Category Archives: Dublin

September 9, 2011 · 11:55 pm

♥ Irish Designers Create

Yesterday evening I went to see Irish Designers Create, a celebration of the work of seventeen of the brightest young creatives in the Irish design firmament, which is on at Dublin’s Brown Thomas department store. The celebration started at yesterday’s Fashion Night Out and will run until the 18th September. There I met….

Emma Manley: The charming and gifted Emma has creativity flowing in her veins and indelibly stamped in her DNA (her Mama is a talented designer/artist). Still just in her mid twenties she has packed an enormous amount into her life thus far. She is a fashion graduate who has experience of the industry in both New York and London (in London she worked at the house of Alexander McQueen). In 2010 she set up her own label, Manley. Emma uses a mix of luxury materials (leather, chiffon and wool) to fashion sophisticated, feminine garments which are given a tougher edge by unusual fabric combinations, they are sometimes dotted with studs and always sprinkled with the fairy dust of über coolness. The starting price of a dress from the Manley label is €220. Web address: http://www.emmamanley.com

Anne Mette O’Connor: Question. What do you get when your blend super niceness with creative talent, an extraordinary eye for detail and a phenomenal work ethic. The answer in Mette’s case is a thriving jewellery business called AMOC (from the initials of her full name). The beautiful piece that Mette is wearing (in the photograph above) is made from silver, charcoal diamonds and ribbon, given the amount of diamonds dangling from the wonder necklace I didn’t dare ask the price but in her shop Mette has beautiful hand crafted pieces from around €100 (I did a post on AMOC in May to read it click here). Web address: www.amoc.com

Heidi Higgins: On my way up to see the exhibition I spotted a dress I liked on a display mannequin, I assumed it was by one of the well know designer stocked by Brown Thomas so I stopped to ask the people working on the display about it, only to find myself talking to Heidi Higgins the designer of said dress. She is one of the seventeen designers chosen to take part in the Irish Designers Create celebration. Upstairs, Heidi a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, had a rail laden with simple chic timeless and stylish garments (mainly dresses) with an Audrey Hepburn-esque feel. The pure wool dresses some in bright jewel colours and some in neutrals were priced around the €300/350 mark. Web address: http://www.heidihiggins.com

Laragh McMonagle: My friend H who has a keen eye for all things beautiful told me, via a comment on the blog some months ago about the work of Blackrock based jewellery designer Laragh McMonagle. I didn’t get a chance to go to the exhibition that H recommended so last night was the first time I saw some of the dream like items from Laragh’s treasure trove. Laragh is mainly self-thought and as you can see from the picture above she uses pearls, silver and gemstones in a pretty unique way. Mea culpa I forgot to check out prices. Web address http://www.bylaragh.com

I didn’t get a chance to look properly at all the other designers work so it is good news that the exhibition continues on the third floor of Brown Thomas until 18th September.

♥ Coffee in Dublin//Four: Sixty Four Wine

It’s always good to know where to find a decent cup of coffee, so when I am in the Sandycove, Glasthule or Dun Laoghaire areas of South Dublin and in need of a caffeine pick-me-up, I head to Sixty Four Wine. The owner Gerard Maguire has woven together three different but related strands to come up with a successful business. Sixty Four is principally a wine emporium, so the front of the shop carries a large selection of vinous treats at every price point, in the middle there’s an artisan food section and at the back an interesting café (serving coffee, teas, breakfast and lunch) and a fine wine cellar.

The coffee is good and always arrives with a wedge of Valrhona chocolate on the side. The decor of the café is eclectic; a tiled floor, table tops made from the sides of wooden wine boxes, seating replete with comfortable cushion, quirky antiques, a bust of James Joyce in one corner and artificial lighting augmented by flickering tealights. The mix is curiously appealing and the café has a post-modern feel (I mean that in a very good way); the sort of place you wouldn’t be surprised to come upon a skilled scribe scribbling by the glow of candlelight.

The owner Gerard is living the mantra ‘do something you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ He started his working life as a policemen and then became a lawyer with his own practice. He is a long time lover of wine, so when he had a health scare several years ago he decided, as he waited a week for his test results, that if all was well he would work from that day on at something he loved, the news was good and Sixty Four Wine was born. Gerard is studying to become a Master of Wine; he is entering the third year of a seven-year long slog.

When I was talking to Gerard I couldn’t resist asking a would be Master of Wine to recommend a couple of wines at the €15 level and here’s what he suggested; a Godello (that’s a white wine, Godello is the grape variety, like clothes grapes go in and out of fashion and Gerard reckons that Godello is the coming thing) by the Spanish producer Rafael Palacios and Clos des Trias a bio-dynamic Grenache dominated red from the Ventoux.

