I didn't know quite how large O'Briens had gotten! it's turned into a huge chain now, and it seems to have passed me by. The days when O'Briens first opened, it was a new experience, a nice place to grab some "gourmet coffee" and a salad wrap whilst discussing plans with friends over a power lunch. Kinda like a scaled down Starbucks.
The O'Briens chain seems to have taken off, but this is the first one I remember, and aside from refits here and there it doesn't seem to have changed much either. Which is slightly comforting.
Intimate would be how the estate agents would phrase it, but to you and me, it's small. You don't feel boxed in because one wall is complete glass and the other isn't there. If you can get a seat there's a kitchen bar that runs across the glass wall looking out onto fair Bury and a few seats and tables dotted around. Food and drinks wise, coffee, and gourmet coffee at that. It's a nice cup, but it's expensive, it plays too much on the gourmet at times, and to be honest it goes over most people's heads. Salads, wraps, sarnies, paninis, smoothies, milkshakes. All the staples you expect, that make it average. Keeping up with average these days is no mean feat. read more