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Barnie's Gourmet Coffee first Irish outlet opened in the summer of 2005 on Dublin's Westmoreland Street followed shortly afterwards by two in Eason's city centre branches on O'Connell Street and Nassau Street. Their intention is to have some 7 branches open by the end of the year and ultimately 30 nationwide, with a large marketing budget. The woman behind the venture is Lorraine Sweeney (once of Campbell Catering) who believes that the only way to compete with the likes of the giant Starbuck's is to be part of a franchise. Franchising brings uniformity, and while that may be negative in that there is no variety at least the customer can be reasonably confident of obtaining the same standard and cleanliness in each outlet. About 75% of their market is take-away, far more than initially expected. Having been to a couple of their outlets I'm not particularly impressed, at the moment, due to poor service and product. Review to follow shortly.