Ferrit & Lee Standing Strong On Midleton's Distillery Walk

Ferrit & Lee Standing Strong

On Midleton's Distillery Walk

Beef

When local chefs Pat Ferriter and Stephen Lee took over the restaurant known then as Raymond’s on Distillery Walk in Midleton in 2017, they had a very good idea of what to expect. After all, they had long been working in the kitchen there, Pat for 12 years, Stephen for 13.

On the side

They renamed it Ferrit & Lee and began to put their own stamp on it and soon they had established their own niche in the food rich area, pleasing both local residents and any visitors that dropped in while coming or going to the distillery and other local attractions. And at the same time also pleasing many local growers, farmers, butchers, breweries, cideries, a certain distillery and various other suppliers.

And then came a scary challenge they could hardly have foreseen: the pandemic Covid 19. With their backs to the wall, they scrambled to survive, offering their customers a Click and Collect service and then outside dining with tables both at the front and rear of the premises. 

And when the hesitant all-clear was given a couple of weeks back, they were ready to serve indoors as well. We were there last week and, having enjoyed a superb lunch, can confirm that the food offering here is as good as ever. Besides, pandemic wise, we were well taken care also, no shortage of precautions and sanitisers.

Paté

Looking back on it, we were in agreement that the main courses were superb, as good as anything we’ve had in a long time. These guys know their meat - they source it in the East Cork area and are well able to get the best from it.

The menu descriptions were tempting and we had a little “argument” as to who would have the lamb, who would have the beef. Their signature dish is the feather blade of beef and they vary the accompaniments on a seasonal basis. Currently, the Slow cooked Jameson marinated featherblade of beef comes with roast carrots, seasonal greens, squash purée, leek and potato croquette and jus. The cooking was perfect, everything about it was perfect.

And it was the same high praise (there was a lot of sharing going on!) for the Braised new season lamb shoulder with apricot, cranberry, and pine nut stuffing, seasonal potato, vegetables, salsa verde and thyme jus, another superb combination of flavour and texture. That stuffing was superb. And, both these dishes came with a bowl of seasonal vegetables, also top class.

Lots of choices here including steak (of course!), Crispy Battered Cod, Chicken Tikka Massala, Egg Penne Pasta, Confit Leg of Duck, Baked Hake and more. 

No shortage of starters either. We decided to share the Jameson caramelised onion and free-range chicken liver paté with mulled quince chutney and warm brioche. There was an excellent little salad with it as well and we were off to a fantastic start. I know there are quite a few good patés around but this is right up there with the best of them and their chutney is also a star.

I completed my Jameson hat-trick with the dessert: the Baldwin’s Jameson ice-cream with chocolate sauce and honeycomb. Not bad but it was the Seasonal Crumble (rhubarb, strawberry and apple) that took the unanimous vote as best of the two! The trio of fruit was a very successful melange while the topping was absolutely perfect, dry and crunchy.

So, not for the first time, nor the last I’d say, these two punters left Ferrit and Lee in very good form indeed. And not a drop of whiskey between us. But we did enjoy a couple of excellent glasses of the house red - their wine list is based on the Liberty Wines portfolio. Our aromatic Castano Monastrell was soft and rich and juicy, an excellent house wine indeed.

Meet You at The Old Bank. New Mayfield Cafe and Food Hall As O’Connor Butchers Expand

Meet You at The Old Bank!

O’Connor Butchers Expand. New Mayfield Cafe & Food Hall 

Good morning!

Saturday December 2nd was a big day for the O'Connor family. What would the weather be like? They wondered. But they needn’t have worried. The sun shone and the music played, a big crowd showed up, even Santa appeared, as they officially opened their impressive new premises in Mayfield, a new premises that incorporates their long-running butcher shop business plus a brand new Food Hall and the lovely new Old Bank Café. 

Why Old Bank, you might ask. Well because the new building stands on the Iona Road site occupied for many years by the Permanent TSB bank.

All quiet on a Sunday morning.

I met Sinead Daly, the café manager, one afternoon last week and she proudly filled me on the story of the O’Connor family. The business started back in 1988 with the closure of Byrne’s in Ballincollig. Cormac O'Connor took a chance and, starting with a small van, began to fill the gap and now they deliver in both west and east Cork, to hotels, butcher shops and more.

