Swirl at Gavin’s is a ‘smoothie’ operation
FOR the want of something to do while her husband and mother-in-law were watching Mayo play in an All-Ireland final some years ago, Alice Roache had the inspiration for her new state-of-the-art crepes, waffles, smoothies, coffee and ice-cream business in Castlebar, writes Tom Gillespie.
A member of one of the county town’s oldest business families, Alice (nee Rodgers) received intensive training in Wales before embarking on the new business venture, Swirl at Gavin’s, on Spencer Street.
Alice told me: "When we were in Spain a few years ago Mayo were playing in an All-Ireland final and I had to find a place for Adrian, my husband, and his mother to watch the match. As I had no interest in the game I had to find something to do while the match was on.
"I came on a place that was pure white like Swirl. It was a lot more basic than this and it just stuck in my head after that.
"At the time I was looking for something new as the DVD business we have been running for years was going quiet. So we decided to slot something new in here and we came up with the crepes.
"My idea was to start with the crepes. I went to do my intensive training course in Wales last November and it was only when I got to Wales that I saw the demand for waffles. We always had the ice-cream here, and the coffee and hot chocolate had to come hand-in-hand with all that.
"We will be specialising in waffles and crepes, smoothies, coffees and ice-creams."
A selection off the Swirl menu includes a Swirl special - strawberries, banana, apple juice and yogurt; morning kick-off - coconut milk, Greek yogurt, banana, Agave syrup, lime juice and ginger; afternoon jump start - oat flakes, honey, banana and seeds.
The savoury crepes include such toppings as chicken, ham, egg, cheese, tuna mayo, spring onion, sweetcorn, tomato, pepper and cucumber.
Swirl is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday, with shorter opening hours on Sunday.
Alice added: "We started planning Swirl at the beginning of March. It gave me time to look at all the details which gave me more time to think of the little bits which make all the difference."
Where Swirl is located was originally an archway leading to the family back yard. It was originally converted into a video library and later for DVDs.
"We still have an awful lot of loyal customers for the DVDs," Alice admitted. "A lot of customers do not want to go online. They are not into computers and a lot of our DVD customers are young couples."
At Gavin’s they also have an internet cafe, Western Union, and they do all the transfer of video to DVD, etcetera.
Heading the Gavin enterprise are Alice’s father Shane Rodgers and his wife Pauline.
A former employee of Castlebar Bacon Company, Shane (76) told me: "The business started in 1895. It was owned by a family named Beckett originally and they leased it to my grandmother for 10 bob a week and the ground rent on top of that to be paid Lord Lucan was £11 a year. We subsequently bought out the ground rent some years ago through Michael Joe Egan, who was Lucan’s agent.
"The business started out as a bakery. It was during the war and they were doing fairly well. They were the first in town to get the electric.
"My mother married my father, John Rodgers, in 1940 and I was born in 1942. My mother, Alice Gavin, took over the shop in the 1950s.
"We were living in 15 Spencer Street and we moved here around 1950 and my mother got stuck in and started running the business. Subsequently the roof had to be repaired on the place and that was the landlord’s responsibility but when asked to do it he said he hadn’t the money so my mother bought the place for £1,100 and it cost her £1,200 to do it up. It was a general shop."
Shane finished secondary school in 1959 and was employed by Castlebar Bacon Company for 13 or 14 years until 1971.
He added: "We would be one of the oldest family run shops in the town.
“In the ‘80s I got into the video business. That took a few years to build but when it came right, it came right. Now it is all Netflix and downloading. Things have changed dramatically."