Greenwich Café Brunch A Perfect Finalé To Cork On A Fork Festival

Greenwich Café Brunch A Perfect Finalé To Cork On A Fork Festival

Eggs Royale: O'Connell's Smoked Salmon, Poached East Ferry Farm Eggs and Hollandaise sauce. The best Eggs Royale I've tasted in a long long time and Evin (of Brunch Cork), at the table with us, agreed. The ingredients were superb. The smoked salmon was a light and delightful surprise, so much better than what you get in many hotel breakfasts, you know those that come with a punchy aroma that dominates everything else on the plate.

Greenwich café chef patron Dermot O'Sullivan supports local all year round at the popular Caroline Street venue. So it was no big surprise to see him do it again with his Cork on a Fork Brunch special last Sunday, fittingly entitled "A Celebration of The English Market with Kinsale Gin". No surprise either to see the event sell out. 

It was quite a gin weekend for us and
the Kinsale version kept up the
standard in this welcome G&T
just after arrival.

CL enjoyed her tasty plate of Irish mushrooms on Pana sourdough toast, Parmesan shavings and slow-roasted tomatoes with basil pesto. Again the ingredients were key. The mushrooms and tomatoes were packed full of flavour and there was no shortage of moisture to soften the sourdough crust. Thumbs up again!

We had recently enjoyed the third dish on this special menu and knew the Strawberry Crumble Challah Bread French Toast using challah bread from The Alternative Bread Company, new season Irish strawberries, whipped mascarpone and oat crumble / or Rosscarbery bacon with maple syrup is another gem from the little kitchen here.

French Toast (from a previous visit)
is a regular on the menu here

Felicity Roberts of the Greenwich team heading to the sunny terrace
during last Sunday's A Taste of The English Market Brunch
 with Kinsale Gin during Cork on a Fork Fest. 
Pic: Joleen Cronin.

Supporting local is ingrained here in Greenwich. Just check out all the local names on the regular menu below.

Greenwich. Passionate café culture in Cork city centre

Greenwich. Passionate café culture in Cork city centre

The lady at the counter is delighted, compliments are flowing to the staff as she pays her bill in the little Cork café. “This is delightful,” she enthuses, “A real café, great food and relaxing music, and in the heart of the city. How long have you been here?”

They explain that the current owner has just celebrated a year in residence but the café has been here for about 20 years. With an incredulous gasp, she questions: “How come I’ve never found it before?” Greenwich is the uber central café in Caroline Street, just behind Brown Thomas that itself faces onto to the main thoroughfare of Patrick Street.

Dermot O’Sullivan is the chef/owner celebrating his first anniversary here in Greenwich and he has the place smelling well, looking well and sounding well! 

Flowers and bright paintings all around, cool jazz and easy swing ooze from the speakers as tempting aromas waft from the kitchen. This gentle melange for the senses, served with smiles and chats, has enthralled many a customer, our happy lady the latest in a long line.

These months, with not much use being made of the outdoor seating (even if it is sheltered), the 20 plus seats inside are busy and buzzing, the punter’s eyes on the glass containers of cakes on the counter, the wall-mounted boards (detailing coffees, teas and wines) and on the menu with its day-long brunch offerings and its lunch list, along with a host of sweet treats.

We get in around 1.45 on a midweek afternoon. There is a short wait for a table and we have the menu to check in the meantime. By the time we’ve read it, the table is cleared and we have a good idea what we’ll be eating.

I had the Reuben sandwich on my most recent call and this time I’m inclined to go for something off that day-long brunch menu and pick the Challah Bread French Toast. It is a tasty and generous plate,  the bread (from the English Market) is dipped in egg and cream, fried in butter until golden and served with crispy bacon  and maple syrup. There is also a homemade fruit compote vanilla Mascarpone version. 

