Sweets for the street
Hugo’s on Dublin’s Merrion Row, with its distinctive robin egg blue exterior, has been a much loved dining destination for more than 15 years but culture vultures might like to know that it recently launched a pre-theatre menu. Served Tuesday to Friday from 5pm to 6.30pm, with two courses for €37 – followed by a complimentary ice cream cone to go, a “sweet for the street”.
There’s a new business lunch menu too, with three plat du jour offerings served from midday, Tuesday to Friday, including Roaringwater Bay mussels, steak frites or soup and a sandwich, each with wine pairing suggestions. Well worth going into the office for.
Drive for sustainability
When BMW hosted a recent event designed to answer everything you ever wanted to know about EVs but were afraid to ask, the sleek motor maker chose chef patron Niall Davidson’s allta. It was the continuation of a perfectly pitched association for the prestige marque, given allta’s commitment to seasonal ingredients and local suppliers, and Davidson’s appetite for cutting food mileage as much as possible.
Check it out for yourself with lunch from Thursday to Sunday and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday at its new location on Three Locks Square in Dublin’s docklands. Everything about the restaurant, bar and micro bakery sings sustainability, right down to its staff policies – it even offers new recruits an extra day’s holiday per year if they don’t smoke or vape. Now that’s an establishment with everyone’s best interests at heart.
Spill the tea
There’s no rule that says a business lunch has to be, well, lunch. For a super-satisfying catch up, why not book afternoon tea instead? The Atrium Lounge at the College Green Hotel has a great offer available from Monday to Friday until the end of July, with prices down by 30 per cent, to €45 per person, so it will keep Colin from accounts happy too.
Its savoury sandwich selection includes roasted chicken, honey, chive and citrus salad on white bread; Irish smoked salmon and cream cheese on baked Guinness bread, and herb infused Irish ham and cheddar with a honey and mustard dressing on brown. There’s an array of desserts too, followed by, if you can manage it, traditional scones and clotted cream.
Top food symposium heads west
After three years at Airfield Estate in Dublin, this year’s edition of Food on the Edge is heading back to its hometown of Galway. The food-lovers event, which will take place on October 21st and 22nd at Atlantic Technological University in Galway, was founded by local food hero JP McMahon, owner of Michelin starred Aniar.
This year’s theme is A Sense of Place and will bring together, as ever, international and national chefs and food influencers to talk about the future of the industry, and the planet. The speaker line-up includes Sophie Healy-Thow, founder of Act4Food; Matthew James Duffy, social media star and professor of baking and pastry arts management in Canada, as well as Turkish chef, social entrepreneur and advocate for sustainable agriculture Ebru Baybara Demir, winner of last year’s Basque Culinary World Prize.
Tickets are €325, which includes two-day access to all speaker talks, lunches, masterclasses, the producer food village and wrap party. A one-day Food On The Edge ticket costs €185, available from foodontheedge.ie.
A smart tip
Next time you’re in your favourite hostelry, look out for JustTip Flex, the new mobile tipping solution for restaurants, pubs and hotels that allows you choose your tip amount in a separate transaction from the bill.
The brainchild of young entrepreneurs James Fahy (23) and Ciara Walsh (22), it saves hospitality owners the 11.8 per cent PRSI liability on every tip managed through the system, reduces the administrative burden and brings the house in line with new tipping legislation – breaches of which could cost them on-the-spot fines of up to €1,500.
It also means that you as a customer can rest assured that the tip you give to great staff goes directly to those great staff. Little wonder it’s going down a treat. JustTip has already successfully onboarded 400 establishments and more than 7,000 staff across Ireland and the UK. Cheers to that.