Earlier this month The Irish Times published a great little guide to Sligo, in collaboration with Failte Ireland. Lots of times you read this type of thing and, as a local, don’t recognise the place you live, for good or bad reasons. This one was different though, Not only did I recognise the place they were describing, but it covered nearly all the best bits of Sligo that I include when I’m in my own tour guide mode with visiting pals. Lots of my Top 10 things to do in Sligo made an appearance, in one guise or another, but I see the Magic Road alluded them once again, it must be the magic….

The supplement, which you can download via the link below, or by clicking on the image up top, is a great reference guide, and would make an excellent pocket guide for any type of traveller. I was particularly thrilled to see so much culture and lifestyle entries; great foodie recommendations, culture summaries and a special focus on Sligo Music, which is in abundance in all forms in Sligo town and county, as a quick glance at sligomusic.ie will usually show you.

I think the publication was the first time, or one of the first times, that the new Sligo brand was used;“Sligo, Set your Spirit Free”.  It’s a brand I really like, and I’m usually very critical of visual identities, especially the tag line. This one however, also seems to concur with the Sligo I know, a place that can set your spirit free in lots of ways; surfing, golfing, eating, listening to music, walking, visiting arts and culture events, or ancient historic sites, or just contemplating the landscape. The actual coloured text took me a few minutes to settle into, but it’s really grown on me. For some reason it immediately reminded me of Dakar’s photos of Sliglow (a project for Culture Night Sligo 2010), something in the free-flowing, yet painterly aspect of the font. It could reference anything from cave painting to street art and all that came in between, while still looking very natural and “of nature”. When I looked up the official line it said; “The brushstrokes are inspired by the paintings of Jack B Yeats, the vertical limestone features of the landscape and the crashing Atlantic waves.” which is even better; Sligo’s three big selling points; landscape. culture and water all rolled into one. Well done Zero G

Download the pdf: Sligo – Irish Times 6th July 2011

If you’re heading to Galway for the Arts Festival, or the Races, or any of the myriad of things Galway seems to have going all year long, you might be in need of good late night grub beyond the usual fast food selections that ireland seems to be limited to post 10pm.  I was in the city of the tribes last night (to see Enda Walshe’s Misterman with Cillian Murphy, which is precisely as good as everyone says it is. What a production. Dearly hope Landmark manage to bring it to some other cities) and was badly in need of some late night sustenance that elevated itself beyond room service or a burger and chips.

We tried a few places before reaching Rouge (above), Bar 8, who lots of listings say serve till 11pm but apparently they don’t. Hard to tell as they don’t have a working website and their facebook page doesn’t list opening hours. Arriving to them at 10.30pm we must have just missed last orders as there were a few diners tucking into their main courses. So  then we thought we’d try Kai, the new venture for Bar 8′s original chef Jess Murphy, but despite having a lovely site, they also don’t list their opening/serving hours.  We tried the wonderful Ard Bia at Nimmo’s next, and despite being too late for them, the lovely lady there suggested Rouge to us – a new opening on Lwr Dominick Street that she thought served till late. And hallelujah, it does!

Rouge has apparently only been open for a fortnight, and the staff did look pretty knackered, but they were smiling through it and despite a full restaurant were able to seat and serve us to the wine bar end of things. The interior is very french “cave” style – exposed brick walls, low lighting, leather couches, and even a piano player (who actually played piano man) but one that played at a nice volume.  They have a great wine list, as you’d expect, and we both had to try the Cote du Rhone being as it was just €3.80 a glass. Actual french prices! is this the cheapest glass of great wine in Ireland? It was wonderful too, really warm and tasty. There’s a limited main menu; entrecote steak, fish of the day or veggie of the day with a selection of mini starters and I think a desert too for just €15. We figured it was too late for a full meal so opted for the cheese and charcuterie plates (which come in two sizes) and a side salad, all of which was delicious and really nicely presented, and served with loads of fresh bread. The water’s we ordered came with a side bowl of sliced lemon rather than automatically adding it, which is a nice touch, and all in all we had a lovely meal.

The search for decent late night grub is the curse of the habitual festival/theatre/gig goer, and it’s amazing to me that there aren’t more places that serve after 10.30pm. The Grapevine in Kilkenny is a recent favourite, discovered while on the late night food hunt after a Cat Laughs gig last year. Anyone know of any others?

