Luxurious escape
Escape the kitchen altogether with a festive break in the run-up to Christmas at the swish Culloden Estate and Spa, part of the Hastings Group and Northern Ireland’s best-known five-star retreat. Thanks to the new hourly rail service between Dublin and Belfast, it is now even easier to get to. Its Garden Rooms are available from €275 per night – suites from €764 per night – in November and December. There’s a range of festive dining options, from casual lunches to elegant dinners, and if you time it right you can catch added-value events such as festive wreath-making workshops, “cakes and carols” or a choral performance. Belfast Christmas market is just a 15-minute train ride away.
Seasonal seafood in Temple Bar
Those planning on organising as many merry meet-ups as possible between now and Christmas should take note of a new offering from The Seafood Café in Temple Bar. Between noon and 5pm on Sundays it is serving up a great sharing set menu for two. Priced from €35 to €55 per person, it bags you an aperitif – Bloody Mary, Black Velvet or pint of plain – starter, main course, sides and a dessert too – cheese or pudding. There’s typically up to four mains to choose from each Sunday, such as classic whole turbot, halibut en croute or lobster and monkfish pie. Talk about the spirit of the season.
Christmas dinner at your door
If the mere thought of going trolley to trolley with frantic shoppers in the run-up to Christmas fatigues you, DropChef, the meal-kit delivery service, has a range of Christmas dinner plans to choose from. It bags you all the ingredients you need – and the instructions to make it perfectly – dropped right to your door. Its most popular plan, The Rudolph, feeds up to eight people and includes a whole turkey, ham, loads of Irish winter vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, potatoes, stuffing and gravy, for €265 (you get the ham half price if you order early).
Hot spot on Harcourt Street
For some thoroughly modern fun check out Old Fashioned Sam’s, at the junction of Harcourt Street and Montague Street in Dublin, just in time for the festive season. While the opening of any new hospitality venture is to be celebrated right now, this one is a great option for everything from morning coffee and pastries to laid-back lunches, memorable dinners or nights of crafted cocktails in Sam’s Parlour, its basement bar with a speakeasy vibe. At weekends there’s a buzzy brunch with music. If you’re the one charged with organising the office get-together, get in touch fast – it’s perfect.
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Make a night of it
If there’s one thing better than a night out in the run-up to Christmas it’s a night out that ends up in a five-star hotel that’s kitted out like something in a Christmas movie. Dublin’s College Green Hotel ticks all those boxes and has a Festive Splendour package to boot. Running from December 1st to 22nd, it includes a welcome drink, your gorgeous accommodation and a perfect, post-night-out breakfast, from €395 per double room.
Bots and bottles
Michelle Lawlor started The Nude Wine Company, an online wine business, in 2019, providing customers with the kind of nous, and nose, that comes from years working as a sommelier in the UK, a wine trader in Hong Kong and a cellar hand in Italy and New Zealand. Lawlor goes out of her way to source top-notch organic and biodynamic wines from Europe and beyond and is a passionate – and fun – educator on the subject. Students of the grape can learn loads from her Wine Club, a monthly subscription service that delivers bottles to your door, replete with tasting notes. Ever the innovator, she has just added a new virtual wine assistant to the store, complete with a wine rack planner. So, cheers to that.
