Restaurant Review - Whelehans Saturday Pop Up
Friday 02 July 2021
"I’ve never worked as hard in my life as I have in the past year,” laughs David Whelehan, of Whelehans Wines on the N11 at Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, where there is now also a new W Farmers’ Market on Fridays and a W Saturday Pop Up Takeaway, with food trucks and stalls in the car park.
Seven years ago, David transformed the former Silver Tassie, a landmark pub, into a sophisticated wine emporium. I remember visiting him in the first week of January 2015. It quickly became a hot destination for the Wicklow and SoCoDu set, with its small wine bar soon expanding into the brilliant W restaurant.
Having grown up with wine — his father being the famous TP Whelehan, who critiqued wines for many years — there’s nobody who knows more on the subject than David. So, when he set up his oenophile emporium, importing 80pc of the wines directly, he did so in a way not previously seen here — with rows and rows of bottles, and information on each being clearly displayed. In a flash, you know everything; no one is pouring pretentious, flowery wine lingo over you.
lucindaosullivan.com
First Published In The Sunday Independent