Bread 41, Dublin’s high-end bakery and cafe will open its third premises on the lower Kilmacud Road in Stillorgan village, Co Dublin, on Friday morning. The outlet will be located in a converted church on the former premises of fruit and vegetable shop, The Fruit Place. Owner and co-founder of Bread 41, Eoin Cluskey, says the new venture will be a “slimmed down” version of its hugely popular original Pearse Street bakery in the city centre. “We’ll be doing pastries, breads and coffee, with everything baked on site. It’s a grab-and-go model we’d hope to replicate in a few other locations.”
This opening marks a year of significant expansion for Bread 41, which opened a Greystones, Co Wicklow branch on a restored art-deco garage site in June, following a €1 million investment. The new Greystones and Stillorgan premises bring employee numbers to 102 compared with 60 a year ago. Four full -time and two part-time staff will be employed at the Stillorgan bakery.
Cluskey says it has been a challenging year for the business despite managing to stay on track with expansion plans. “The Greystones’ electricity bill for four months was €36,000. The continued closure of the cliff walk is having a very detrimental effect on businesses in the town and that’s going to take two to three years to come good.”
Earlier this year, Bread 41 closed the upstairs restaurant area at its Pearse Street premises in a clear move away from the soaring costs associated with offering in-house dining.
Cluskey says Bread 41 is looking for further premises to open – in particular on Dublin’s northside – that will operate along similar lines to the new Stillorgan offering. “We will take our time to pick the right area, with the right building and the footfall we need.”
A number of Bread 41 pop-up events are planned in 2025, including guest chef appearances starting with Aisling Moore of Goldie seafood restaurant in Cork. This ties in with Bread 41′s stated aim of supporting community, sustainability and better eating.
Customers have voted with their feet since the first premises opened on Dublin’s Pearse Street in 2018, with people frequently happy to queue for long periods to purchase its high-quality sourdough bread and pastries.
Despite the intervening pandemic years, Bread 41, trading as Bread Nation, posted profits of €617,453 on annual turnover of about €4 million in 2023. Cash reserves last year stood at €1.4 million.
