That was the year that was! Rewind 2019

That was the year that was!

Rewind 2019

When you go over the hill, you go faster. And certainly this year, 2019, went faster!

Cask "toasting". Wine, Whiskey and Beer evening  at the Franciscan Well

It was a good one though, some terrific visits to producers of all kinds, delicious meals, excellent stays at everything from B&Bs to five star hotels and friendly festivals as well.

And great to be able to confirm that friendliness is still a huge and engaging factor in the Irish hospitality sector. There were warm welcomes, above and beyond, in many places and our front of house laurels go to:

Luca in Ali’s Kitchen, Cork; 

Julie in Finns’ Table, Kinsale;

and to the entire team at Wicklow Heather in Laragh. 

With Mary T (right) at Castle Grove

On the Gastro Pub scene, you’ll find it hard to beat the Victor led front of house at O’Mahony’s of Watergrasshill. And in accommodation, the nod goes to Mary T and the Sweeney family at Castle Grove House in Donegal. Always a terrific welcome too at both the Trident in Kinsale and the Celtic Ross in Rosscarbery. Top guesthouses: Perryville (Kinsale) and Sheedy’s (Doolin).

Breakfast is a key part of accommodation of course and we came across some gems this year. Aldridge Lodge  in Wexford is absolutely outstanding while Sheedy’s of Doolin is another excellent place. I don't do breakfasts in restaurants often but ORSO in Cork gets an honourable mention! The most impressive breakfast room we came across is the beautiful conservatory in the Quay House  in Clifden and the breakfast is good too as it is in Kinsale’s Perryville.

Fish breakfast at Aldridge Lodge

O’Mahony’s of Watergrasshill is an outstanding venue for pub grub while Gallagher’s in MacCurtain Street Cork impressed on a pre-theatre visit.

Goldie

The fish offering is also improving all the time and we came across two quite innovative places this year: Fisk in Downings in Donegal and Goldie in Cork City. Kudos too to the Wild Strands Café (Malin, Donegal) for their use of seaweed and fish. Superb fish dinner as always in the Bayview Ballycotton, the village is also well served in that regard by Pier 26, and there was an excellent fish lunch at the Mountain House in Ardfield, West Cork. In Cork City and in a few Kerry towns, you'll find, as we did, the ever-reliable Quinlan's.

Great variety in the restaurant scene nowadays, including the famed vegetarian (and wine!) offering at Cafe Paradiso, also on Leeside. Crab claws were superb at Pier 26 (Ballycotton) and Naughton's (Kilkee) while the best steak was served at Liberty Grill (Cork). Hard to beat Nash 19 Cork for pork and the Market Lane group for lamb (especially when the Blasket Lamb is available). When it comes to variety on the menu, Cork’s Dockland is the place to be.

Liberty Grill steak

Enjoyed the Palestinian fare at Izz in Cork though the ethnic highlight was the Pickle Pop-up with Sunil Ghai  in Sage Midleton. Another good one was Richy's Curry Series with his excellent Indian chef Meeran Gani.

Pearse Lyons Distillery

Lunch is an important time if you're on the road. The Woollen Mills Café in Foxford , St Francis Provisions (Kinsale), TIA in Louisburgh are all worth noting - great salads and more. In Cork city, put the Farmgate (celebrating 25 years) and Crawford Gallery Cafe on your list, not forgetting Vikki's in Sunday's Well, O'Callaghan's (Mitchelstown) and Seasalt in Cobh. Something more substantial? Then put Tramore’s Copper Hen in your diary. And go for the lunch tasting menu at Greene’s Cork if you are looking for something really special. Off for an afternoon? Why not the extra special Afternoon Tea in the River Lee Hotel?

Ichigo Ichie. "Every moment we change"

We enjoyed a few special dinners. The Sake dinner at Ichigo Ichie was outstanding. Great company, wine and food at the Rizzardi Wine dinner in Courtmacsherry’s Lifeboat Inn. And fantastic wine and fish at a FEAST event in the Bayview. And another excellent night was the Barnabrow Gourmet Evening with ENO Wines.

Paradiso Cork

Indeed, FEAST was our top festival this year. It has made huge strides in recent years. The Pickle Pop-up here was a good one and another very enjoyable meal was the Picado Mexican Pop-up during the West Waterford Festival. 

