General Merchants is “your local neighbourhood eaterie, supplying fine coffee & Antipodean brunches”. It started in Stranmillis, in a small row of shops on the embankment, in a café locals knew simply as 5A; it has been the General Merchants university-area outpost since 2013. The second site is in the Ormeau area, near Ormeau Park.
In East Belfast it occupies a stand-alone building that was once the Cabin Hill Grocery Store. The North Belfast café has Cave Hill as its backdrop and a menu that pays homage to the classics: Vegemite on the Melbourne Breakfast, the Little Ox 2.0, a sweetcorn fritter and a chicken parmi burger. A kiosk in the city centre, looking towards City Hall, serves coffee with treats from Manmade, Check Out My Buns and Fera Bakery, the same bakers that supply Stranmillis.
The Ormeau café is licensed and serves brunch all day, with morning cocktails and walk-ins only.
The coffee comes from its local roasting partner, The Roast Works, and is roasted in Belfast. There is one espresso and there are two filter coffees at a time; recent ones include La Palta from Peru, Aquiares Peaberry from Costa Rica and a washed Guji Shakiso from Ethiopia.
Photograph: General Merchants