‘Trolley Parton’, a fresh batch of bakeries and brilliant new books
All in your not-to-be-missed Friday food news!
I’m on the road again this week, gathering your news from a very balmy Palma. (I’m here on a press trip with the Spanish Tourism Office and will be writing about it for the Examiner in a few weeks.) Sorry, I know the weather is miserable at home! But there’s plenty of fun and good news today so I hope that brightens things up a bit. Right, I’m off to find some Sobrasada for breakfast. As always, thanks for reading and subscribing :)
Fresh ingredients:
News & stuff I’m excited about
Earlier in the week the weather was lovely and perfect for a Monday well spent at the Eurotoques Food Awards held on the beautiful Airfield Estate. Check out the worthy winners here and Ruth Calder-Potts’ stunning photos of them.
There will be more food awards next week Dingle as Blas na hÉireann Awards are announced there on Thursday 4th alongside a food showcase, networking and Eat Ireland happening. Which runs into The Dingle Food Festival and I am buzzing to be bringing my book A Compendium of Irish Pints to its spiritual home of Dingle as part of the festival. Find out more about my event ‘Why Pints Matter: Crafting a Love Letter to an Irish Tradition’ and grab the last of the tickets here.
Anyone who is going to Dingle make sure to check out sommelier Dáire Ó Lúing and chef Tom Hayes's pop-up wine bar at the back of Dick Mack’s.
Last night Allta opened their latest addition, a new bar and bottle shop. I’ve no official press release on it or even an Insta post but their stories are hopping since the launch event last night.
There’s plenty of good baking news to share this week, starting off with Phibsborough favourite Elliots opening on Arran Street East.
Arty Baker are opening today in Blackrock Market and promising free pastries until they run out.
It’s a busy time for Irish Plant-Based Bakery Naked Bakes, they are currently in over 200 Lidl stores as part of their Kickstart programme and they just announced opening as a pop-up cafe in Hens Teeth in October.
As Coffee for Palestine continues, 3FE are the lastest cafe to be featured. Read more about it here.
Monkstown may have a new coffee spot soon, rumour has it that Pine Coffee Roasters are moving into the old Hewitts newsagents.
Gorgeous Kildare cafe Hey Darling looks to be opening a third spot, this time in Sallins.
An exciting opener for Newry, chef Mellisa McCabe finally has a brick-and-mortar home for her Feast Food Truck.
And a not-so-exciting opener up North - Chick-fil-A is headed to Belfast.
Have you heard about ‘Trolley Parton’? What a spectacularly brilliant name for Galway’s first oyster trolley.
Chef Chad Byrne in the Brehon Hotel in Killarney is always inventive and his latest venture is Go Luath is a gorgeous early bird menu served 5 -6 pm Thurs-Sat. Find out more and book in here.
We’ve been spoilt with some great new Irish food and drink book releases of late. The whopper Irish Food History: A Companion was published a few weeks ago and is well worth seeking out. Mark Moriarty’s new book Season is out, JP McMahon’s latest An Irish Food Story is coming in October and last night The Old Spot Cook Book was launched and Belfast-based chef Niall McKenna of James Street South and Waterman House is publishing his first book.
Irish chef Max Rocha has been one of the darlings of the London food scene since opening his much lauded restaurant Cafe Cecila so it’s no surprise that he’s publishing a book of the same name and he’ll be in Ireland next month to launch it with 2 events announced so far. He’s cooking at Note and doing a book launch event at Hen’s Teeth with Sian Conway interviewing.
Petit Fours:
Sweet bits to watch, listen, read or obsess over etc.
We may give out about the processed food here but be thankful not to be shopping in the USA
I desperately want this Guinness jumper as modelled by Tara Kumar
Also adding to my wish list - this Balengica orange bag
Maybe I should have got Slutty Chef to do a chapter in my book
Thanks for reading and subscribing, now it’s time for my weekly book plug, A Compendium of Irish Pints is out now, available from bookshops nationwide and from Nine Bean Rows.