by Ronan Casey
After running one of Mullingar’s best-loved coffee shops and restaurant for over thirty years, Tom Masterson is this week enjoying a well-deserved coffee break as he retires and hands over the keys to a new team.
Liam and Mary Gilleran will be the new faces at the Coffee Dock, which will undergo a name change as part of its transformation into a new venture for the well-known local couple. For Tom, he poured a coffee for the last time on Friday, August 8, after 34 years of waking up the nation at one of Ireland’s longest established coffee shops.
The quintessential ‘people person’, Tom, made The Coffee Dock more than just a place to enjoy a coffee, a lunch or an afternoon tea. It was a Mullingar institution, a traditional, timeless meeting place for young and old alike, and the friendly face of Tom behind the counter always ensured a bit of good-natured banter.
“I love the public, and I’ve always been fond of people,” Tom told Topic as he surveyed his former business as the new owners commenced renovations and refurbishments this week. “You never knew who you’d meet in a business like this. Opening each day was a pleasure as anyone might come through the door. We had great local support and the passing trade always brought in unusual customers. People like (beef baron) Larry Goodman would stop for a coffee here, parking his helicopter at Cusack Park! The great hotelier PV Doyle always called when he was en route to Sligo. People like that. You’d treat them the same as anyone else. We’ve had some great characters through the doors and I’ll miss that side of the business. People like Roche T, Gay Curran, Micky Duffy… the laughter, the fun and the odd party was great.”
Tom Masterson’s many happy memories of life in the ‘Coffee Dock’ would fill a book, and as well as the many thousands of customers he served over the 34 years, he also spoke fondly of former staff, suppliers and fellow traders.
CATERING FOR THE NATION
Tom himself was bitten by the hospitality and catering bug at a very young age when a part-time job in the Longford Arms proved so enjoyable that he decided to pursue hospitality and catering as a career. He studied at the College of Catering in Rockwell before enrolling at the prestigious, world-renowned Shannon College of Hotel Management.
After learning the ropes with the masters, he started working at the Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, which was the place to be in Dublin 4, when it opened in 1963. Here, Tom worked with a great bunch of people from all over the country. The hotel trade then was different to what it has become today, with Ireland’s Céad Míle Fáilte replaced by poor staff and Ceann Amháin Fáilte, and Tom recalled the glory days here of amazing service and skilful staff. He didn’t know it then, but the Intercontinental’s Coffee Dock, a famous 24 hour, seven days a week restaurant, was to leave an indelible mark on him. The hotel was taken over in 1972 by Jurys and not long afterwards, Tom decided he too needed a change. A friend twisted Tom’s arm into coming in on a nightclub and Tom became one of the first people to open a nightclub on Dublin’s soon-to-be-swinging Leeson Street.
The street would become the Mecca for late night action in the capital and the man from Mullingar was in the thick of it from his base at 33 Lower Leeson Street. He started an industrial catering business, supplying food to factories and other institutions (one of his first contracts was with G.A.F. on the former Newbrook Racecourse) but gradually the pull of the home county brought him back to Mullingar where he opened ‘The Brown Owl’ in 1980 on what was a very different Castle Street.
“When I started, the street was dominated by ‘DJD’, Denis J Doyle and Castle Motors. There was the ESB and the tourist office, nothing like the amount of shops on it now. It has been great to see it developed – sad as well as it was a part of old Mullingar gone – but great because the street became busier. There’s been a lot of changes throughout the town, and plenty has come and gone.”
Married locally to Teresa, with three children, Gordon, Caroline and Marie-Terese, the Brown Owl was very much a family business. After a few years, it became ‘The Coffee Dock’.
Whilst Tom may be hanging up the apron, he is delighted that the business is going to be re-imagined by the husband and wife team of Liam and Mary Gilleran. “Sure I remember them from up the road when they were in Gilleran’s pub!” laughs Tom. “Weren’t they in here all the time.”
DREAM COME TRUE
Liam Gilleran picks up that point, saying taking over the Coffee Dock was something of a dream come true. “When we were in Gilleran’s (now Number One) I remember Mary often looking down the street, saying she’d love to have a place like the Coffee Dock, and here we are!”
The new-look venture will have a new name, and Liam and Mary are aiming to open on Friday, August 22nd. For now, they were happy to let Tom do the talking. Indeed, Tom has been helping the couple out since he closed the doors on Friday last, and when Topic called in, he was in the thick of it as builders gave the restaurant a new look.
He’s looking forward to calling in as a customer when Liam and Mary open – a long overdue coffee break for the popular businessman!
