Come to Table. The café in Brown Thomas Cork

Come to Table.

The café in Brown Thomas Cork

If you are in Cork City centre outside Brown Thomas and someone asks you the location of the restaurant in this store - there are two possible answers. If the visitor is from the US, Table (the name of the restaurant) is on the third floor, if he or she is from the UK, Table is on the second floor*. No confusion though about the quality at Table; it is excellent as we found out at a recent lunch.

We were in for lunch. After a smile and a welcome, we were shown to our table and the menu handed to us. It was headed Brunch but all the dishes listed were lunch items - no Eggs Benedict or Smoked Salmon and Eggs.

It was quite a tempting selection in any event, soup or chowder to start with (if you wished), then lots of salads, a more substantial cod dish, chicken supreme also, there were a few veggie options (including a sweet potato and red lentil dhal), a Bacon Cheeseburger plus a Tex Mex Chicken Burger.

I had put my eye immediately on the Salmon Nicoise, Marinated Green beans, Baby Potatoes, egg, crispy croutons and green leaves. And, after a hesitation or two, that was what I ordered. Very happy with this large plateful of tasty fish and veg (those green marinated beans were a standout).

CL picked the Falafel and roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Salad, lemon tahini dressing (vegan). This dish had just been added to the menu and our friendly server told her the chef would be looking for feedback. And he got a good one. Another dish packed full of flavour and not a little colour. The Kemp sisters, owners of the café, are indeed noted for light and colourful dishes, just like the modern art prints around the walls.

We took up the option of having a cup of soup with the mains. The soup of the day was Sweet Potato and Coconut. It was really top notch and so too was the brown bread that came with it. They have a short list of wines here, some bubbles too. But we went for the juices and got two very good ones indeed. CL had a generous glass (all portions are fairly generous here) of just squeezed orange juice while I hit the jackpot with a bottle of Rhubarb and Ginger Lemonade (produced by Limerick’s Wild Orchard).

Finished off with a cup of coffee and a Apple and Cinnamon Crumble with Vanilla Ice-cream from Featherbed Farm. Again that dessert was quite large; more importantly, it was also top notch, the real thing!

Table is run by sisters Peaches and Domini Kemp, who started off their joint food business about 20 years ago with “one employee, one small van and a helluva lot of prayers”. Their first venture was to introduce bagels to Ireland. More recently, they are also to be found in stores such as Brown Thomas, under the Little Museum of Dublin in Hatch and Sons, and in the Irish Museum of Modern Art. What a long way they have come!

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Table 

Brown Thomas

19 Patrick Street

Cork

021 480 5555

* Apparently, the Americans start counting from the ground floor while the UK and Ireland start from the floor above the ground level. But, with the globalisation of the English language, there’s bound to be some confusion.

Four Beers. Two Comparisons. Two Aces. Festival News

Four Beers. Two Comparisons. Two Favourites.

Table Beers

I bought four beers in Bradley’s of Cork the other day, for comparison purposes, two table beers and two with a large lemon element.

So lets start with the pair of Table Beers, better known to me as Saisons. White Hag, who produced the No. 40 in collaboration with Brew by Numbers, helpfully give a definition of the style on the can.

No. 40 is a true farmhouse saison, it represents a beer style that would have been produced all around the world to quench the thirst of farm-hands, and new-world settlers alike. It is produced from the second runnings of a much stronger beer, that would have been reserved in casks for consumption in the dearth months of sustenance. The table beer was just that, a beer for the table, consumed instead of raw water to ensure health. Light in alcohol, it could be consumed by everyone without fear of inebriation and dehydration.

I’m sure you’ll find definitions with more technical clarity but there you have the gist of it.

White Hag No.40 Table Saison, 2.6% abv , 440ml can

White Hag: Superb collaborative brew with Brew By Numbers. This Table Saison is a classic farmhouse beer in true old world style but with all the frills and fair that modern brewing has to offer. An absolute delight in the sunshine.

An absolute delight in the sunshine, they say, but the sun had gone by the time I got to drinking this very pale yellow cloudy beer with light citrus aromas. That light citrus continues onto the palate and there is a fair bit of cutting on the finish. Didn’t make a great impression though. One can would be my max and then time to move on to something like the Kinnegar below.

Kinnegar Skinny Legs Table Beer 3.5%abv, 440ml can

This new Skinny Legs, “the 3.5% table beer we made together with the participants of our first K2 brewing academy, is rolling off the canning line with a smile on its face”.

Colour is a healthy looking mid amber. Moderately fruity aromas. Maybe not fully powered up on alcohol but much more flavour here. If I were a labourer after a hard day’s work, reckon I’d much prefer to be coming back to this saison rather than to the Hag. No contest. 

Kinnegar have announced that from now on “our new beers will come under the 'Brewers at Play' banner. Because that's what they're really all about — giving the brewers and our customers a bit of variety and allowing us to test new ideas and trends. If we (and you!) like it enough, the beer will eventually get a label all of its own.” Go for it lads!

When Life Sends You Lemons… 

Whiplash Sunshine Under Ground Lemon Smoothie Pale Ale, 5.4%, 440ml can

Colour: Cloudy mid yellow, unfiltered and unpasteurised. Lots of lemon in the ingredients and on the palate. This has notes of Lemon Meringue. Silky and smooth, with a touch of creamy sweetness and a zesty finalé. I rather like this one!

It is brewed "for Whiplash by Whiplash at Larkin’s Brewery in County Wicklow" and is their response to the long-lasting scorcher we had here in Ireland. Of course, when I get my hands on it, the scorcher has retreated. Still, no need to deprive myself of enjoying this beauty.

Techie bits: 

Sunshine Under Ground focuses on Pilsner, Raw Wheat, Oats and sweet, sweet Lactose for its base before getting an addition of Cascade, Lemondrop and natural lemon zests in the whirlpool. Fermented on our house English Ale Yeast, it’s then ‘double dry-zested’ (DDZ?) using more and more of those beautiful lemon zests building and building to 10g/L of zesty fucking madness. The eye-catching artwork on the can is by Sophie Devere.

White Hag The Púca Dry Hopped Lemon Sour (Lime, Mint and Matcha), 3.5, 330ml can

Fairly pale lime colour on this new beer, launched at Hagstravaganza. If you like pure lemon juice, you may well enjoy this. While the Whiplash is a sweet-ish lemon then this is bitterly sour. Tart and refreshing? Well the first part is true. Might well be a thirst quencher. But not my style, at all.

Coming up:
Sourfest at The Bierhaus Cork from Thursday 2nd to Monday 6th. "Huge selection of Sour Beers on Tap!". Plus food, music and tastings.

August 10th and 11th: Bands, Breweries, Speakers, Discussions as Franciscan Well Celebrates Women in Beer 

16-19 August 2018 | No shortage of good beer at Big Grill Fest, Ireland’s only International BBQ Festival | Food | Fire | Smoke | Craft Beer | Music | Herbert Park, Dublin