CHAR’s Guide to Discover Talbot Street
Matti Blume
Words: Maggie Fagan
A street steeped in history, Talbot Street has almost always been as bustling as it is today. This weekend, Discover Talbot Street, in association with Dublin City Council, will see the street completely transformed into a two-day celebration of food, music, art and craic. While we’re mostly here for the eating, there’ll also be live music, dancing, workshops, interactive activities and even a pop-up Gaeltacht. Taking place this Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September from 12–5pm, the festival is completely free to attend.
It’s also a good excuse to actually stop and look around a part of the city that, if we’re being honest, a lot of us probably just walk straight through. And, perhaps most importantly, it gives us a chance to say goodbye to Guiney’s before the iconic shop relocates to North Earl Street. End of an era stuff.
There are lots of food spots dotted along the street, so if it’s been a while since you’ve ventured down this end of town, it can be intimidating to figure out who’s whipping up the best grub. As dedicated journalists, we did our homework and stopped by in advance, to sample the delights of what this street has to offer.
Here are five spots we think you’ll love:
Central Brew Coffee
Food crawls needs some sort of a game plan, and ours starts with caffeine. Up towards the Spire end of the street, Central Brew is one of our favourite coffee spots in the area. They’re pouring 3FE, with pastries from Medialuna Bakery, sweet treats from Middle Child Bakery and sandwiches made in-house. There’s also plenty to keep the non-coffee drinkers happy, with fun twists on matcha, iced teas, and cold brews. This is a good place start your engines folks, because there is a lot of eating ahead.
Ella’s Heaven
The crawl is young, so we’d recommend moving from something sweet at Central Brew to something savoury at Ella’s Heaven. Specialising in Middle Eastern and Caucasian Cuisine their influences cover a good bit of land. During the festival, they’ll be flogging their delicious portable pastries and pies. Their pirozhkis come with variety of stuffed fillings – potatoes, mushrooms, spinach & cheese, and if you get one of these puppies warm, you are in for a good time.
Marka Cadey
Right, enough snacking. Time for a proper feed. We have no idea why people are not shouting from the rooftops that we have an authentic, well priced, Somali restaurant in the heart of the city. [There’s reported to only be one Somali restaurant in New York City – a city with ~23,000 restaurants – and the fact that our little old city has one is very cool indeed.]
Marka Cadey’s menu is fully halal and meat-heavy, with dishes like suqaar – diced chicken, beef or lamb sautéed with spices and vegetables. Somali food also makes excellent use of fresh banana, which comes sliced on top of many dishes, and adds a sweet and creamy element to the dishes – which is definitely welcome for the spicer ones. They are often topped with basbaas cagaar – a spicy green chilli sauce that is as delicious as it is hot.
You would be a silly goose not to try this wonderful cuisine at the festival.
The Morris Bar
Fed? Excellent. Naturally, it’s time for a pint. Our next stop is The Morris Bar, a traditional Irish pub housed in what was once a wallpaper shop dating back to 1922. It’s dark and moody inside, and the home of the pop up Gaeltacht, so perfect time to practice your cúpla focal after a bit of Dutch courage.
Ceantar Pizza
What’s that? Feeling a bit peckish are we? After a few drinks? Well not to worry, you’re in the right place. The Morris Bar also serves Raheny’s finest Ceantar Pizza. Who knew? Over the festival they will be serving up calzones – an elite snack that goes well with a good pint. As a proper Neapolitan spot, these guys have got the dough nailed – with that properly chewy, blistered Neapolitan crust, you are definitely not going to want to miss this spot on the crawl.
