THE directors of O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bar opened their second store in one of WA’s oldest buildings at 200 St Georges Terrace this week.
Housed within the old Cloisters Square building, which started life as Bishop Hale’s School in 1858, the outlet includes an alfresco area that is shaded by the century-old Port Jackson fig tree.
O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bar director Rob Moran said the site has allowed the company to use good signage and will increase the brand awareness of the O’Brien’s offering.
“This store looks really good. As you walk across the Terrace from Mill Street you walk straight into it, it is very visible,” he said.
Mr Moran has spent the past several months scouting for a new CBD site and settled on the heritage-listed building because of its passing traffic.
“We had a look at the site where Cino to Go have just opened (at 188 St Georges Terrace) but we went with this one because there is more of a hub and greater pedestrian traffic,” Mr Moran said.
He said that he and fellow O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bar director Bryan Johnson were in serious discussions for space in which to open its second St Georges Terrace-based sandwich bar.
“We are looking at a site in Allendale Square and have an offer in on that.”
The pair opened Australia’s first O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bar at 1292 Hay Street, West Perth and will operate the sites independently.
“We have franchisee interest but ideally we would like to have this up and running for a few weeks before we did anything,” Mr Moran said.
“We have a lot of people wanting to franchise but they want to be in the shopping centres, which wasn’t really what we wanted this early. The initial plans were to have five or six in the CBD but you never know.”
