A Home Win With Greenes. Click & Collect. And Score

A Home Win With Greenes.

Click & Collect. And Score!

Greenes certainly make it easy for you with their current Click and Collect meals service. The ordering software (TablePath) is faultless, you make your choices, pay and nominate a collection time. It worked very well for us last Saturday, as it did on previous occasions.

Of course, you do have to finish off at home. But don't worry! Finishing instructions are supplied in your box. And if you want more help you can find online instructions on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

It is easy and well worthwhile. We’ll run though our choices and the basic info.

We started with Greenes Seafood Chowder. Put the chowder in a pot and heat until piping hot. Be careful not to over mix as you will break up the lovely fish chunks. Arrange in bowls and serve with a wedge of lemon and parsley if you wish.

The Main Event was Braised Feather Blade of Angus Beef, Parsnip Puree, Honey & Rosemary Glazed Parsnip, Red Wine Jus. Preheat oven to 190 celsius, place the tray with the beef and the sauce in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. After 6 minutes, add the honey glazed parsnips to the oven. Heat the parsnip purée in a saucepan on a low heat mixing with a spatula till piping hot. Put the purée in the centre of the plate, then the beef on top and pour the sauce over the beef and the glazed parsnips on the side.

Those lovely chunks of red and white fish were outstanding in the creamy chowder but there was nothing redundant here, even the petit pois played a key role in the deliciousness.

Time then for a sip of wine while the beef was prepared. Chef Bryan McCarthy is a long-time master of feather blade - going back to his days in Springfort Hall - and this was exquisite, the pairing of the parsnip with the tender beef a McCarthy masterstroke.

Other main courses available on the night were Ragu of Skeaghanore Duck, Seared Monkfish Fillet and also Ratatouille Ragu. Greenes Click & Collect is available from Wednesday evening to Sunday afternoon. The menu changes over the days and you may check it out here.

The basic price is forty euro for two courses for two people. You may add dessert and wine too and even a meal for a third person.

Speaking of dessert, they had  a choice of three: Summer Berry Panna Cotta; Chocolate, salted caramel tart, with sweet cream; and Exotic Fruit Cheesecake. All very simple to finish off. Summer may be gone but that Panna Cotta (above) is something else, the tarty compote, the sweet crush of the honeycomb and the velvety Panna Cotta itself that transport the lot to your eager taste buds! Wow.

Friday evening at Greene's. Almost like old times. Almost!

Friday evening at Greene's.

Almost like old times. Almost! 

In the car of a Friday evening and heading downtown. Park up and walking over to Greene’s Restaurant in MacCurtain Street. It’s almost like old times. 

Almost. We have clicked and are on the way to collect, all comfortably within the 5km limit. It is our first venture into the city since the lockdown began and, as it turned out, quite a worthwhile one.

You know there’s been some dispute among the restaurant fraternity about the value of click and collect or simply takeaway. But it keeps open the links with both suppliers and customers and also keeps some staff involved. And it also makes the possibility of slippage to processed food a little more remote, the processed food that ace American chef Dan Barber called “the lowest bar”, “It’s an insult.” (New Yorker May 24th, 2020)

Greene’s is one of the restaurants nearest to us and you just knew, takeout or not, there’d be no slippage in standards - just because there is a crisis doesn't mean you can't cook creatively - and so it proved as the quality of food they provided was so much better than regular takeaway. 

We stepped under the arch and entered to a big smiling welcome and were presented with our dinner in a long sleek box, packed full of good things to eat, each section neatly stored separately within. 

And inside also was one other very important item: a typed sheet with details of each element along with detailed instructions on how to finish the cooking! And, if you needed more help, you could look up Chef Bryan McCarthy’s video instructions available on both their Instagram and Facebook. 

Would you like a wine to go with that? No bother. Have a look at somm Frank’s suggestions videos on Facebook and make your choice. And of course the crew in Cask will sort out a cocktail for you.

At present, they are doing "Greene’s and Cask @ Home" three days a week: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The menu has variations each day and vegetarians are also catered for. 

Black Pudding and Pork Belly Beignets was our chosen starter and that came with an apple and celeriac salad with a superb dressing. Eight minutes later (that’s how long it took to heat up the beignets) we were tucking into it.  No bother admitting this was different class, even the salad came totally alive with that dressing and the beignets, with an aioli mayo, were also superb. A very satisfactory beginning indeed!

The other starter available was a Ballyhoura Mountain Mushroom Risotto (with pickled mushroom, Cep powder, and Coolea Cheese). Next time!

A break of ten minutes or so then as we “worked” on the main course: the Venison Pie. Would probably have been a few minutes less had we chosen the Pan Seared Hake (with Dashi cream and pea risotto). The third choice was the Vegetarian Jackfruit and Chickpea Stew (also about 10 minutes).

Anyhow, back to the very satisfying pie! Terrific chunks of meat with jus, big cubes of root vegetables and broccoli, not forgetting the spuds and extra mash. Superb. And a nicely judged quantity also.

