This year has tested the resilience of retailers and restaurateurs like no other, and for the first time, we’ve seen what our local towns and high streets would look like without their characterful presence. As 2020 draws to a painful close, supporting local and buying Irish in the run-up to Christmas will, quite literally, be the difference for many between survival and permanent closure. Below are just some of the businesses I want to see thrive in 2021 and beyond, so I keep reminding myself of a quote I saw on Instagram recently: “Buy local, or it’s bye bye local.”

Scout

This boutique is one of my favourite interior spaces in Dublin; it has a warmth to it that contrasts starkly with generic high-street stores’ clinical white walls and chrome fittings. While I haven’t been inside it much this year because of restrictions, it’s one I supported online during the last lockdown and one I will again now that we’ve entered Level 5, because its absence from Temple Bar would be an enormous loss to the locality and to mindful shoppers in Dublin. It stocks clothing, accessories, homewares, kidswear and stationery among other beautiful things. Everything in the store is mindfully handpicked by owner Wendy Crawford and its edit always feels unique and fresh. Quality and longevity are the anchors of the brand’s ethos, and each item in the store is chosen for both its beauty and utility. Wendy is also a huge supporter of Irish design so you’ll find plenty of local talent alongside a selection of UK, Dutch, Swedish and French brands. Scout is usually the first store I look to when I’m shopping for birthday or Christmas presents. It’s ideal for picking up thoughtful and beautiful gifts for individuals who have an eye for good design.

Find Scout at their Website & Instagram

Vibes & Scribes

With two stores in Cork City, one which stocks bargain books and the other, one of the largest selections of craft and art supplies in the country, Vibes & Scribes became my happy place when I visited Cork City for a couple of days during the summer. Unfortunately, the book store doesn’t have an e-commerce site, but the craft store does (it stocks books on fashion, jewellery making, knitting etc) and it’s incredible. It offers a plethora of yarns, fabrics and crafting accessories and is a creative person’s nirvana. The store itself hosts knitting and crocheting groups weekly and also offers demonstrations in a variety of crafts so it’s thoroughly engaged with the surrounding community. Lest you think this is a space frequented by grey-haired, spectacle-wearing little ladies, when I was there it was full of what looked to me to be young creatives and arty college students sourcing interesting trims and beautiful materials for, I imagine, design projects. It’s an amazing online resource for anyone who’s creative or simply enjoying a bit of crafting during lockdown.

Find Vibes & Scribes at their website & Instagram

Charlie Byrne’S Bookshop

My sister came across this terrific book store when she was looking for a couple of less well-known titles that weren’t available on Eason’s website. The bricks and mortar store is in Galway, and in 2018 it celebrated its 30th year in business. Like Vibes & Scribes, it regularly hosts inhouse events and it is a cultural centre within the local community. It stocks more than 100,000 new, bargain and secondhand books, some of which are hard-to-find titles on specialist topics. Obviously, not all 100,000 are available on the website, but you can email or call the shop if you don’t see what you’re looking for on the site and they will check whether or not the book is in stock before arranging delivery. This bookshop offers an ideal combination of the new (a good e-commerce website) and the old (one-to-one service, even if it’s only over the phone while restrictions are in place). These are the kinds of stores that give our towns and cities personality and warmth. Supporting Charlie Byrne’s online now means it’ll exist IRL for another 30 years at least.

Find Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop at their website & Instagram

Kerala Kitchen

With two Indian restaurants in Dublin – one on Baggot Street, which opened in 2016, and the other, which opened earlier this year against the odds, in Stoneybatter – Kerala Kitchen is the rising star of the Dublin restaurant scene. It’s had consistently wonderful reviews in a variety of mainstream media and recently it was the only Irish restaurant to be included in the Deliveroo UK and Ireland Restaurant Awards 2020; it’s already been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Indian. Like the rest of the hospitality industry, Kerala Kitchen’s owners have shown perseverance and determination this year. The restaurant is offering a takeaway service from both its locations, and until we hit Level 5 this week, it had a small number of tables available outside its Stoneybatter restaurant, with a BYOB policy – that’s Bring Your Own Blanket (post-Covid, they’ll be supplied). As much as I love those traditional Indian eateries with heavy carpets and white tablecloths, Kerala Kitchen’s contemporary but cosy interiors are a refreshing change. Everything inside is beautifully curated yet feels nicely casual. It’s one of the first restaurants I’ll be returning to when life regains some kind of normality. In the meantime, take-away will do nicely.

Find Kerala Kitchen at their website & Instagram

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Om Diva

Admittedly, shopping Om Diva online is nothing like as much fun as exploring the three tiny floors which spill over like champagne bubbles with the most gorgeous, colourful and fun jewellery, clothing, accessories and homeware. But that’s why this online business needs our support, so that this wonderfully eclectic boutique, which is such an important fixture on Drury Street, survives for many years to come. Owner Ruth Ní Loinsigh is as colourful and vibrant as the items she stocks. She’s a firm supporter of Irish design, and has devoted one floor to an enterprise called Atelier 27 – a showcase for young and emerging design talent. This is the perfect place to scout for gifts because you never know what you might come across. Although it’s beautifully and thoughtfully merchandised, it’s a little like shopping a jumble sale due simply to the vast number of lovely things crammed into every corner and onto every shelf. I love it.

Find Om Diva at their website & Instagram

Liath To Go

Located in the Blackrock Market in south county Dublin, Liath Restaurant is a tiny venue with a big reputation. The Michelin-star restaurant offers fine dining but in a less stuffy setting than is traditionally the case. Its focus is firmly on the ingredients and finished dishes rather than the pomp and ceremony of high-class dining. In an attempt to outlive the pandemic, and continue to provide the kind of food to customers that has made Liath a destination restaurant, it’s now offering a limited takeaway service, which will be available for collection at the front door of its Blackrock premises, and the menu is available to view on the website. Owner Damien Grey is passionate about using food as a means of bringing people together and of creating shared experiences, and he’s determined to continue to do this, lockdown or no lockdown. If you’ve got a birthday or anniversary coming while we’re in Level 5, a Liath To Go order would make the evening a memorable one I should think.

Find Liath To Go at their website & Instagram

Neighbour Food

Farmers’ markets have suffered alongside boutiques, restaurants and the hospitality industry, so this website, which brings together some of the best small producers in the country, is a way to support the local growers and artisan makers you used to buy from at various open markets at weekends. From day-to-day foodstuffs such as locally grown veg to chocolate and confectionery treats, as well as artisan ready-made meals, it’s a one-stop online shop for your weekly food needs, but unlike supermarkets, Neighbour Food guarantees that everything on its site is produced locally, is organic, and is not genetically modified. It also guards against intensively reared meat and battery eggs. Customers collect their orders from a local venue, and in normal times, farmers and makers are often present to meet and chat with consumers. For now, though, specific time slots are being allocated to customers in line with Covid-19 guidelines. Supporting Neighbour Food will cost more than a Lidl shop certainly, but given that we won’t be eating out again for at least six weeks, it makes sense to redirect that money into buying the very best food to enjoy at home.

Find Neighbour Food at their website & Instagram

Marie Kelly, October 2020.