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Galway firmly at the base of award-winning pizza business
Eugene Greaney is the Galway man behind Dough Bros Pizza, and in creating his brand of rustic, kitsch casual dining on Upper Abbeygate Street he’s realised his dream.
The former Salthill Devon player has seen his business go from “street stall to high street in one year” and recently scooped the prize for Best Newcomer at the Irish Restaurant Association Awards.
They’ve been bestowed with a plethora of accolades in the past twelve months including the prestigious McKenna Award which goes some way towards proving that they are most definitely doing something right.
“This month [April] has been huge, with the food festival, the kids off school and the sensational weather,” Eugene says.
“There have been a few awards lately and they all came at the same time. It surprised us all about the Irish Restaurant Association Award, we weren’t a member and we went on to win the best newcomer, which is fairly unheard of.
“We’ve been so focused on improving the product and the customer experience that you don’t really notice what’s going on around you, so winning a few awards gives everyone such a boost.”
The Dough Bros have never been outside the top seven out of 356 restaurants in Galway on the Tripadvisor website, so to say they are going from strength to strength is probably an understatement.
The Dough Bros pride themselves on what Eugene refers to as “a remarkable product and a remarkable service, these were our core values from the start and they haven’t changed.” They specialise in a delectable array of Pizzas with a creative twist, it’s a pizza experience unlike any other found in the city.
It’s been an incredible few years for the graduate of the University of Limerick. Eugene studied Business and Marketing, something which he feels he has really used to his advantage.
He spotted the gap in the market and this is where the Dough Bros story begins. “I didn’t know how anybody wasn’t doing this already in Galway. I saw the opportunity but knew I didn’t have the money for a restaurant, so I began to research mobile wood fire pizza units.”
And it was his love of both Italian and street food that brought the business in the direction it has taken.
The street food scene has exploded in Dublin, the UK and in the States and he has adapted the street food culture to his own vision of the business, so far, so good.
In just under a year, they went from working from a custom made trailer at the Moycullen market on Fridays, outside Pure Skill in Knocknacarra Saturdays and the St Nicholas Market on Sundays to now employing 16 people in his restaurant on Upper Abbeygate Street. It’s been an exciting few months for Eugene and his team.
Eugene had gone travelling after university and returned to Ireland in 2010 in the midst of the economic downturn. He managed to get a marketing job where he felt he was excelling but, at the same time, he felt somewhat frustrated with being behind the desk.
After 18 months in the job, the company made the decision to relocate its business back to Canada and he was left jobless.
“I decided that I was tired of being dependent on someone else for work, now I’m dependent on me. On the flipside, I now have 16 people reliant on me and I don’t want what happened to me, to happen to them, it’s an added pressure.”
This drive within him is evident, he’s passionate about the product they produce and the experience they provide. “It was down to timing, I knew I was ready to try and make this happen.” He attributes his own degree to the success of the business getting off the ground.
“I’d already begun to source equipment and suppliers. On top of this, my final year project was on business plans. I had practical experience writing them, so when I went to the bank with my proposal they were happy with it, cleared it and I got the funding fairly quickly,” he says.
Their first gig in June 2013 saw the fruition of months of hard work, research and meticulous preparation culminate in disaster.
“I’d put €30,000 into the business; it was my first gig down in Terryland for Salthill Devon against Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup. We were catering for the fans and for Shamrock Rovers players.
“It went really well and leaving the ground I high-fived my brother, it was the happiest moment of my life. The area was poorly lit and we smashed into probably the lowest bridge in Ireland, the trailer was in smithereens,” he recalls.
Eugene put this setback behind him and got straight back to work, having another trailer built and luckily salvaging the oven and he was back in time for the Galway Women’s Mini Marathon a few weeks later.
Bouncing back from the initial setback they established themselves as a mainstay down the market on Sundays and gradually began to build up a customer base.
“It was really nice being a part of the markets, particularly in Moycullen on Fridays. It had such an incredible standard of food and a special atmosphere, to be a part of it was fantastic. The discipline of being there week in week out taught us a great consistency.”
If the glowing reviews on Tripadvisor are anything to go by, he is certainly right. In June 2014 the Dough Bros made the big jump to Upper Abbeygate Street and they haven’t looked back since.
In Dough Bros they’ve created a unique brand and succeeded in spite of the economically perilous times. Eugene has this advice: “If you’re at the stage where you feel ready to give 100% to an idea, go for it. The hardest part is taking the first step.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
