Orla’s trucking on with burger van

WITH no opening date in sight for the hospitality sector, a Clonakilty restaurant owner has launched a new LA-style ‘click and collect’ burger van.

Orla O’Donovan who runs the Fig & Olive, said she also was diversifying in a bid to retain her staff, so they wouldn’t seek employment in other sectors.

Two years ago Orla and her brother Johnny bought former Masterchef winner Diana Dodog’s food truck which had been based in Courtmacsherry. They’ve now rebranded it as as ‘80/20 Burger’ and are fully sold out for this, their first weekend in business.

She explains: ‘We originally bought it as we were short on space for kitchen prep and storage and it was an ideal and cost-effective solution for us.

‘We don’t want to compete with the Fig when it does eventually reopen, so we’re doing a decent fast food truck called ‘80/20 Burger’. The name comes from the blend of meat we worked on with William from Allshires in Rosscarbery.’

Orla, who is also chair of Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce, said she felt the hospitality sector had done everything it had been asked, and were still ‘nowhere’ on the road to reopening.

‘It feels like we’re swimming against the tide. We’re all being asked to dip deeper, but I feel as a sector we’ve done all we can. It’s now time for the government to ramp up their vaccination programme and get more aggressive about it.’

The truck will operate on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 4-8pm, at the rear of the Fig & Olive carpark, near SuperValu.