to add value to the business and has just launched an online next day delivery service of all the products stocked in the Corner Shop via the Cyprus Avenue web site.

“At a time when it can be a real struggle to get a delivery slot from the large supermarkets, we are thrilled that we can now offer a next day delivery service straight to our customer’s doors. With so many issues around supply of goods post-brexit, the fact that we are using products from NI ensures our shelves are always full. We recently purchased and are restoring a 3wheel Piaggio Ape van to offer sourdough pizza. This combined with the shop can offer guests a chance to order pizzas and their groceries for a few days in one delivery.

For further information on the ‘Corner Shop’ at Cyprus Avenue, visit www.cyprusavenue.co.uk