DOY & DOY, BANDON, Co. CORK
Ali Abdullah took over Doy & Doy in Bandon two and a half years ago. He’s delighted with the upsurge in the economy this year and is hoping plans for Bandon town renovation go ahead and bring in more people during the day so he can start opening for breakfast.
Name? Name of Business? Ali Abdullah, Doy & Doy, Bandon, Co. Cork
When did you open? I took over here two and a half years ago. The place itself had been running, under the same name, for nearly five years before that. I was coming from a fast food background myself – I had a place in Waterford, Supreme Pizza, which I sold to come here. I liked the location and the premises.
What kind of services do you offer customers? We have a sit-down area for 35 to 40 people. We open 12.30 till 11.30pm weekdays and from noon till midnight weekends. We do deliveries, and we have a big menu -– burgers, fish, kebabs, pizza….
How many staff do you employ? 5 part-time
What, in your opinion, makes your place unique to your customers? Our fresh food and fresh cooking from scratch – we cut our own chips and our pizza dough is homemade. Also, the quality of our customer service is great.
What do you most like about the job? I’ve enjoyed it particularly this past year because it’s got much busier. The economy is improving, we’re getting more people in the door. When trade is busier I can relax more, spend more time with the family. When trade is slow you have to work much harder.
What kind of customers would you get, typically? We have a lot of families, because of our seating area and because we have a lot of kids’ stuff on the menus. We also do a lot of deliveries to young single people. Our customers come from around the area
What’s your busiest time? It varies – in summer, it’s quiet during the day and busy evenings; in winter it’s the exact opposite. Good weather always helps! We don’t have a huge amount of tourists to the area but in summer we get Italian and Spanish students coming in.
What’s the biggest challenge facing you in business at the moment? The challenge is just to keep the economy going. That’s what helps my business.
What is competition like in the area? There’s quite a bit. Apache pizza opened recently but it hasn’t really affected us. My customers are happy.
Is there anything the government could be doing to make your life easier? For my business personally – they haven’t done anything and I don’t think they will! If they can just keep the economy going, that’s enough.
If you could invite someone famous to dinner who would it be? Jose Marinho, he’s now left Chelsea for Man United, but I’d still invite him.
What does it take to do your job successfully? Work hard and make sure to give great food and service so you get return customers.
Have you any plans to grow the business? Yes, I’d like to open earlier and have a breakfast trade. That would mean putting in a coffee machine and renovating the interior. This will depend on plans for the town going ahead. At the moment, Bandon is a bit dead during the day, but the Council has plans to change this – bring in more shops, improve the look of the town, attract tourists. They already did this in Clonakilty and it worked. If we can do the same for Bandon, it will be worth it to renovate this place.
WHAT’S ON THE MENU:
What’s your best-selling menu item? Doner Kebab and the chicken kebab
What fish do you sell? Fresh cod
Would you have healthy options? How do they do? Yes, we have a chicken tender wrap, a charcoal chicken wrap, the Philly steak, and the veggie wrap. There’s a market for all of them
How many meal deals do you do? More than 25. Savings are very good – between €3 and €8 because we offer 2 meals for €10
What’s your most expensive item? The 16-inch pizza, which is for people to share, and for a single person the €9 doner kebab meal
What’s unique to your menu? Our pizza dough and pizza toppings are home-made
How do you promote new menu items? Through our Facebook page and Facebook offers and we also leaflet the surrounding area
