When I am in town, I am constantly on the trail of the holy grail of caffeine – a decent cup of coffee. Town incidentally is Dublin, which is actually a city but for some reason native Dubliners, myself included, often use the noun town when talking about it – as in ‘going into town’, ‘working in town’, and ‘shopping in town’. Anyway that semantic digression aside the good news is that there is an excellent newish café/shop called Clement & Pekoe serving equally excellent coffee (and teas) at 50 William Street South in the centre of Dublin.
It is small but rather lovely space with: white wall; dark wooden floors; a slew of shelves at the back of the shop packed with black tea canisters filled with all manner of exotic teas; two stunning glittery cage lights; and some top-notch coffee-making equipment. There is a small amount of seating (stools only) but there are plans to enlarge the café/shop by knocking through to the back to create a further seating area with tables and chairs.
Clement & Pekoe is owned and run by husband and wife team Dairine Keogh and Simon Cummins, although Dairine and Simon only opened the café/shop last September, they set up Clement & Pekoe the business in 2006 to wholesale fine teas and coffees. Darine and Simon both have sales backgrounds and they are also fervent foodies.
Dairine and Simon are passionate about coffee and they serve only perfectly roasted beans at their prime. Dairine likens coffee to wine saying that the coffee beans express the terroir of the region from whence they came. Almost all the teas and coffees at Clement & Pekoe are single estate. There is a Nuova Simonelli machine (the Rolls Royce of coffee-making machines) for making the usual round of lattes, cappucinos or espressos and as well Clement & Pekoe offers a Filter of the Day to give customers the opportunity to taste different coffees. Dairine explained that filter coffee allows different characteristics of the coffee to be tasted, as it is a less pressurized way of making coffee.
Darine and Simon are very knowledgeable about both tea and coffee but their shop/café is in no way an intimidating place. As well as the excellent coffees and teas there is a selection of rather yummy baked goods.
Note; Clement & Pekoe is at 50 William Street South, Dublin 2 and their web address is http://www.clementandpekoe.com
Just Add Attitude 
This place looks great.
It is great. I am sure finding a good cup of coffee is easy in Italy – lucky you.
You could do freelance work introducing businesses to consumers. I always want to visit the places you highlight.
Thanks for your nice comment. I love writing about the cafes shops and design companies I highlight on the blog, they are usually small businesses run by people who are very passionate about what they do and that is part of their charm. I might not love doing it so much if it was work! What I would really like to do one day is put together an alternative tourist guide to Dublin featuring among other things shops and cafes that may not be in the major guide books. Hopefully you will get to visit some of the places I write about some day! 😉
It sounds (and looks) wonderful. I’ll have to stop there when I’m in Dublin 🙂 Thanks for the information!
Thanks Meg for your comment and I hope you get to Dublin some time soon. 😉
Would love to share a cup with you:)
I would love to share a cup with you too. 😉