I’ve been hanging out in the ‘burbs a lot of late- the south county dubin burbs that is- and have come across two lovely little cafe’s that deserve stranded mentions; newbie arty Urbun in Cabinteely and new-ish crafty Winnie’s in Booterstown.

Urbun, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin

Urbun is a an aptly named urban cake cafe, set up by two bright young things in Cabinteely village.  It’s right next door to Hargedon’s Wine shop- a sister shop to my favourite Sligo pub/wine shop- and is one of a few new additions which has made Cabinteely a nice little spot for dining and drinking, but I digress.  I first sampled the Urbun ladies delights at the Point Village Market back in the winter, when I fairly wolfed down one of their famous cherry chocolate brownies.  A few months later and they’re up and operating in a whole cafe, with the same brownies very much in evidence.

The cafe menu seems to be along the gruel/tower records cafe style- a small but perfectly formed menu with just one or two sandwiches, soups, salads and pies on offer, depending on the ingredients available that day. On the day I visited we had delicious sweet potato and coconut soup, and a lovely simple roast chicken and garlic mayo sandwich – with the chicken roasted on the premises- on home baked bread, followed by those famous brownies and some very nice coffee. The room is very contemporary- almost gallery like- with some interesting art on the walls and the facility to project some installation pieces/films too by the looks of things. Most of the tables are share style and they have plenty of room. Taking the edge off the contemporary/industrial look are sweet patterned plates and coffee mugs and an intriguing used of tea sack (I think) fabric on the benches.  Being bright young things you can follow them on twitter, and I’m sure they have lots of events and goodies up their sleeves for the summer.

Then just today I discovered Winnie’s Craft Cafe which is hidden in a residential estate just off The Rock Road, near Booterstown Dart Station. I had read about Winnie and her wool wagon a year or so ago, but never clicked that the cafe was so close to where I stay in Dublin, so I was delighted to be reminded of it and to find myself there today. Winnie started life as a super cute wool wagon (pictured above right) that pitched up at local markets and events in Dublin, and has now spread into a divine wool shop and cafe. The brainchild of ex accountant Marina Hand it’s a wonderful idea, and really showcases the positives of good design. The van livery and logo/identity were created by those clever clogs at Red and Grey Design and they evoke a perfect homey, nostalgic yet vintage cool mood for the business.

The shop is such a treat, it makes me want to take up knitting just so I can shop there! It’s a riot of colour and texture and offers knitting classes and knitting circles on the premises. You walk through the shop to reach the cafe which is a lovely bright, light filled space. Someone’s done a wonderful job on the room architecture, with one wall comprised of a full wall of glass flooding the space with natural light. I only had time to sample a scone (cranberry and walnut! unusual and yum) and a coffee but the sandwiches, salads and savory bits looked fresh and yummy. The place was rammed and is obviously a popular lunch spot in the locale.  It taps in to that nice sense of community and feels like a much loved location.  I’ll definitely be back for more.

I’ve made it to two in the last month; The Giddy Goose in Dun Laoghaire (138/139 George’s Street) and nelly’s in Portobello (12 South Circular Rd), both of which were a lovely surprise, but nelly’s stole the show.

Interior of The Giddy Goose

The Giddy Goose is at the quieter, Monkstown end of Dun Laoghaire – near Argos and the Library and at the opposite end from itsabagel; Dun Laoghaire’s stalwart cafe.  I went there with a friend one sunny mid week afternoon and it’s a lovely sunny room with a nice fresh colour scheme and hints of ikea charm dotted about.  Judging by the customers the day we were there it does a fine line in yummy mummies and treats for kids. There’s a nicely stocked kids area with drawing pencils and crayons and newspapers and mags for mums. Brilliantly there’s also free wifi – very important – and a great selection of buns and cakes.

Raspberry scone at The Giddy Goose

My friend had a killer toasted sandwich of chicken and stuffing with a side salad, I had a huge raspberry scone which looked and sounded divine, but fell a little short as the few raspberries in evidence were at the bottom and not scattered throughout. Tempted by the sweet things we shared a GIANT slice of chocolate cake which was gorgeous; lots of frosting and not too chocolatey, but the size of it defeating two of us sharing, no idea how you’d eat it on your own! I’ll definitely be back to the goose as a nice alternative to the pier/itsabagel route, and it would be a good place to while away some time if you were early for the Ferry.

nelly's on South Circular Rd, Dublin. Pic taken from The Urbane Nibbler Blog

A few days later, early afternoon on an even sunnier weekday , I headed with another friend to nelly’s on South Circular Rd.  What a delightful spot! There were a ton of yummy sounding sandwiches on offer and I went for a falafel wrap which was excellent. My friend had the soup of the day which was also great, and we shared (do you see a pattern emerging?) what can only be described as the very best chocolate brownies I have ever tasted. Crispy on the outside, moist and chocolatey on the inside, home cooked american style goodness.  The coffee was excellent and there was a host of other treats on offer, including some sumptuous looking carrot cake that comes highly recommended and will have to be tried on my next visit.