Quay House, Clifden

Oh, I nearly forgot dessert. Indeed, I’ve been known to skip it sometimes. But two that I remember with pleasure are the Mocha Choca Yumma at the Ballymaloe Cookery School Garden Café Truck and the Apple and Berry Crumble at the Copper Hen (Tramore).

Dessert at Ballymaloe CS truck

Both Eight Degrees and Kinnegar breweries, two of the best around, took time out to show us their breweries. Another very enjoyable event was the Wine, Whiskey and Beer evening  at the Franciscan Well. Other producers visited included Clonakilty Black Pudding, Seymour Biscuits (Bandon), St Tola Cheese (Clare), Hegarty's Cheese (Whitechurch).

On the wine side, there was a very impressive Spit 2019 day in the River Lee. Best wine bar we visited was the Gallery in Westport. More and more non-alcoholic drinks, good ones, are coming on the market and our favourite this year is the Highbank Orchards Organic Drivers Cider.

A couple of excellent distillery visits too including to Clonakilty and Powerscourt (both new). Perhaps the most memorable was the lovely Pearse Lyons distillery  in Dublin’s Liberties, big thanks there to our guides Bernard and James.

Speaking of guides, we had the lovely Karen Coakley include us on her excellent Kenmare Food Tour, lots of good food and variety in this small Kerry town. Kenmare is excellent but our top town of 2019 for good drink, excellent food and off-the-scale craic is Clonakilty. My highlight in Clon is the annual Street Carnival. In the city, we enjoyed the Long Table Walk in June and the Gourmet Trail (part of the Oyster Fest) in September. And in mid-summer, we thoroughly enjoyed a West Cork Farm Tour where another three top class guides - the O'Donovan family - showed us around..

Downings

Can’t go without mentioning pizza. I know there are many good ones around nowadays but my nod goes to newcomer Curley Stu  (check his Facebook here for venues) and the well established Pompeii (regulars at the Franciscan Well and in Waterville for the summer).

Lunch at Greene's

Great to see so many places now putting the emphasis on local and Blarney’s Square Table, champions of local, have been doing exactly that since they started. The Europe has, we think, the best five star hotel lounge/bar while Powerscourt has the best pub. 

For comfort and ticking all the other restaurant boxes as well, it has to be the Cornstore in Cork. Always a good atmosphere here. This year though the best buzz we came across was at Tapas de Lola (Dublin) and The Bullman (Kinsale).

Always get around to the farmers markets and it usually pays off! And it paid off on the double when we called to Killavullen before Christmas as it was here that we found the best ever Mince Pies (Noirin) and the best ever Sausage Rolls (Ciaran).

Bray Head walk

Some Random Bits

Top walks for auld fellas: Knockadoon, Ballycotton Cliff Walk, Nire Valley Gap, Bray Head (Valentia)  and Carrigfadda (West Cork).

Film: Satan and Adam (Netflix)

Books: Beautiful Affair (Mike Hanrahan), Suzy Suzy (William Wall), Rewind (Catherine Ryan Howard), all different but each with a strong East Cork connection.

Museum: Little Museum of Dublin.

So that was 2019, or at least a summary. If you have any suggestions for 2020, you know where to find me! 

An October Wander in Mayo and Galway

An October Wander in Mayo and Galway

Afternoon near Letterfrack

Dozio & Pears in TIA

So here I am in Mayo, in Louisburgh to be precise, enjoying a delicious Swiss-Irish cheese in a lovely friendly Portuguese-Irish cafe. The cheese is called Dozio ( pronounced dots-i-o) and the café is called TIA. It is the last Friday in October, it is dull and showery, but I’m nice and cozy and enjoying the grub and the  lunchtime buzz.

TIA tiles

TIA, according to Google, means aunt in Portuguese and there is a family feel about the place, lots of school kids in either with a parent (maybe an auntie) or without and a fair bit of banter between the customers and the staff. And the food is local as exemplified by the board that says the lamb chops are PJ’s. They appear on the list of more substantial meals (more like your dinner).

We study the other board and order a couple of delicious salads. There is a Sourdough toast, honey roasted ham, Barr Rua cheese (also from Dozio), relish, salad and TIA crips. The potato, chorizo, kale and fried egg combination looks attractive, well priced at €8.50. All the dishes seem well-priced and all the food is sourced locally.

