Barry and Brian McCormack.
People in Lisnaskea and truckers passing through are now familiar with ‘The Silver Dollar’ takeaway/dining room, at lower main street, but few know that it has been trading under Barry McCormack’s stewardship for the past 30 years.
In fact, a sister takeaway of the same name, now Megan Macs at the other end of the town, traded for 27 of those years until it was taken over by Barry and Jackie’s daughter, Megan. The name? “We decided to go for an American theme”, he explained, and I did give Jackie a silver dollar on her wedding day. Those were the reasons.”
For all of those 30 years, the couple have worked side by side, save in the early years when Megan was born. “I was mostly on my own and I would have put in about 80 hours a week. In fact, I was four stone lighter than I am now!”
After about two years, Barry was joined by his brother, Brian who is now the general manager of the Silver Dollar Takeaway Ltd, to give it its formal title.
Then, after three years, the premises were renovated and, at the last minute, the decision was made to instal stairs to the upper floor which, today, operates as a 30-seater dining room. It caters for larger groups, such as football teams and coach parties.
Not every takeaway has parking space for 40’ containers, but they are a regular feature of the clients who stop off at Barry’s, some of them having rung in their order on the approach to Lisnaskea.
Barry employs five full-time and two part-time staff whom he described as ‘an excellent team’. They included Molly Goodwin who Barry asked to give him a hand out for two weeks when starting off. “She was working in the kitchen of the school, we had just opened. I asked her would she come for two weeks and she stayed for 20 years!”
The hours of opening are generous – Monday -Thursday, 12 noon until 12 midnight and, Friday and Saturday, 12 noon until 2am. To mark its 30 years, the ‘Silver Dollar’ is running a free draw for all its customers in the last two weeks of November, the prize, fittingly, being a weekend for two in Barrys Hotel, Dublin.
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