A Belfast cafe that was devastated by a fire earlier this year has been able to start again from the ground up in a new location.
Neighbourhood Cafe has now reopened in a new location following the fire at its old premises in Cathedral Buildings on Donegall Street in October.
The blaze on October 3 left dozens of businesses, creatives, and hospitality venues in turmoil as their space was destroyed.
Read more: Belfast fire forces popular cafe to close "until further notice"
It destroyed everything in the cafe and its owners, Ryan Crown and Oisín McEvoy, had to start from scratch when they made the decision to reopen in a new location.
The owners received a call from chef Niall McKenna, and decided to take the lease of the former home of Hadskis restaurant on Commercial Court in the Cathedral Quarter.
Just five weeks after this call, Ryan and Oisín opened their new cafe and have now been able to grow their team, retaining staff from their previous premises and hiring an additional six staff.
Speaking after opening the new-look Neighbourhood Cafe, Ryan Crown said: "Our café was part of the Cathedral Buildings fire in October, and it was completely destroyed with nothing salvageable.
"Oisín and I had to start again from scratch. We had an amazing 10 months in our original location and to see it all be destroyed in front of us so quickly was devastating.
"Fast forward a few weeks and after taking a call from Niall McKenna, we took over the lease at Hadskis on Commercial Court, determined to get open before Christmas.
"We wanted to retain our amazing team and build an even better version of Neighbourhood and managed a very ambitious five-week timeline from starting the project to opening our doors last week.”
Neighbourhood will be hosting late night openings on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the run up to Christmas, and will continue to serve speciality coffee and their popular brunch offerings.
Oisín McEvoy added: "We’re now open seven days a week at our new location and open late on Wednesday and Thursday on the run up to Christmas.
"Our menu has a focus on local suppliers and our coffee is from Calendar Coffee in Galway - in our opinion the best coffee on the island of Ireland. We’re over the moon to be open again and welcoming customers to our new and improved café."
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