Achill Island

This section also details a Chicken, Mozzarella and Ciabatta salad; another salad of Sausage rasher, fried egg with Blaa; and a Vegetarian Burger with Sautéed potatoes, salads and pickles.

I go for the Warm Roast Pear Salad, Dozio Cheese and excellent homemade brown bread (12.00). Danilo Dozio and Helen Grady are making cheese in Mayo, using ancient recipes from Canton Ticino in the South of Switzerland. They make a few different varieties including the soft Zing (with apricot) that I so enjoyed with my salad. Meanwhile CL was loving the Warm Chicken salad, pickles, wedges and a Chilli Mayo (10.90). And it was two happy customers that left the Halloween decorated café to continue our journey to Clifden in the heart of Connemara.

The Breaffy House Hotel, our base for the middle night.

Our trip had started two days earlier near Ballina with a visit to relatives. Later that evening, we dined in the quirky Gallery Wine Bar in Westport, details at end. The following day, on the Thursday, we took up an invite to visit the Foxford Woollen Mills and its gorgeous revamped café. Terrific food here also from Chef Kathleen Flavin and you may read about the mill and the meal here…

The morning hadn’t been great but the sun was out and about as we left the mills and so we decided to head for Achill (a change of plan as we had been thinking of visiting the nearby National Museum featuring country living, our rainy day option). And quite a few stops were made and many photos taken as we made our way around the nearer loop (we didn’t go as far as Keem Bay), taking in the sights including the Grace O’Malley castle.

Superb burger, with local beef and bacon and topped with Dubliner cheese, at Oxtail in Balla.

That evening, we headed out to Balla for an excellent evening meal at the Oxtail Kitchen (you’ll find it above the Shebeen Pub on the main street). Here, Balla born Patrick McEllin and French lady Rebecca Miton, support local farmers and producers through the ever changing menu, a menu Patrick describes as classical with a modern twist. We certainly enjoyed our visit. Details also at end.

The following morning we met up with a friend of ours in Westport and enjoyed a chat and the coffee in Leafy Greens before heading west along the road to Louisburgh. First though, we stopped to see the impressive famine memorial in Newport and the horrors of the famine would again be in our minds as we headed to Leenane via the beautiful Doolough valley, haunting and maybe haunted by the happenings there during the famine, and now commemorated by a plain stone memorial as you go through the Doolough Pass. A yearly walk is held along this route in memory of the Doolough dead  of 1847 and to highlight the starvation of the world’s poor today. Otherwise though it is a lovely drive and a terrific cycle route (I’m told!).

Detail from the famine ship memorial in Muirisk

On then through some spectacular roads, including the final Sky Road, to Clifden. That night we would dine in the Marconi Restaurant in Foyle’s Hotel in a room whose decor recalls the exploits here of Marconi and also the story of Alcock and Browne. A good meal was followed (indeed accompanied) by pints of Bridewell, the local brew. Some excellent music in Mullarkey’s Bar meant a pleasant extension to the evening.

The famine memorial in the lovely Doo Lough Valley

Napoleon was all over the
place, even in the bathroom!

We spent the night in the Napoleon room of the quirky and hospitable, if expensive, Quay House, an 8-minute stroll from the town centre. The Quay, which closes up for the winter, has one of the brightest and well appointed breakfast rooms in the country, a conservatory room indeed and a breakfast to match.

Thus fortified, we started up the trusty Toyota and headed south, enjoying the benefit of the newly extended motorway, at least to Limerick. After that we drove through a lot of bends and a whole lot of broken promises by politicians before our home city came into sight.

 

Anyone for breakfast? The gorgeous conservatory at Clifden's Quay House.

Also on this visit:
Dinner and wine at Westport's Gallery
Foxford Woollen Mills: Visit and Lunch

Foxford Mills & Cafe. The Nun. The Accountant. The Chef.

Foxford Mills & Cafe.

The Nun. The Accountant. The Chef.

In 1892, a determined nun created Foxford Woollen Mills. And it had its ups and downs, employing a peak of 240 in the ‘50s, until 1987 when the receiver moved in. An accountant with the receiver still saw potential and made a bid and Foxford was revived. Nowadays, with over 70 employed, it is confident and thriving, both as a production unit and as a visitor centre, workers and tourists well fed by a determined chef in the kitchen who has recruited a posse of local producers, a move that would no doubt have had the blessing of the founder.

