I’m sitting in Dock Cafe on a rainy Saturday afternoon with the buzz of life and laughter all around me.  Families are playing board games, soaked tourists are slowly evaporating, old friends are catching up and new friendships are being forged.  Talk about a sight that’s good for the soul!

So I thought I’d grab the chance to pop a few pictures online – and first of all (and very belatedly) to post news of our Dock WEDDING! If you frequented Dock Cafe in the early days, you will never ever forget our Little Boss, Tegan, who ran the show with an iron fist (seriously, you didn’t want to mess with her) as Dock Cafe began, grew, expanded and blossomed beyond our wildest dreams.

She has now met the man of her dreams and tied the knot and so, with all our love, CONGRATULATIONS TEGAN & SIMON!

Speaking of faces from the past, we’re truly delighted to be welcoming David Gavaghan as the guest speaker of our next Sunday Night service (Sun 4th Sept at 6pm at the cafe) – David was at the helm of TQ Ltd during those crazy early days of Dock Cafe (the pic shows that awesome moment when he signed the Meanwhile Lease for Dock Cafe and the adventure began!)  He’ll be sharing his vision for the future of Belfast city and I know it will be inspirational.  Put it in the diary now!

One aspect of Belfast life that still takes some getting used to (for those of us who remember the grey old days) is the amount of visitors from all over the world who are now visiting the city.  Dock Cafe is a hubbub of different languages, nationalities & cultures throughout the Summer months – so Clemence hit on the idea of putting up a big map where customers can all mark the place they call home.  It’s only been up a week or so and we already have push-pins scattered all across the globe!

And closer to home – Dock Market is BACK baby! and showcasing the very best home-grown talent.   The boundless creativity and skill  of our Marketeers never ceases to amaze me – and if you check out the new ‘Dockie Directory‘, you can start to read some of the stories of the faces behind the stalls – it’s really inspiring to find out how they each realised they had a unique talent and got started with their bespoke businesses.

The Directory is sorted by name, craft, genre or Market date – awesome job gang!  And don’t forget the next market on Saturday 27th August – which as you can see is another milestone in the life of The Dock.   Which we’re celebrating with stormtroopers – because every birthday needs the evil Empire to make it really special.