Dermot supports local suppliers. The ever reliable Chicken Inn is one such and CL picks the Chargrilled Chicken Salad with chargrilled red pepper, toasted cashew nuts, dressed Waterfall Farm leaves and pickles served with the café’s homemade honey & mustard dressing. A generous and inviting plateful, accompanied by a couple of slices of their brown bread, is a very satisfying combination of colours, flavours and textures. 

They have a short wine list here but today we pick the beautiful refreshing apple juice from Con Traas’s Apple Farm in Cahir. Coffee is by the Golden Bean and we decide to share a slice of the Lemon Curd Cake. Just as well we shared, as the portion is quite large!

So, heated by the meal and feeling good after the warm welcome and the friendly service and the day’s play-list, we are well equipped for the walk back to the car.

Greenwich Café. Where New Kid On The Block Dermot Smoothly Settles In

Greenwich Café. 

Where New Kid On The Block Dermot Smoothly Settles In

There’s a mean Reuben on the menu at Greenwich these days. Chef and new owner Dermot O’Sullivan calls it “a taste of NYC on Caroline Street”. 

And his phrase also answers a question frequently put his way since he took over the former Idaho Café a few short weeks back.

The Greenwich refers to the famous “village", once offbeat now high-end, in New York, the centre of the city’s creative culture of the 1960s and where artists (Jackson Pollack for instance) and musicians (including Bob Dylan and the Clancy Brothers) did their thing. The new name has nothing to do with the Greenwich of mean time fame!

Dermot, as you may know, took over from the Jacobs (Mairéad and Richard) who had made Idaho one of the best-known and best cafés in the land. They have retained the brand and so Dermot had to find a new name and, like his predecessors here, looked west for inspiration!

And the new Greenwich is looking well. On a rare “day off” since the 25th of January takeover, Dermot took up the painting brushes and gave his Greenwich “a nice cosy warm olive green backdrop”. Some stunning @AlanHurleyArt paintings (including one of Michael D) will catch your eye as will the flowers on the curved counter and bright bunches of West Cork daffodils on the tables.

Welcome to Greenwich, a few yards from Patrick Street

Not too much change in the morning routine here as the salad leaves, freshly baked Arbutus and spiced beef are delivered to the door. And more colour with strikingly beautiful pink rhubarb (sourced from English Market) used for a topping on your porridge.

Not a porridge person? How about the Home-made Granola served with Greek yogurt and Berry Compote?

Regulars will be thrilled to see the Homemade Waffles retained on the menu. They, the waffles not the regulars, come with selection of toppings, including Chocolate sauce, Organic maple syrup and Butterscotch.

Fish Pie

You also have a couple of baps to choose from. Either a Crispy Irish Bacon and Sausage Flour Bap or a Crispy Bacon and Durrus Irish Farmhouse Cheese Melted Bap.

Lunch, if you wish, may begin with soup. Parsnip and Apple, Roasted Sweet Potato and Coconut, and Pea with Delicious Fresh Mint, have been among the early offerings and all  are served with Dermot's own wheaten bread baked that morning. We had a taste of that bread and it is excellent.

We were in for lunch and that takes me back to that Reuben. The spiced beef is from Tim Mulcahy’s Chicken Inn and is served with sauerkraut, Russian Dressing and Melted Monterey Jack, all served on Arbutus sourdough, and there’s also a small but excellent side salad. 

Thumbs up for that and also for our other main course, the Fish Pie, packed with fish from Pat O’Connell’s in the English Market. Bit of name-dropping there just to illustrate that local is high on the menu here.

The flowers on the curved counter share space with a colourful parade of tempting cakes, including Lemon and Almond, Red Velvet Cake, Coffee Cake, Caramel Squares, scones and more. 

Cake? Pic via Greenwich

We picked the Coffee and Walnut Cake, a very popular one and we could see why. Slices are generous here and we shared one along with a couple of cups of top notch coffee.

Quite a few weeks for Dermot and his friendly crew since the changeover on January 25th. Quite a lunch for we two! 

So all the best to Greenwich in the weeks and months ahead. I’m betting it just keeps getting better.