Part of the work the Rathgar Residents Association Committee is supporting the RBA and businesses in the village.
In 2023, to promote businesses in Rathgar, the RRA added ‘Best Shopfront’ and ‘Most Improved Shopfront’ to our Garden Competition. The Vintry was awarded Best Shopfront and Bijou was awarded Most Improved Shopfront. Congratulations to them both.
A Business Saying Goodbye
The Rathgar Hair Studio has been a much loved and well-established local business for over 30 years. Owner Clare Sexton says, “Working and having my business in Rathgar for almost 33 years was a really wonderful way of life for me. I was part of a community that I would have missed out on if I worked or had my business elsewhere”.
“My advice to anyone thinking of starting up something in the village is to be in touch with your neighbours, on both the business and personal level. Worked for me! I must add that Mark and Linda Smyth of Bijou are totally responsible for bringing the village together to the standard that it is today.”
A Business saying Hello
Nahid and Darius Sadri, are owners of the Fat Cat Café and Denj Persian Restaurant.
They commented recently, “The Fat Cat is a now an established local café where our focus is on serving high quality fresh dishes in a casual daytime setting. We respect our local customers greatly.
“Over the last two years, we’ve tried to introduce Persian cuisine to Rathgar by opening Denj restaurant. While we built up loyal customers, it proved a challenge and so we’ve decided (with 20 years of experience) to change our cuisine to Italian. Our new family restaurant, Piano Piano, meaning Slowly Slowly in English, will offer a compact menu of fresh pasta and pizza made from the finest quality ingredients” they said.
Closures
Regrettably, in recent times, a number of shops/businesses have closed and left Rathgar. We now have a number of vacant premises. RRA is working with RBA to alert public representatives and any other interested parties to deal with vacant premises and try to regenerate more businesses in the village.
We also encourage residents to use local firms as much as possible.
Maura Byrne, Liaison person between the RRA and the RBA.
