TEN years old this year, Cornucopia on Wicklow Street is one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in Dublin. Set up by husband and wife partnership Deirdre and Neil McCafferty, the restaurant was originally a health food shop with a little cafe at the back.
"I had lived in Boston for nines years and when I came home I wanted to do something in the holistic, whole food end of things," explains Deirdre. "There was nothing else like that around, and it really took off." Now the health food shop has moved to South William Street and the revamped restaurant takes up the whole of the Wicklow Street property.
"We serve no meat, fish or poultry," says Deirdre. "Our ingredients are beans, grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruit and dairy products." Specially prepared dishes are available for vegans, coeliacs and diabetics. "The standard for vegetarian food is much higher than it used to be," says Deirdre. "People want it to be really tasty, so there is a lot of competition between the restaurants. You have to be competitive to survive.
The clientele in Cornucopia has changed from the early days. "We used to get the more alternative types, like artists and students, people who didn't live a conservative lifestyle. Now we have people who work in offices - all sorts of everyday people," says Deirdre.
This same trend applies in Juice on South Great George's Street, a stylish new vegetarian restaurant offering a wide selection of vegetable juices as well as vegetarian sushi. Unlike Cornucopia, Juice has table service and stays open until midnight. "All sorts of different people come in, and most of them are vegetarians," says Patricia Whelan.
Blazing Salads, in the Powerscourt Town House Centre, has been in operation for nine years, and the clientele includes Luka Bloom and Billy Connolly, as well as actors Gabriel Byrne and Pat Kinevane.
"In the last two years, the number of people coming in has doubled, from 100 a day to 200," says managing director Lorraine FitzMaurice. "There are a lot more men now, whereas before it was always women. Men are getting more health conscious and taking control of their diets." The fare includes bean casseroles and stir fried vegetables as well as meat free pizza and lasagne. There are dishes available for vegans.
Meanwhile in Cork, Denis Cotter has been running his vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Paradiso, for two and half years. "I wanted to do something more personal than the standard sort of wholefood formulaic stuff," says Denis, who is a vegetarian "for ethical reasons." He uses a lot of organically grown produce, which is more expensive, but "good food costs more."
He serves dishes with a Mediterranean or Eastern flavour, and does not stint on cheese or spices: "I don't use brown flour or brown rice. I don't like the negative, self denying side of the wholefood thing."
Karen Austin runs Lettercollum House in Timoleague, in west Cork, with her husband Con McLoughlin. Twenty per cent of the food served in the restaurant is vegetarian. "We grow our own organic vegetables in our walled garden," says Karen who also runs a vegetarian cookery course, which attracts "a surprising assortment of people, including quite a few teenagers" - Karen is a vegetarian herself. "I'm quite pleased I haven't been eating burgers recently, I must say," she laughs.