The Foodie Folk of Cabinteely Village
Monday 14 March 2011
People sometimes forget, in the great urban sprawl that is the Dublin of nowadays, that at the heart of many suburban areas are the old villages that once made up the very distinctive villages on the outskirts of Dublin. I think of places like Raheny, Glasnevin, Finglas and Sutton, on the northside, to name but a few, to Glasthule, Ranelagh, Rathfarnham, Ringsend, Dundrum, Dalkey and Sandymount, on the southside. For the people of these areas, and society in general, it is vital that the heartbeat of these Dublin villages and communities be kept alive and not lost in a great urban mass – the village spirit that brings people together. The village that I am writing about today is Cabinteely, which in recent times has seen an influx of new small businesses. These are oriented mainly towards food, the reason being that both major clearing banks have vast Bank centre offices at either end of the village, with I am told something like 2500 staff between them, apart altogether from the large residential population in the catchment area, all potential customers. Cabinteely village revolves around a crossroads with an old style Garda Barracks on one corner, and the Horse & Hound Pub on the other. There is a distinctive atmosphere when you swing off the N11 into the village, it’s a bit like being back 50 years which is quite charming.
Traders who have been in Cabinteely for a number of years include Pattaya Thai restaurant, which has recently been enlarged and had a makeover, Trentuno Italian Restaurant, Sam’s Barbers and The Garden shop. The newest addition to this little coterie is the enchanting ‘Cloudberries Deli Café Occasions’ located in a quaint old house on the main street. This is the venture of brother and sister John and Suzy Pierce. Suzy, a Ballymaloe trained chef, has been in the outdoor catering business for fifteen years or so, whilst brother John has just returned after a spell living in the French Alps, where he cooked for paying guests using local artisan produce. “I went to Savoie in the lower Alps originally not to work but I got quite bored and started doing bed and breakfast, so basically the ‘Good Life’ got boring, which is rather amusing, so we came home!” Cloudberries have a lovely range of foods freshly prepared every day with lovely salads including Panzanella Tuscan bread salad, spicy chickpea, oriental noodle, three bean winter salad. They also have gorgeous scrummy cakes such as coconut meringue roulade with fresh pineapples and raspberries, chocolate biscuit cake, chocolate tart. You can buy ‘To Go’ meals such as Beef & Guinness stew, Lasagna, Lemon & Coriander Chicken, Spicy Chicken, and more. ‘Occasions’ in their title is their outdoor catering arm and they will cater for your parties, communions, weddings, divorces and so on. They also stock artisan products Badger & Dodo coffee from Fermoy, Suki tea, Glor peanut butter, Pandora Bell nougat. Cloudberries can be contacted on (01) 285-9004 www.cloudberries.ie
Another bright interesting addition to the village is a real old style pretty sweet shop called La Crème Bon. It is just the cutest place with rows and rows of jars of old fashioned sweets sold by weight. “I was going to do a deli here but it would have required all the old atmospheric red bricks being covered up” says owner Paul Mahon. “90% of the sweets are made in Dublin the same as they have been for the past 70 years by Waverley’s”. I looked at the rows of jars containing Bull’s Eyes, Clove Rock, Strawberry Sherbet, Chocolate Satins, Liquourice Torpedos, and thought big and little kids are as excited about them today as they ever were. Along with sweets La Crème Bon does lots and lots of smoothies and milk shakes. They even make milk shakes from Kinder Bueno or from the sweets. They also do real Italian Gelato icecream by the scoop, as well as the gold medal award winning Italian coffee ‘Café Agust’. “When an Italian comes over here for a coffee it has to be right” laughed an Italian guy to me. He is working in the Bank and goes over a few times a day for his coffee. Paul Mahon can be contacted on 087 687-6180 and La Crème Bon is on Facebook.
Hargadon’s Pub & Wine shop is a very well known spot in Sligo. Owned by Ray and Eileen Monhan, they not only do delicious pub grub and tapas, they have their own vineyards in the Languedoc, and now have a new Hargadon’s Wine Shop now in Cabinteely village. The shop is staffed by Daragh Cassells and John Dowling, who are both experienced wine trade professionals with a wealth of knowledge and will readily advise you on what will suit you. The fact that they have their own vineyards means they can offer wines that are exclusive to Hargadon’s, and keep the prices down by cutting out the middleman. They carry an expanding range of approximately 300 different wines from all over the world, at all price points to suit every occasion, taste, and budget. As well as their own wines from the Languedoc they import a lot of their stock direct from wineries in France, Italy and Spain. They also stock Sheridan’s cheeses and artisan chocolate by ChocOneill. Hargadon’s Wine Shop can be contacted on Tel: (01) 284-8836 www.hargadons.com
Joining the restaurant community in the village a few months ago was the colourful Las Tapas restaurant owned by Sinan and Yvonne Osan which has been proving very popular both at lunchtimes and in the evenings with locals. It is really warm and welcoming with Spanish artefacts on the walls and flamenco music in the background. As well as being open in the evenings from Tuesday to Saturday, they cater for the lunchtime brigade seven days a week with a range of reasonably priced tapas platters such as a Meat Tapas Platter with Jamon Serrano ham, chorizo fritto, meatballs, marinated chicken wings, or a Fish Tapas Platter with fried calamari, prawns pil pil, light crispy battered cod, garlic and white wine cooked mussels – both of these platters come with mixed salad and bread and are priced around €7.95/€8.95. They also do more robust dishes of Albondigas a la Jardinera – Spanish style meatballs in a tomato sauce served with mixed salad and fried potatoes, or Estofado Vasco – a Basque style beef stew with potato, tomato, red pepper and paprika! Ole! Tel: (01) 236-9869 www.lastapas.ie
Very recently too has seen the addition of Colin and Teresa Pielow’s eponymously named restaurant Pielow’s located on the first floor near the garden shop. Colin and Teresa are well known in the restaurant business having originally had the very popular Curtlestown House restaurant in Enniskerry some years ago. They then moved down to Cobh in County Cork where they had a Guest House and Restaurant before then upping sticks for South Africa where they spent some seven years in the Tulbagh Valley in the Cape Winelands where they had a restaurant and a vineyard. The lease on their restaurant in South Africa ran out so they came home for a while when they spotted the vacant premises in Cabinteely and opened up here again. They still also have the vineyard in the Tulbagh Valley. Tel: (01) 284-0914 www.pielows.com Also just opened a couple of weeks, located next door to Hargadon’s, is the new Urbun Café, quite a big place with long refrectory tables, uber cool lighting, and a retro feel. Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, are on the menu with homemade cakes, bakes, and buns as well as soups, pies and stews. Tel: (01) 284-8872.
Traders have ploughed a lot of money and their souls into opening businesses here and Dun Laoghaire Corporation need to encourage them and customers. It’s a village of hope – lets keep the light burning.