While Pride Month gives necessary prominence and visibility to LGBTQIA+ communities, visibility, inclusion, acceptance and support is never dictated by a season with a start and end date.
Pride is year-round and found in cities, towns and villages across the entire island of Ireland and though June is generally held as Pride Month in our part of the world, that same support, showcase and spotlight you may pledge in June can be applied year-round to the businesses led by talented, proud and visionary members of the community.
This non-exhaustive list is designed to be an introductory directory into some of the many, many LGBTQ+ owned restaurants and cafes across Ireland worth seeking out and supporting. From neighbourhood coffee spots to tapas bars, brunch beacons to community-gathering cafes, and everything from fine dining restaurants to street food trucks, it’s all here.
1. The Bakery by the Cupcake Bloke, Dublin 8
Owned by partners in life and business Graham Herterich and Daithí Kelleher, the pair grew from a street food stall and corporate order baking business to a full bakery and provisions store in Rialto on the South Circular Road while Herterich has also penned two cookbooks, Bake and Cook and is particularly famed for his award-winning tea bracks. The Bakery by The Cupcake Bloke also offers catering opportunities.
2. Las Tapas De Lola & La Gordita, Dublin 2
Anna Cabrera and Vanessa Murphy are the restaurateur couple behind two iconic slices of Spain set steps apart in Dublin 2: the vibrant tapas bar Las Tapas de Lola on Wexford Street (opened 2013) and the small but sultry La Gordita on Montague Street (opened spring 2023). With much of their team made up of LGBTQ+ community, both venues are built with inclusivity, self-expression and community closeness at their core while the food keeps seats at both restaurants constantly full.
3. The Lifeboat Inn, Cork
A formidable duo on and offline, you may already be part of the nearly 100,000-strong audience following ‘The Lads from The Lifeboat’ across Instagram, Facebook or TikTok. Husbands Martin Buckley and David O’Halloran have built a huge following since they left Dublin and opened the doors to their welcoming, homely and detail-oriented gastropub in Courtmacsherry in Cork in 2017. Martin is the chef while David runs front of house.
4. Outhouse Cafe, Dublin 1
A cosy cafe built by the community, for the community. Beyond its food and drink offering of toasties, tray bakes, soups, cakes and locally-roasted Cloud Picker coffee (also a gay-owned business featured in this list), the Outhouse Café provides a safe community space where diversity is valued and celebrated. All proceeds also go right back into the charitable mission so every sale helps support life-saving services within Dublin’s LGBTQ+ community. V
5. Slice, Dublin 7
In the heart of Stoneybatter’s main thoroughfare and open seven days a week, Slice is owned and operated by Ray O’Neill and Jack Hickey where the menu is all seasonal and local using top quality Irish produce. The brunch is legendary, the cakes are lavish and the vibe is unmatched. This colourful cafe is dog-friendly, they also host regular events like disco brunch and Slice is also available for catering opportunities.
6. Buns Bakery, Louth
Matthias Ecker runs Buns Bakery, a neat little bakery and café in a former salon (where one of us used to get childhood haircuts!) in Beechgrove Terrace in Drogheda. A German-born chef who has called Ireland home for over a decade, it was Covid that convinced Ecker to set up a bakery business and it has boomed and bloomed colourfully and deliciously since with sweet creations, locally loved and opening hours kicking off at 6am weekdays. Buns is another dog-friendly cafe and also offers catering opportunities.
7. Table 45, Dublin 2
When pub The Square Ball on Hogan Place announced its closure in early 2024 husbands Daniel Kavanagh and Daniel Rivera, who lived overhead for almost a decade, took on the challenge of taking over the entire building and reimagining the space below as Table 45, a casual and inviting tapas restaurant with South American soul, reflecting Rivera’s Chilean heritage. Table 45 is built on a family-vibe — both biological and chosen — and is super inclusive and welcoming of all, including four-legged friends.
8. Two Boys Brew, Dublin 7
Kevin Roche and Taurean Coughlan returned from Australia to set up one of Ireland’s best cafes in the form of Two Boys Brew on the North Circular Road in Phisborough. Combining their joint experience in London and Australia, TBB has been a beacon of Dublin’s brunch scene since 2016.
9. Everett’s, Waterford
Another couple in business and in life, Peter Everett and partner Keith Noonan opened their relaxed fine dining restaurant Everett’s in Waterford City in 2018. Set in an historic 15th century building, the restaurant encompasses two floors with the vaulted dining room set spectacularly in an ancient wine cellar offering one of the most special and unique places to dine in Waterford.
10. Brother Hubbard, Dublin (various)
Partners Garrett Fitzgerald and James Boland run four Brother Hubbard sites: the original on Capel Street, a second site on Harrington Street in Portobello, a third in Ranelagh and a perch within Arnotts department store. With Middle Eastern and French influences across the menu, Brother Hubbard serves from early morning across three sites seven days a week while the evenings Yves offering is also available in the Capel Street and Ranelagh outposts Thursday to Saturday evenings weekly. Brother Hubbard also offers catering opportunities.