By 1996, Cormac opened his shop on Boherboy Road, just off the North Ring Road, in Mayfield. And now, twenty years later, the tireless entrepreneur has moved that business the short distance to Iona Road to a purpose built building that includes the Food Hall (hot and cold deli) and the busy café, the first and only facility of its kind in the area. 

So great credit to Cormac. From that one man in a small van, the business has grown to twenty employees! Sons Cormac and Rory are now on the road, delivering east and west. The O'Connor family specialise in pork and bacon.

Sinead says they are now busy with Christmas orders, turkey and ham of course. Their traditional Christmas Cub is very popular. And another popular tradition is their Spice Beef. "Great aromas around the back these days!"

The Deli in the Food Hall opens at 7.30am and closes at 6.30pm. The Breakfast Bap is flying out the door. It is well priced: a fiver for the packed bap and tea or coffee. Another popular product here is your dinner on a plate: meat, vegetables and potatoes, fresh from the kitchen. A big ready-to-cook plate for €5.95 or two for a tenner. Good value and very convenient also.

The Food Hall is well stocked. Some good locally produced products on sale there such as Spice o’Life Sauces from Dunmanway and baked goods from Hassetts in Carrigaline. Watch out for the weekly offers and also popular, among the sporting fraternity, is the Protein Pack.

Sinead opens the Old Bank at 8.00am and soon the breakfast orders are coming in. The Full Irish (with tea or coffee) is in demand at €9.95. And you can have the mini-version for €5.95. Their Eggs Benedict, she has been told they “are the nicest in Cork”, is very popular and available for most of the day.

If your morning appetite is on the “small” side, why not try the Soft Poached Eggs or the Smoky Beans on Toast. Looking for something on the healthy side? They've got a Puffed Spelt and mixed nut granola and Porridge comes complete with Lemon Curd, seeds, berry compote, banana and honey.

Moving on then to lunch-time, you’ll be spoiled for choice. There’s their Roast of the Day and the Burger (all local meats by the way). Did you know that O'Connor’s hit the foodie headlines when their Glazed Ham was chosen to feed the hungry crews of the Clipper 09-10 race on Lapps Quay? Well that very ham is also on the lunch menu along with various salads and toasties.

Aside from breakfast and lunch, there are mid-morning and mid-afternoon opportunities to call in and relax with tea or coffee (loyalty card for regular coffee drinkers) along with scones, croissants, and pastries and more (Eggs Benedict for instance is on all day). And you can bring the kids. They’ll  enjoy some of the usual suspects but also have their own ham or chicken sandwich and will certainly be delighted with the highly rated Baldwin’s Ice-cream.

Baldwin’s are a farm in Knockanore, West Waterford and their inclusion on the menu is one way in which the café’s policy to use “the best seasonal and artisan produce available” is being achieved. The place was more or less full in mid-afternoon last Tuesday and it looks as if Sinead’s aim to make it “a great place to meet, socialise and eat” is on its way to being realised.

* Appropriately, since there is no longer a bank in Mayfield, the new premises includes an ATM.

On The Bus Bia Tour

On The Bus Bia Tour
Cheese, Ice-Cream, Bread

Wheels of fresh cheese, waiting to be stored.

It is ten o’clock on an April Saturday morning and we’re on the Bus Bia, heading into the countryside north of Dungarvan. The Bus Bia (Food Bus) is just one element in a packed weekend of activities organised by the West Waterford Festival of Food. We’re on the Blackwater tour and there are two other tours to different areas.

In the sunshine, we pass the house of famous local chef Eunice Power and the memorial to the renowned racing greyhound Master McGrath. Soon we are in Cappoquin. For a while we follow the spectacular Blackwater River, its big houses Dromana and Camphire standing proud, before cutting off deeper into the countryside for the farming area known as Knockanore. 

Bus passengers at Knockanore Cheese

First call is to the Knockanore Cheese company where we are greeted by Donal. They have 120 cows milking here. The milk is left unpasteurized and none is bought in. He tells us they make cheese in six flavours. The most popular is their Smoked version though the Black Pepper Cheese is well up there as well. They smoke it themselves, two weeks with oak-wood.