That founder was the redoubtable Sister Arsenius, originally known as Agnes Morrogh Bernard (family from Cork). At the age of 50, the sister and a few companions arrived in Westport to establish her Sisters of Charity order there. She was struck by the grinding poverty and the depressing hopelessness, the people held down by the landlord system (focus of the Land League campaign of the time). Famine was still a factor, and indeed there was a localised one as late as 1879.

The Western Care Association are Foxford's new charity partner for this year and are pictured here with MD Joe Queenan (far right) 

The Sister still saw opportunity in the gloom and concentrated on setting up the wooden mills with water from the fast flowing Moy, labour and sheep all at hand. But she had no experience. She approached a Protestant Freemason who had a mills in Ulster for advice. He wasn’t that keen at first but the nun was not for turning and eventually he helped set up the mills.

A grant from the Congested District Board was also a big factor, local weavers were trained and soon the Foxford Mills were up and running, it’s klaxon at morning, lunch (twice) and evening, setting the agenda for the town and the surrounding farms as our enthusiastic guide Alison told us on our tour of the mills. By the way, a portion of all tickets prices is allocated to various charities.

One of the superb dishes that we enjoyed during our visit to the café in the Mills.

Chef Kathleen

Alison does most of her talking before you actually enter the production as there is a lot of noise in there! Setting up and operating the machinery takes much of patience and precision - not too sure I’d last too long there! But the results are fantastic, great designs and natural colours.

Did you know that some well-known phrases have come from the various stages of production in mills like these, such as Tenter Hooks and No Strings Attached. Later, during lunch, I found out for the very first time that the Mayo village of Balla is actually pronounced as Bal (like pal), the final “a” being silent.

Dessert

Back to that lunch with MD Joe Queenan, the accountant who stepped in and, with various supports (including a vital Business Expansion Scheme (BES)), eventually revived Foxford Mills after the 1987 crisis. Today over 70 people are employed here and their products are sold in mid to high-end stores. Some 33% is exported mainly to the US, the UK, Scandinavia. The Asian market is being targeted but Joe expects that their internet sales will be their next big outlet. “Online is becoming more and more important.”

They have deliberately retained the quality in design and product, innovation is also key, and have found their niche in the mid to high-end. They recognised early on that there is no way they could compete with the major manufacturers in Asia. 

Fascinating story behind this Michael Collins
throw. Read it here

Joe and indeed the people of Westport know that the founding Sister pursued “a holistic approach, …founding bands, …helping farmers get their products to market, …the kids to get an education.., and more”, a point also emphasised by Alison.

And you sense he is quite proud now of the mills and indeed of the café (which has a come a long way in the last ten years), proud to lead a company that does real work, produces real products and serves real food.

In the bright and airy upstairs café, we meet head chef Kathleen Flavin, an articulate chef with a vision that translates beautifully to the plate as we would soon find out.

She loves that she gets to work every day in the bright place, a luxury not afforded to that many chefs! In this recently renovated and updated room, Kathleen has a great rapport with her customers, answering their queries and helping with recipes - check out the cafe’s Facebook page here.  

After a hearty greeting, Kathleen immediately told us that the food is local and seasonal and called out a long list of local suppliers, many of whose photos are to be seen on one of the walls. These include Dozio’s Cheese, the Reel Deel Brewery, Killary Fjord Shellfish, John Clarke’s Smoked Salmon and Clive’s Butcher Shop.

Most of the herbs and leaves come from their own gardens and both Kathleen and Joe are rightly proud of that as well. As many of us are now beginning to realise, the shorter the journey, the better your food.

The Mills shop in Foxford sells many other top notch Irish products, including Modern Eire and Finline Furniture.

The focus is very much on healthy but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a delicious dessert here. We did, just after two of the very best salads we’ve ever tasted.

And if you’d like to take something home with you, that’s not a problem as Kathleen and her crew have various jams and preserves (how about pickled plums?) prepared and packed in jars. Oh by the way, she loves baking too. Yes, the Christmas puddings are ready and on the shelves. And there’s a great selection of cook books on offer here as well in the shop, underlining Joe’s words about a seamless connection between the two.

So there you are. A great place to visit. A great place to eat. Great products to buy. And great people too. I think Sister Arsenius would be rather proud of the accountant and chef and the team that are carrying Foxford Mills into the future.

Also on this trip: The Gallery Wine Bar, Westport
October Wander in Mayo & Galway