11. Lazy Claire, Belfast
Paris has been pivotal both personally and professionally for Daniel Duckett. It’s the city where he trained and worked under some of the finest patissiers and is also where he met his future husband, Patrick, who convinced the Alabama native to move to Belfast just over 15 years ago. As a talented pastry chef he saw a gap in the market for fine French-style patisserie and opened Lazy Claire — an anglicisation of “les éclairs” (the eclairs) in French — in 2018 on Castlereagh Road in East Belfast. Since then he has expanded his team, added a production unit and been in the mix for a slew of awards. Lazy Claire also offers catering opportunities.
12. Cloud Picker, Dublin 2
Married couple Peter Sztal and Frank Kavanagh began their micro coffee roastery in 2013 in the Dublin docklands after leaving behind their corporate roles in banking and graphic design. And have grown to become one of Ireland’s most premium and polished coffee brands with a thriving cafe on Pearse Street, outposts in Dublin Airport and now a larger roastery in Crumlin. As a brand Cloud Picker not only stands for ethical sourcing and sustainability but proudly wears its colours and individuality with immense pride. Annually during Pride month they also raise funds via merch sales for Belong To youth services.
13. The Narrow Quarter, Donegal
John Friel and Aidan McDaid spent two years renovating their cafe-restaurant in Kerrykeel before The Narrow Quarter finally opened in 2018. The pair, partners in life and work, who married in mid-2024, run the popular restaurant seven days a week from breakfast through to evenings.
14. Pickled Deli, Cork
Partners Katy Walsh and Keely Buckley opened their deli-cafe Pickled in Macroom in mid-2021 having met and worked together previously in the female-led Farmgate Cafe in Cork’s iconic English Market. Their location, unmistakable in its pink and orange frontage, and renowned for its cruffins, cakes and larger than life sandwiches was once upon a time Keely’s grandmother’s electrical shop. The couple split the shift with Katy focusing on the kitchen and Keely running the counter.
15. Copper + Straw, Dublin/Wickow
Stephen Kennedy opened his first Copper + Straw cafe in Bray in 2018 and then a pair of outposts in Dublin city centre followed on both sides of the Liffey — one on Arran Quay and another on Aston Quay. Kennedy says “Pride Month hits close to home for us. As a queer owned business, we know how important it is to create space, celebrate progress, and support those still coming up” and annually they host pride events and fundraising drives for charities like Belong To.
16. The Cake Dame, Waterford
Julie Doherty flies her flag and sells incredible cakes by the slice (or the entirety) each weekend in a converted caravan right by the pier in Cheekpoint. More well known by her moniker The Cake Dame, Julie specialises in traditional, joyful, comfort classics and hand-writes her menu weekly, which is available to pre-order for collection.
17. Happy Out, Belfast
Owned and run by couple Vic Young and Alex Campbell (AKA Phil T. Gorgeous, arguably Ireland’s most famous drag king) since 2022, Happy Out began as a mobile coffee van before teaming up with new co-owner Eamonn McGill to open their bricks and mortar cafe on Belfast’s Newtownards Road at The Foundry in Cit East in April 2024. They serve gourmet coffee and all manner of sweet and savoury bites while their roving coffee van, decked out in the non-binary flag, is available to hire for all manner of events, not just pride month!
18. Filter & wunderkaffee, Cork
What begun in 2012 as one of Cork’s tiniest coffee shops on George’s Quay has blossomed into a pair of queer-owned espresso and brew bars in the city, run by partners Eoin McCarthy and Alex O’Callaghan, with the second Filter site opening in 2022 on Paradise Place. The pair also own Wunderkaffee, a plants and provisions store open since late 2021 with a big focus on coffee, naturally, in Farran village.
19. Bismarck, Stoneybatter
Where might you find the keenest collection of hot sauces for sale in all of Ireland? Bismarck in Stoneybatter, of course! Bismarck is where a cafe, provisions store, art space and event venue meet under one roof, set on Prussia Street in Dublin 7 and opened since early 2024. Owned by Macroom native Mark Cronin, Bismarck is not only an officially unofficial exclave of Cork in Dublin but the evening vibe is all Mediterranean with wine pours and nibbles of fancy olives, almonds et al.
20. Mud Bakery, Dublin
Owned by The Great Irish Bake Off runner-up Shane Murray, Mud Bakery sprung to life in 2014 and has become synonymous with indulgent bakes and brownies while supplying lots of cafes in the wider Dublin area. You might also recognise Shane from RTÉ’s Home Of The Year in 2024 when Shane and his partner Marty Campbell’s renovated 1920s terrace won the competition.
Find Shane’s bakes at Glasnevin Market on Saturdays weekly (8:30am – 2:30pm), located on Barrow Road (D11XE09).