The little chairs outside are perfect in the sunshine, and the tea is served in charming china teacups – with saucers of course. The cafe doubles as a food shop with a lovely selection of hand picked cooking ingredients, pretty bun cases and specialist products.  Nelly’s hosts a contemporary textile workshop which looks terrific, and on the whole is somewhere that the brilliant Lilly Higgins (check out her fantastic blog) would love, and that is the best praise I can give!

Amazing weekend was had in Kilkenny at the Cat Laughs Festival this year which I have been meaning to blog about for weeks but the volume of work ever since has put paid to that notion.  However, a round up is needed for posterity and for a great critical round up with some ace writing head to Peter Crawleys review in the Irish Times – sounds like we were very much at the same festival -even though I got to about a third of the gigs he did, but then he is on the freebie press ticket.

I’ve been going to Kilkenny for 5 years now- from when I started programming comedy for the model- and usually run around to as many shows as my pocket can handle and my head can take. For the fits few years it was about genning up on the best irish comics and the newbies coming up so I could gen up for the comedy club, then it became about international acts as I knew what the irish ones were all about, and this year was a gloriously calmer affair as I wasn’t technically programming at all and could do it at a holiday pace.

Kilkenny has always been a girls weekend for me – all that laughing and drinking and great food and nice hotel rooms seems seems a good fit- and this year was no different as three of us bunked in one fab room and made a great weekend of it – here are the highlights 

1. Weather.  OMG it was outstanding. In my memory it always is for Cat Laughs of course but this one was like being in another country. A weekend like this a year will definitely see me right.
2. Foodage. As always Kilkenny does not disappoint on the culinary front. Outstanding meal and service at Zuni, and more of the same with the great late night supper menu that Fleva do for the festival.  The people that run that place could not do better, chatty, great service, happy to accommodate late eating and menu re-arranging. Go there. Oh and new kid on the block- Grapevine. Excellent tapas, great wine, brilliant owner.
3. Gigs. Of course the gigs are the real reason for going. This year we just took in two and a movie so hard to pick highlights but Kathleen Madigan was great and the Hans Teeuwen gig was an experience like no other.  Peter describes it far better than I but the great thing about it is the tension moment when you realise a) this is his act, it’s on purpose and it’s not getting any “better” and b) well over half the audience are hating it and not getting it and stressed and will either walk out, heckle or stew in their seat hating every minute but not having the balls to leave, or maybe hoping it will somehow get better.  The tension of that moment, which gets replayed around the room every few minutes as people decide which camp they fall into, is a deliciously stressful and funny thing.  In fairness- it is more performance art that comedy, and if you had paid your 30euro expecting to roll in the aisles you have every right to be angry, but if you want a whole chunk of post-modern comedy then there you have. I”m still not sure if I love it or hate it but I do know I’m going to check him out again in Edinburgh to find out.
4. A Film with Me In It. Me being Mark Doherty and not Stranded of course. This was a brilliant way to spend a few hungover hours on saturday afternoon in the Parade Tower. Delightful slice of black comedy (if black humour can be delightful?) that made me laugh out loud and contemplate my moral compass and Dylan Moran’s brilliance.
5. Kilkenny RiverCourt Hotel. A revelation (we usually stay at the Ormond). Great rooms, comfy beds, nice staff, great breakfast (crap carvery meals the rest of the time but) and acres of outdoor drinking and lounging space with a spiffy view of the castle. Oh- and 2e parking for guests all weekend. sweet.

Downsides? the 3.5 hour cross country drive back to Sligo through every little town known to man (there is a townplace called Swan in this country) and having to go back on the Sunday and miss the football match with stellar commentary by Karl Spain.

Magic weekend. Why more people don’t make it a regular calendar date I’ll never know.

Kilkenny Sunset