How It Started............

Way back in time, early 1984 to be exact,  when Dublin was a very different city to what is is today, two recent science graduates of Trinity College, Dublin were unable to find work (Ireland was in the midst of a deep and prolonged recession). They started to explore the idea of starting their own business. Lots of ideas were explored and lots of ideas ended up on the scrap-heap before the idea of bringing proper American-style pizza to Dublin took root. 

David Barry and Garret Connolly had both spent student summer holidays working in North American and both fell in love with pizza. Although it might seem extraordinary nowadays, at the time there were hardly any casual restaurants of any type in Dublin and there were only two pizza outlets both of which made deeply underwhelming pizza.

Long days and nights were spent working on pizza dough recipes and also in researching a suitable location.  Eventually a premises was located, a run-down former launderette in Drumcondra next to what is now Quinn's Public House.

Finances were extremely tight but by a stroke of fortune a second-hand pizza oven was purchased at a very good price from the receiver of a Grafton Street restaurant which had recently gone out of business. With the help of a small bank loan and other borrowings from family and with friends and family assisting with painting and redecoration,  the business opened on a Sunday in July 1984.

A steep learning curve ensued and little by little, step by step, the business was turned into a success. There were many late nights, plenty of long hours and many moments where we were flying by the seat of our pants but word spread, the pizzas proved extremely popular and Independent Pizza Company was on its way to becoming a Drumcondra and even a Dublin institution.

 In 1987 the founding partners went their separate ways and David Barry became the sole owner. In 2002 the business was relocated a few metres along the the road to a larger premises just under the overhead railway bridge at 28 Lower Drumcondra Road. 

In between times, with the business now led by David and his partner Jackie Keating,  a second restaurant opened off Grafton Street on South Anne Street - this was later updated in 1993 to a broader menu with plenty of non-pizza choices and was re-branded as Gotham Café. A third restaurant, Gotham South was added in 2010 in the southside suburb of Stillorgan.