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Cafes Cafes Cafes

Wednesday 26 November 2014

In the dark days of November 2011, when Vivienne Johnston and Janine Breslin took the big step of opening their Mellow Fig cafe on George's Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin, everyone told them they were very brave. They are now celebrating their third birthday, and the popularity of the Mellow Fig is phenomenal.

What they have really successfully created here is a place where, like in the old TV sitcom Cheers, everybody knows your name, they know what you like and you feel at home. When Janine greets a regular 'out front' by name in the mornings, Vivienne - behind scenes in the kitchen - knows immediately to get cracking on that person's favourite breakfast without delay, as they will be dashing to the Dart!

It is an extraordinarily warm room filled with pretty, colourful, oilcloth-draped tables, multi-coloured low kitchen chairs, dangling chandeliers and pictures - and you are always greeted by a smile. This is the secret to good hospitality.

Both girls have great experience in the catering industry, with Vivienne having trained as a chef in DIT Cathal Brugha Street and Janine doing 'front of house' in two restaurants. After training, Vivienne worked both in Australia and in the wealthy US holiday hangout of the Hamptons.

Early last year, I wrote about Vivienne's scones, which she described as flying out of the place as people wanted value in the recession. She told me that after the article "a lady from the west of Ireland rang up looking for the recipe for our scones and later sent us three Miraculous Medals, one for each of us and one for the till, which will never be moved".

Commenting on a big table at the back of the room, which is new since my last visit, Janine said they now get a lot of people in at the weekend who book that big table - families and extended families for brunch - as well as business people between 1pm and 2pm on weekdays. They know they have to be really quick with them as they only have the hour.

"Janine looks after all the children who come in here. With the HSE [health centre] across the road, lots of the mums come in after their visit there. We have so many regular customers now and we really appreciate it, they are all so good.

"I think because we opened in a recession and people were saying how brave we were, we notice now that people are much more relaxed about what they are spending, but they are conscious of where and with whom they are spending," said Vivienne. "We look after our customers, they get that extra dessert or extra tea or coffee," said Janine.

The girls say more people are now eating out with their families and that they appreciate that the Mellow Fig is very relaxed and child-friendly. "Now they are taking the extended family and the grandparents along with the kids. A lot of people now book very big tables.

"We were thinking at first perhaps they were special occasions, but it's more that they are all getting together. They know they are not in a bar, they are drinking their coffees and they are happy to let the kids run around. The staff look after their children well. They know where the lollipop drawer is!" said Janine with a laugh.

Eggs Benedict and Portobello mushrooms are very popular for breakfast and the girls also tailor breakfasts to whatever diet people may be on.

The Mellow Fig is a real place with heart, almost a social centre, and now they are going to do vintage movie nights where, for €10, you can watch a movie with a soft drink and popcorn, and you can bring your own wine. So watch out for that and look forward to It's a Wonderful Life, Calamity Jane, Dirty Dancing… Oh, by the way, Vivienne has made 2lb plum puddings, which are available at €16.50. Oh yes, there are Christmas cakes there also. Phone: (01) 210-8927

Another very warm and welcoming environment is Fiona McMahon's gorgeous Puddleducks Cafe, which she opened in April of this year. Located on a prominent corner in the very pretty village of Cong, Co Mayo, we were blown away by the scrumptious rhubarb pie and other delicious goodies winking at us. Cong, of course, is the village that is home to Ashford Castle and is also very much associated with the making of the iconic John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara movie The Quiet Man. Consequently, businesses in the village cater for both local customers and the tourism trade and, of course, guests from the castle.

Fiona is from the nearby village of Cross and went into the cafe business in 2008, when she took over The Hungry Monk, another popular cafe around the corner.

"I worked in Ryan's Butcher shop in Cong for 10 years and I got into cooking and food while I was there. I took over The Hungry Monk for six years. My lease was up then and we were thankfully getting busier, so I decided to come to this premises for more space. We did it up over the winter and then opened in April. I have brought the same menu as I had previously, with a few additions. We do sandwiches and salads and specials and this year we are going to stay open during the winter. With the extra space here now we can also be more family-friendly because we have room for buggies and changing areas and bits and pieces like that.

"There are far more people around this year, even coming to walk in the woods and grounds of Ashford Castle."

Puddleducks also does breakfast until 12 noon each day and until 1pm on Sundays, which is proving very popular. Phone: (094) 954-5745

Meanwhile around the corner, the aforementioned Hungry Monk is also thriving. It is now under the baton of Aisling and Jonathan Byrne, who have recently taken it over. It's a really cute little place in one of the cottages in the shadows of the castle walls. Aisling and Jonathan told me they had spent a year working in Japan where Aisling was a chef, whilst Jonathan worked front of house in an Irish restaurant in Tokyo called The Roundstone, located in the business district of Teno's Island.

Aisling, who does all the baking in-house, also has experience of working in Boston in a kosher bakery but, more recently, they both worked as chefs in the popular Rua and Cafe Rua in Castlebar. "We wanted to open our own place," said Jonathan. "We are both from Carlow originally, but my mum was from Neale, the next village over, so we are now living in what we call the 'home' house. We have our roots down here and we have little kids running around. Everyone has been very kind to us and it seems like the people in the locality are very receptive to what we are trying to do here by way of local and seasonal produce." Tel: (094) 954-5842

A welcome addition to the department store dining scene is Dorans at the Tea Rooms in Clery's. It's not what one might think of as a 'local' cafe unless you remember that there are an awful lot of people working in the area who visit it every day.

The Doran family are well-known fishmongers based on the pier in Howth. Apart from their shop and wholesale fish business, they also have The Oar House Restaurant on the pier and have now spread their tentacles into the city. They are open from breakfast through lunch, all-day dining, including the full afternoon tea €15/€30 for 1/2 people. Breakfast includes the full Irish, of course, but it is nice to see they are using the best of ingredients, including Higgins sausages and dry-cured rashers and Nora Egan's Inch House black pudding.

A 'Bretzel' bagel is toasted with smoked salmon and they are also doing Howth Smokies using naturally-smoked haddock. Dorans' scrambled eggs come with smoked salmon at €5.25 and eggs Benedict or eggs royale with smoked salmon is reasonably priced at €6.75/€6.95.

The lunch menu has 'small' plates and 'big' plates sporting everything fishy you can think of, from seafood chowder to deluxe crab claws baked with garlic butter. The ever-favourite prawn cocktail is there, as are fish cakes with remoulade sauce, and Loughshinny crab salad. Pan-fried hake has a Spanish touch with chickpeas and chorizo, while there are two types of fish and chips - the traditional 'one and one' and posh fish and chips which has a trio of smoked and white fish - both are €10.95 - and, of course, you get hand-cut chips, minted pea puree and tartar sauce.

They also do a sharing platter at €30 with crab claws, smoked salmon, cold water and Dublin Bay prawns, smoked mackerel and salmon pates, mussels, chicken liver pate and breads. You can also get the auld traditional Dublin coddle and puddings from a dessert trolley.

What more do you want! Phone: (01) 817-3212

Sunday Independent