Irish restaurant chain hope to turn bank building into new lunch spot for Cork city

A popular Irish restaurant brand are planning to turn a former bank building into a fun new healthy lunch spot in Cork city centre. Sprout & Co, an Irish brand with a number of restaurants around the country, are planning their first Cork location. They have applied to the City Council for a change of use of the former Ulster Bank premises on Winthrop Street.

Ulster Bank ceased operations in 2023 and the Winthrop Street property has sat empty for months. Sprout & Co are hoping to open a new cafe on the ground and first floor of the building. The healthy-eating brand is run by brothers Jack and Theo Kirwan from Kildare.



They started an organic farm in Kildare in 2018, and have said a tomato at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork is what "started Sprout." On Sprout's website, they tell how when Jack tasted the "full-flavour punch" of the organic tomato while at the East Cork cooking school, "it sparked the idea for a locally-sourced, seasonal, healthy food business." Since starting the business, Sprout has expanded its restaurant business across Ireland with a number of locations across Dublin and Kildare, where a menu of organic salads, warm bowls and wraps are a very popular option among the lunchtime crowd.

The Cork restaurant, if they secure planning permission, would be the first Sprout Kitchen outside of Dublin and Kildare..