Most days look better through the steam of a good cup of tea and a quirky tea room has just popped up in the pock-marked dereliction of South Richmond Street in Dublin’s Portobello. When you open the door in the old shop front of Wall and Keogh (the name of the original shop which closed its doors more than 40 years ago) you are offered a bewildering choice, a sniff of the glass lids on the large sweet jars holding the loose leaf tea.
You are told that your tea will cost you €3.90. “Youch that’s a bit stiff for some boiling water and dried leaves,” you think as you settle yourself down and wish you’d bought a chess partner so at least you could use the board. Then you notice the books on the shelf, a copy of Gus Martin’s reissued Soundings and several novels you’d like to read. Downstairs there’s a guitar you can strum. Outside there’s a tea garden with lights and a Perspex lid to keep the rain off, plus the great music on the speakers and the eclectic wall art, including a tray with a tea-cup stuck on sideways.
“Okay this isn’t so bad,” you start to think, “but it’s been a while. I’m the only one here apart from that woman who’s already got hers so where’s my tea?” It turns out the blend I chose takes eight minutes to infuse. Eight whole long minutes in a world when most of us can barely wait the few seconds for the icons to leap on to our computer screens at the start of the day. This is about as far from a hot beverage in a cardboard cup as tea can get. There is one blend that takes 15 minutes. My green rooibos comes as a hot honey-coloured liquid in a glass teapot with a small handle-less Japanese cup, black and white on the outside, ruby red inside. As I sip it, two knots in my shoulders start to melt. It has been the calmest half an hour of my year so far. There’s also food, sandwiches and muffins, and even coffee but for a moment of serenity, go for the tea. It’s fantastic -- and also available in takeaway bags to try and recreate the grooviness at home.
Wall and Keogh, 45 Richmond Street South, Dublin 2, 01-4759052
