How We Got Here

The Business

Anyone who has travelled through West Cork over the last 30 years would have heard or indeed had the pleasure of eating at Annie’s, the little gem of a restaurant located in Ballydehob.

Unfortunately like the mighty celtic tiger all good things eventually come to an end. The restaurant closed it’s doors, although it did re-open under a new name and management, for some the spark had gone, a sign of the times perhaps which also seen the closure of a dozen other businesses in the lovely little village that is Ballydehob.

Like so many other towns and villages throughout Ireland in the last few years, business has been very cruel and survival an ever increasing mountain. And the restaurant remained closed for the past 3 years.

The Budd Family

But where there’s a will there’s always a way and a belief that good times will indeed return. This is the Budd family’s mantra and with their positive outlook they are once again bringing the old restaurant back to life and forward into a brighter future, and in keeping with the village tradition renaming the business under their family name, Budds.

When we first came to view the restaurant it was the warmth of the local people and the scent in the air that initially impressed us. Ballydehob must be the most diverse village in Ireland. We know that during the 60s & 70s Ballydehob was a Mecca for the weird and wonderful and luckily still remains so, which is visably evident in the amount of great arts and craft producers, musicians, poets, actors, not to mention the vast amount of great food producers.
We’re here for the long haul and this place will be rocking again that’s for sure. What we do want is to make people feel special, to prepare exiting ingredients and employ as many local people as possible.

The Village – Ballydehob

For us Ballydehob is and always will be a magical place full of magical people and we are certainly looking forward to feeding folk for many glorious years to come.

We are also hoping that others will follow suit and turn the empty spaces in the village into hubs of life that they were only a few years previously.