Where Italian Food Feels At Home In Ireland
With Birra Moretti, we visited IL Vicolo in Galway, Osteria Lucio in Dublin and Epomeo in Cork to see how Italian food takes shape in three very different Irish rooms.
There are worse work assignments than travelling across Ireland to eat Italian food with a crisp pint of beer beside it. We totally lucked out didn’t we lads?
Thanks to Birra Moretti, we had the opportunity to visit three restaurants showing how differently Italian food can settle into Ireland. In Galway, it was four-cheese gnocchi in an old flour mill beside the River Corrib. In Dublin, it was veal milanese in a restaurant built from a long friendship between an Irish chef and an Italian chef. In Cork, it was pizza from an Ischia-born owner who treats dough like the entire restaurant depends on it. In fairness, it really does.
The trip was also a chance to spotlight Birra Moretti’s new Italian glassware, with each restaurant pairing a signature dish with the beer. But the part that stayed with us most was how different each of the three restaurants felt in terms of their backgrounds and origins.
IL Vicolo, Galway
Located inside the historic Bridge Mills along the River Corrib, IL Vicolo is set within an old flour mill that perfectly embodies the feeling of being “tucked in”.
Antonio explained that his goal for IL Vicolo is for it to feel like “an experience” and once you witness the rushing river and taste the food, your first visit becomes unforgettable. Here, Birra Moretti is paired with a four-cheese gnocchi topped generously by truffle pecorino.
With its soft gnocchi, deeply savoury cheese sauce, and the aromatic punch of truffle pecorino, this is not a dish for anyone pretending they are “just having a forkful”. The crisp beer that comes with it serves as an excellent balance to the dish, providing a much needed and refreshing pause to reset your tastebuds before diving back into the cheese fog.
Osteria Lucio, Dublin
The personal backstory behind Osteria Lucio gives the food a much deeper meaning. The restaurant was born out of a long-standing relationship between Chef Ross Lewis and Italian chef Luciano Tona, which began in the 1990s when Tona visited Dublin to host Italian dinners at Chapter One.
Tona repeatedly urged Ross to start an Italian eatery, a shared vision that ultimately resulted in Osteria Lucio. Knowing this history makes their “food of friendship” tagline turn into something truly authentic and not too cringey. During our visit, we were served a veal milanese.
Tender veal coated in parmesan breadcrumbs, accompanied by a lemon emulsion, a fresh summer salad, and garlic and olive oil-cooked potatoes finished with salt and rosemary. It was, quite simply, the ultimate comfort food and we do not say that lightly. Chef Ross also noted that Birra Moretti offers a well rounded profile of sweetness and bitterness, ensuring it never overpowers the palate and is the perfect pair for veal sirloin Milanese. This balance is crucial; otherwise, we reach a level of richness that could honestly be a little sickening.
Epomeo, Cork
Named after Mount Epomeo on Ischia, the volcanic island where owner Antonio was born, Epomeo was created to bring a slice of his home to Cork. He observed that Irish and Italian hospitality share a unique commonality, as both cultures possess a natural ability to draw people in and make them feel instantly at home.
Although Antonio maintains an easygoing vibe, he treats the dough with absolute seriousness, operating under a simple philosophy: “If the dough is bad, the pizza is bad”. The high-hydration dough undergoes a slow fermentation process for approximately 34 hours and is cooked at temperatures reaching 430–450°C. Due to the layout of the street and stairs, the oven had to be brought in completely in pieces, carried upstairs with the assistance of friends, and assembled on-site by a specialist from Naples. What a trek huh?
The standout choice is the spicy parmigiana pizza, loaded with tomato, cheese, nduja, and fried aubergine. The fried aubergine provides an excellent balance of crispness, saltiness, and softness, while the nduja dissolves into a rich, spicy oil across the top. Antonio describes the combination of pizza and Birra Moretti as an common pairing from his hometown, and this experience delivers precisely that feeling: a cold beer, a spicy pizza, and another bite. What more could you ask for?
While these three restaurants serve the same cuisine, they never blur into one another. IL Vicolo is uniquely defined by the River Corrib, Osteria Lucio is built on friendship and seasonal cooking, and Epomeo is shaped by Ischia and Cork: slow-fermented dough, local produce and an oven carried upstairs in pieces.
In each of these distinct spaces, Birra Moretti has a really clear job and thats to provide a crisp pause to complement every dish, cleansing the palate with its subtle and light bitterness. The new glassware serves as a shared visual guide across all three locations, whether it is paired with gnocchi in Galway, Milanese in Dublin, or the spicy parmigiana in Cork.
Remember to Enjoy Birra Moretti responsibly.
