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MacPerkie’s Diner, Youghal, Co. Cork

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Siobhan Byrne is manager of the day centre and MacPerkie’s Diner in Perk’s Entertainment Centre, Yougal, Co Cork. She likes to keep the menu fresh with new products and believes customers are ready to pay for quality.

Name? Name of Business? MacPerkie’s Diner, Perk’s Entertainment Centre, Youghal, Co. Cork

When did you open? We’ve been here 12 years now as Perk’s Entertainment Centre. Before that we had Perk’s Pleasure Park for 60 years so we’re very well-known and long established in Youghal.

What kind of services do you offer customers? This is a large entertainment centre with bowling, a showboat casino, a kid’s play centre, lazar. The whole place including the diner is open 1pm to 11pm. I’m in charge of the day centre, including the diner.

How many staff do you employ in the diner? We have nine staff, including part-time

What, in your opinion, makes your place unique to your customers? We pay a lot of attention to quality and customers appreciate that. uality coming to forefront – value still important

What do you most like about the job? I like meeting people and I like the variety. Between food and entertainment and activities, we’re always busy here/

What’s your busiest time? The weekends are busy. We’re a popular venue for birthday parties. During the week it’s steady all day – people who come for bowling or whatever tend to eat at the end of their visit, so there’s no fixed dinner time. Summer is busier than winter because there’s a campsite down the road and people come to MacPerkie’s for a takeaway.

What’s the biggest challenge facing you in business at the moment? Trying to keep up with everything, and keeping the menu fresh with new products. People like to see new things coming in.

What is competition like in the area? There are other diners and takeaways in town, but we’re the only ones here in the strand area

Have you noticed a difference in the way people are ordering? I’ve noticed that people are getting more adventurous – they’re more ready to try out hew things, which means you have to keep the menu fresh. I’ve also noticed that while value for money is still important to customers, they are ready to pay more for quality – which is what we pride ourselves on.

If you could invite someone famous to dinner who would it be? I’d invite Hugh Jackman

What does it take to do your job successfully? Know your product. Keep quality control and ensure consistency. And have a good understanding with staff.

What’s your business motto? Our motto in the centre is ‘There’s no such thing as too much fun’

WHAT’S ON THE MENU:

What’s your best-selling menu item? The chicken fillet burger for adults and chicken tenders for kids

What’s new on your menu? The prime burger is new – that’s doing very well, particularly with men. And the sides, like fiery mozzarella balls, are all doing great.

How do you promote new menu items? We use Facebook. And we’ve upgraded with new digital menu boards. We’ve also just printed off a couple of thousand menu leaflets which we’ll distribute particularly in the camp site

How many meal deals do you do? You can meal deal everything – the saving is about 70c

What’s your most expensive item? The prime burger

Is there anything unique to your menu? The MacPerkie whopper burger

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