Palestinian food gem Izz Café expands into former gelato parlour on Cork City quay

The expansion comes at a time when several staff members at the café are struggling to deal with the risk to family members posed by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The invasion was triggered by a surprise attack on Israel on October 7 by Hamas, which left c1,400 dead. More than 200 Israelis were taken hostage. Since then, the Gazan death toll has surpassed 10,000, according to Palestinian officials. “It’s very tough, especially for our Gazan staff members. The houses in the area their families are from have been completely demolished. They are in the north of Gaza and no place is safe,” said Izz Alkarajeh, owner and business manager of the café.

The mother of one staff member has cancer, he said and as hospitals “could barely treat injured people, cancer patients are very low priority”.

Mr Alkarajeh and his wife Eman came to Ireland in 2016 as their backgrounds (Palestinian from West Bank and Palestinian from Jordan) prevented them from living together in the West Bank. They spent some time in direct provision which was “not tough, compared to the lives of Palestinians now”, Mr Alkarajeh said. They chose Ireland to keep their children in English-speaking schools.

“At least we were safe and had shelter in direct provision and the first shared kitchen facility in Ireland was launched within a week of our arrival, which made life much easier,"  he said. Prior to that, asylum seekers in direct provision had no access to doing their own cooking.

The Alkarajehs enjoyed the communal cooking experience and it prompted the move from a career in software development (Izz)and interior design (Eman) into food, starting with a small stall at Mahon Point Farmers’ Market in Cork. They opened Izz Café in 2019.

Eman is the chef. 

“Palestinian women in general are very good at cooking, they are by nature almost qualified chefs,” Mr Alkarajeh said.

The business survived the pandemic and they now have 10 staff, a mix of fulltime and part time, with plans to hire a few more once the expansion beds in. The expansion will create more seating too and the café will be able to cater for c30 seater customers, which Mr Alkarajeh hopes will do away with the need to turn customers away at the weekend, when they are particularly busy.

The husband and wife duo have taken out a 10-year lease on No 13, the former gelato premises, which has the same owners as No 14. Customers can move between the original and expanded café internally, even though they look like individual premises from the outside. While the gelato enterprise melted away faster than a fog in sunshine, Izz Café is now five years old. The proprietor said it gets great support from both the Irish and international community.

Mr Alkarajeh said he has no regrets about leaving software development behind. “I was behind a computer. There was no social life involved. Here you are very exposed to the entire community and it’s the most respectful community I have ever lived in.” The café owner is hoping the expanded section will open in the coming week, depending on the reliability of contractors. It operates both a takeaway and sit-down service. The most popular dish is Mana’eesh, a Palestinian version of pizza.