New ‘destination café’ launches at the foot of Galtee Mountains

A high-flying local couple are celebrating this week after the official launch of their new café on Tipperary's border at the weekend.

Lisa and James Ferguson own the Galtee Escape venue which sits on the borders of Tipperary, Cork and Limerick, and the couple officially opened the venue’s new café.

Galtee Escape has been open as a wedding and event venue for the past five years but now features a “destination café” for wedding couples, walkers and hikers, and all to enjoy.

Speaking to the Tipperary Star, Lisa said that the dream was always to have a café on site, and now that dream has been realised.

“The café was one of the first things that myself and my husband got the drawings for and that was always where we were setting off with.

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“And then Covid hit and there was a massive demand for weddings so we went that direction, and we’re still going that direction, we’ve been very very content with our weddings and things, but I’m just going back to the dream of having a café,” Lisa explained.

The Galtee Escape café’s “soft launch” at the weekend was well attended, Lisa said, with people travelling from all over to experience the new business.

“It went really really well, I would call it a soft launch because I didn’t want to be overwhelmed, like that with a café you don’t know how many staff you need, you don’t know how busy you’re going to be, you don’t know if the weather’s going to affect it because we’re kind of a destination café, so there’s all these factors, and I had never run a café before,” Lisa said.

“I’m so used to putting on all these other events where I know how many people are coming, what I’ll be feeding them, so this part was all so new to me.

“We had a lovely crowd, it was really nice, and the weather was fabulous, I had a massive amount of hikers, walkers, families, people that didn’t know the area, a lot of people travelled here to go hiking and stuff, it was amazing,” she explained.

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“I couldn’t believe it, there was people that drove and had their meet up here, we were talking to a local family and they said that they had family who had driven down the country, they said it suited them because it was near the motorway, and it was lovely,” Lisa said.

The café comes in addition to Galtee Escape’s existing business of weddings and events, as well as retreats, both for the corporate world and things like hiking and yoga.

The couple hope now to expand on these offerings too, sharing their idyllic location with as many people as possible.
“We’re hoping to push that further,” Lisa said.

“That’s my goal now, because our location is idyllic, it’s at the side of a mountain, yesterday we had walkers who left from here and walked straight off up the mountain, which was fabulous, you couldn’t not share that,” she said.

Galtee Escape operates as an alternative wedding venue, with space for up to 120 people for a sit-down meal, offering a different style of wedding to the norm.

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“Every wedding we do is completely different, we could have a barbeque wedding, we could have a pizza wedding, we could have three courses sit-down, and what we want to offer guests is the chance to have a wedding their way, and not set by the standard”.

Lisa and James both had careers in flying, with James working as a pilot, and Lisa training cabin crew, with the young couple now having settled with their three kids after a jet-setting life that saw them travel the world, even having lived in Japan for a time, but they are now bringing their experiences back to the foot of the Galtee Mountains.

“With our background, with travelling and everything, I saw so much, I want to bring this to the area, it’s missing this,” Lisa said.

“Now I’m just at the stage where I want to push everything, we also have planning for eight lodges and a sauna and steam room, and there’s decking for yoga and we really want to just expand the whole business now, we’re ready for the next phase,” Lisa said.

The new café at Galtee Escape is currently open four days a week, from Thursday to Sunday, with Lisa saying that once she knows what demand for the café is like, these hours may be tweaked.

Lisa and James currently employ around 20 people across the business from the local area, and are aiming to bring people back into their nearest local village of Kilbeheny.

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“We’re working very hard to make it known as a destination place, somewhere for everyone,” Lisa said.

“We’re employing a lot of people as well from the area and I’m really focusing and trying to employ youngsters and give them a chance to get experience.”

After the successful café launch at the weekend, Galtee Escape are already looking for an assistant chef for the café.

The couple are also hoping to start construction on the eight lodges onsite later in the year once they’re finished with their wedding bookings for the year.

The new lodges would increase Galtee Escape’s accommodation offering to around 50, as well as increasing employment by hiring additional staff.

To keep up to date with all of Lisa and James’ offerings, Galtee Escape can be found on Facebook and Instagram.