Synge & Byrne

Si's Sights And Sounds investigates Derry-Londonderry's latest "coffice", or "caffice" on the day of its official opening

Once upon a time, a Guardian staff writer coined a concise, catchy, crossover term – The Coffice. Half coffee shop, half office, hence the name, it is a word that now seems fitting for all coffee houses or cafes in existence. There's coffices, or caffices if you prefer, everywhere. Eateries and drinkeries, transformed into workplaces for the freelancing writers, project developers and entrepreneurs of our wired world, with free wi-fi, nice background music, a dependably delicious menu and a lovely window view.

The latest Derry-Londonderry coffice, or caffice, Synge & Byrne, has all of the above, and a little more: a friendly ambience and a unique aesthetic that blends both past and future elements of its city of residents to create a new monument to its surroundings. A trifle and a tribute can be enjoyed within brothers Damien & Adrian Garvey's "coffee kitchen", situated right at the top entrance of the Foyleside Shopping Centre, close to the historic walls and Ferryquay Gate. It's the third of its kind, following successful Synge & Byrne openings in Newry and Newtownabbey, and may well establish itself as the welcome, modernist "cousin" of the popular Legenderry coffice near the Guildhall Square.

Synge & Byrne, however? What a name, catchy yet comedic. When someone reads those words, he or she surely can't help jocularly suggesting that the food and drink in the cafe may singe and burn them. Although, according to co-owner Damien Garvey, he stumbled across the name purely by chance: "I was putting up bunk beds at home one night. My youngest daughter was bouncing on the top bunk, and my wife said, 'Be careful, your hair will singe and burn the lights!'"

Eureka. That was that. The name of Synge & Byrne had originated. Although the backstory runs deeper than that: J(ohn) M(illington) Synge was a key figure in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century Celtic Revival, and co-founder of Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Charlie Byrne was an eight foot tall man famed for parading himself in country fairs and on village greens in the eighteenth century.

An artistic giant and a literal giant, with names that wouldn't sound out of place when spoken in the food business. It really does work well.

The logo (pictured above) represents the historical Synge and Byrne as a kind of yin and yang, a two headed schizophrenic beast. "One is modern and one's traditional", says Damien. "It's like looking forward and looking back at once, and it encapsulates what we're trying to do with an artisan cafe that resembles both sides of who we are in Northern Ireland."

As owners of O'Briens, the Garvey brothers have already been operating in "Stroke City" as businessmen for nearly seven years, and they find it a fantastic city for business. To them, it is small, but very proud and vibrant, the ideal place for another “coffee corner” - for Damien, the events of the City Of Culture year and Music City attest to that.

"Each cafe must find its own environment, and here we've found somewhere to develop the musical and culture side, where everyone from the shopping centre and the centre of the town can get involved. We've opened, we look good, but that's the easy part – keeping it going for the next ten years is the hard part."

It is left for me to sit back and enjoy a Synge & Byrne coffee in the corner of this "coffice" while hoping that the Garveys' latest venture pays dividends for both brothers and this historic city.