It is a long day in the dairy, from about 6.30am to 4.30pm. They process over twelve hundred gallons three times a week, producing about 190 wheels a batch. Each wheel weighs 2.8 kilograms. The cheese is then stored for around six months before being sold on at home and abroad (including Denmark, California and New York).

Tom Baldwin

They have grown the business gradually but now are in the throes of expanding their facilities at Knockanore, concentrating on more refrigeration and a bigger cutting area. Around six people are involved in the operation that was started in 1987 by Eamonn Lonergan who is still at the helm. The range is widely available and is stocked in SuperValu shops.

Baldwins are neighbours of the Lonergans and here we were greeted by Tom. Tom found himself with a conundrum in around 2005, whether to move from farming or whether to add on an enterprise to the existing farm which was being smoothly run by the family in any case. Inspired by Eamonn Lonergan he took a course in ice-cream making and started the Baldwin Ice-Cream business.

“We make ice-cream the traditional way. Sarah (who plays a similar role at Lonergan’s) does production for me two days a week. The eggs used are free-range, and all ingredients are natural. We sell to cafes, restaurants, hotels, retail. We pride ourselves on the unique quality and that comes out in the product.”

It is all manual work “at the moment”. “It suits me, is very flexible. For instance, if a chef wants a particular small order, we can do that special.”

Esther Barron

 The ice-cream enterprise has seen the dairy herd grow from 50 cows to some 100 plus. He still delivers direct to the customers: “We have no central distributor. I’m happy the way I'm going as it is a sustainable model. Most of our customers are in Waterford and Cork and we have built a good reputation.”

Back then to the bus and we retraced our journey to Cappoquin. Here we stopped at Barron’s Bakery which has been operating for five generations, serving only the local community (up to an 11 mile radius) for all those years. Esther Barron was our passionate host at the oldest bakery in Ireland and she underlined the importance of spending locally.

Oven closed

 They have 12 employed nowadays and bake during the night, using the amazing old-fashion Scotch Brick ovens. Bread-making here is a slow process but the bread is all the better for it. The bread is two hours in the making before it even gets to the oven whereas a factory process take only 20 minutes. “Hand-moulded bread is always more flavoursome. The bread can't be rushed. My father used to say ‘the art of bread-making is beyond science’”.

The bakery was established in 1887 and is one of the last bakeries in Ireland that still uses the Scotch Brick ovens. These give the bread an unique taste, flavour and crust as we found out for ourselves thanks to a parting gift of a Waterford bla from Esther and Joe.

A great half day on the bus, all for 15 euro. Put it in your diary for next year!

See also: The Tannery Kitchen Supper.
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See also:

Dungarvan Wrap-Up. West Waterford Festival of Food

Oven open, like a small room inside

CORKER OF A MEAL AT FENNS QUAY

CORK ON A FORK

Local food, local lingo

Enjoyed a classy Cork on a Fork meal at the ever reliable Fenns Quay this week. This good value menu, even better now since the VAT reduction, includes mostly local food, such as spiced beef, and the menu card itself is “spiced “ up with some local lingo.

You are encouraged to have a starter by “Give it a lash boy” and a dessert by “Era, go on so”.

The food too is served with a smile and certainly put a smile on my face. Enjoyed my starter of Spiced beef and shredded beetroot. On the other side of the table, her regular Warm Chicken Salad lived up to expectations.

Mains for me was one of the evening’s specials: Baked Hake with herbed basmati rice, sautéed French beans, courgette with fennel and salsa rossa. A terrific combination, light and satisfying.

The other mains was Braised Irish Lamb Shank with Green Saffron Spiced Potatoes. The lamb was cooked to perfection and the spiced potatoes really added to the dish. As they say around here: “Savage Cabbage.”

We agreed on dessert: Lemon pudding served with Baldwin’s Ice-cream and a tiny jug of chocolate sauce. Presentation was inviting and the combination – that ice cream is gorgeous – went down a treat.

Wines were Pazos de Ulloa DO Ribeiro 2009 and Domaine d’Angayrac Costieres de Nimes 2008, each at €5.50 a glass.

Cork on a Fork: 2 courses €22.50; 3 courses €27.50.