The offer is two courses for two people for forty euro. You may also add sides or extras, maybe a meal for a 3rd person. Friday’s dessert offers were a Summer Berry Cheesecake, Sweet Woodruff Panna Cotta and Chocolate Brownie.

Didn’t get to study the wine list but one that I can recommend is the unoaked Flor de Crasto, a young, fruit driven easy-drinking Portuguese red wine produced from local grapes (Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Vinhas Velhas).

Our first experience of Click & Collect turned out to be a winner. We’ll be back to MacCurtain Street!

* Click and Collect at Greene’s and quite a few other restaurants use software provided by TablePath. I had some info up on that recently and you may check it out here. 

Greene's Restaurant

TablePath's Helping Restaurants Go "Click & Collect"

A classy take-away from Greene's!

TablePath's Helping Restaurants Go "Click & Collect"

With the food service industry being turned inside out these days, you have to be quick to adapt.  And helping Cork restaurants such as Greene's Sage and Da Mirco take the Click and Collect route is well established restaurant booking service TablePath, making it easier for the restaurants simplify and automate what can be a complex process. 

By the way, one of the partners in TablePath is Martin Poucher who is also the tech brains behind NeighbourFood with Jack Crotty, another brilliant food related service and one that doesn't seem to be getting the credit it deserves.

I just clicked into DaMirco's website there and here's what it looks like for this weekend.Tempting - you'd better hurry.

Other local restaurants on the TablePath system are:

www.greenesrestaurant.com (Bryan)

www.theglasscurtain.ie (Brian)

www.sagerestaurant.ie (Kevin)

www.12tables.ie (Dave & Cat)

www.damirco.ie (Mirco)

www.thewhalestail.ie

www.freddysbistro.com (Limerick)

www.oneillsbistro.com (Tipp)

Andrew Monaghan, Sales Manager with TablePath: "All their orders come through to them on their TablePath account and they can decide how many orders they can handle every 15 minutes and the system will work with that figure. Can also handle the maximum amount of orders they can handle per day.

The system automates all the payments, orders placed and time slots. Many of those now working with us had initially gone down the ‘pen & paper’ route of taking orders, payments etc. but once we had given them a demo on how simple the TablePath system was they were happy to work with us immediately!

from The Glass Curtain.

We manage all the set up (free of charge!) and we also manage all their Menu / pricing updates so there is very little for the restaurateur to do except process the incoming orders and drop them to the hungry customers in their cars.

With ‘Social Distancing’ going to have a big impact on the number of diners each restaurant can handle from June 29, we believe that the takeaway aspect of each restaurant will work ‘hand in hand’ with their core business once they re-open their doors! Our system integrates with STRIPE who handle the secure online payment process. 

We are delighted to work with many of Corks top restaurants and look forward to working with more over the coming weeks!"

TablePath. Way to Go

TablePath. Way to Go

It is six o’clock and Chez Paddy is unexpectedly busy. A group of students have just walked in. There is no one to answer the phone which is ringing off the wall. The guy at the other end of the line loses patience and looks up Seanie’s Place instead. He notices Seanie’s are on TablePath. A few clicks and he has booked a table for four (flagging one coeliac among the quartet) for the following evening with instant confirmation.

Haven't heard of TablePath  before? It’s quite possible you have already used it. Greene's Restaurant, Richy’s in Clonakilty, South County Bar, Brick Oven in Bantry, the Thomond Bar and the Cliff House in Ardmore are amongst current users.

I hadn't heard about it either until Andrew Monaghan, TablePath Sales Manager (and a friend of mine from my soccer days), gave me a demo and told me all about it. “It helps restaurants manage many aspects of their business including online reservations, marketing, electronic vouchers and website. It's a fully integrated solution and its huge time saving benefits are being seen by every restaurant / bar / hotel using the software.”

If you are a restaurant customer, it is ideal. Even if the time you want is fully booked, you can add yourself to a waiting list. No need either to miss out on any special events, promotions or discounts; just add yourself to the restaurant mailing list, delivered via TablePath of course. Contact Andrew at 086-6079650 or andrew@tablepath.com

There are probably three main headings under which the restaurant (hotel or bar or deli) benefits.

Manage the queue quietly online

Help Manage Your Time: Many tasks are automated to help free up your time. These include reservation management, automated promotions and many more. By the way, if someone calls in off the street to book a table that evening, a staff member can use his or her own traceable code to add the booking to TablePath. And the software can even help with table layout.

Get To Know Your Customers: Gain insight into your customers and provide an ever more personalised experience for each customer.

Effectively Promote Your Restaurant: TablePath provides tools to promote your restaurant to your previous customers, social media fans and on your website within minutes. So, if you have a new menu, it is easy to let them all know.

Other features include: Responsive website, Promotions, Analytics, Recurring Promotions, Pages that work on any device, E-Commerce, Menu Manager and Reviews. Sounds a lot, yet this Cloud Based solution (locally developed, by the way) is simple to use for both restaurant and customer. Check it out at www.tablepath.com

TablePath

NSC Campus

Mahon, Cork

Website: www.tablepath.com

Email: info@tablepath.com

Tel: 021-2061870