Note: Sixty Four Wine is at 64 Sandycove Road, Glasthule, Co. Dublin and the web address is http://www.64wine.com

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Filed under Coffee, Dublin, Food/Wine, Restaurants/Cafés

Tagged as Coffee in Dublin, Dublin, Gerard Maguire, Glasthule, Sandycove, Sixty Four Wine, Wine shops

August 29, 2011 · 10:39 pm

♥ Atypical Tourist

I happened upon the Happiness Project blog recently (click here), complete with its weekly suggestions for the Happiness Challenge 2011. I haven’t fully digested all that’s on it but one thing that caught my eye was the idea of becoming a tourist in your home area. Thus, I found myself in the centre of Dublin yesterday, an atypical tourist in my native city. My mission was to see the Book of Kells.

I headed to Trinity College, a university founded by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592. Once through the main gate, I was in a world far removed from the surrounding urban cacophony; a forty acre plus site filled with cobbled quads, ancient imperious grey-stoned building, grassy squares, centuries old trees and verdant playing fields. I was not alone as there was a long snaking but fortunately swift moving queue, waiting to get access to the library building where the Book of Kells is kept (I was there just after the 12 noon Sunday opening time, it’s apparently much quieter later in the afternoon).

In case you don’t know, the 9th Century Book of Kells is an exquisitely decorated copy of the four gospels in Latin, four pages of which are on display in a dimly lit room in the library building. There is an exhibition area, with displays explaining the background to the book and related manuscripts. The €9 admission charge to see the Book of Kells includes access to the extraordinary sixty-five metre Long Room which is the main chamber of the old library. The room is high ceilinged, with to-the-rafters oak shelves holding a mass of leather-bound first editions. White marble busts of famous philosophers, writers and others who have a connection with Trinity stand sentinel along the length of the room. In the center there are display cases in which some of the Long Room’s 200,000 books lay open (the display changes every few month).

I spoke to the very helpful Ken, one of the library’s staff. In a curious circular twist of fate Ken started his working life as a bookbinder and now many years later he again has a book-centric job (in between he has had various other non-book related employments). He loves his work in the library, especially the opportunity to meet and talk to people from all over the world. He has met the great and the good; Bruce Springsteen and Al Pacino visited separately on the same day, Ken says his fifteen-second claim to fame was asking Al Pacino to leave (nothing Al did, just that the fire alarm went off when he was there). A particular highlight for Ken was watching the Queen visit the Long Room on her recent trip to Ireland.

When I left Trinity’s grounds I headed to have a tourist-y Sunday brunch of a full Irish Breakfast before visiting the National Gallery (more about that in another post).

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Filed under Books, Culture, Dublin

Tagged as Book of Kells, Dublin, Happiness Project, Long Room, Travel, Trinity College

August 15, 2011 · 5:00 pm

♥ Bake my Cake

What do you do if you qualified as an architect in Dublin, just as the world economy wobbled spectacularly, the Irish property market imploded and construction in Dublin lurched to a shuddering halt? When Catherine De Groot completed her degree in 2008, she briefly worked in an architectural practice but when her hours were cut, she decided to supplement her income by transforming her childhood passion for baking into a business. For a while she beavered away at the cake making plus the architecture but the fledgling baking business was so successful that she decided to leave architecture and in November 2010 she found a suitable premises and opened Bake My Cake.

The shop is on Booterstown Avenue in South Dublin, it’s long, narrow and the white-painted walls are a perfect foil to the splashes of colour supplied by: the shelves of brightly-hued products, the painted logo created by a graphic designer friend, the colour blocked take away coffee cups and the pretty polka dot cake boxes. The gorgeous baking aroma transfixed me the moment I walked through the door, it comes from the heart of the business,an open plan kitchen, at the back of the shop, overlooking a small garden.

The business has three distinct parts. Firstly there’s the baking side; should you be looking for a bespoke cake for a special occasion (wedding, birthday, christening…) you can sit down and talk to The Bake My Cake team and they will come up with a design that matches your requirements. There is also a list of deserts, cupcakes and other treats available to order. Secondly, if you are a devoted home baker the shop is a place where you can source all manner of cake-centric things such as: fondant icing, cake tins, colouring, cutters, edible food writing pens, cake decoration and cup cake cases. The third part of the Bake my Cake business is the treats section at the front of the shop where there is a daily changing choice of goodies (cup cakes, brownies…) as well as ice cream and coffee for sale (take out only).

A special thank you to Neil, one of Catherine’s team for answering all my question.

Note; Bake My Cake, 45 Booterstown Avenue,Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Website: http://www.bakemycake.ie Phone: 00353 1 2784478. The shop is open, Monday – Friday: 8.00a.m. – 6.00p.m. and Saturday: 10.00a.m. – 4.00p.m.

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Filed under Cake, Celebrations, Dublin, Food/Wine, Shops/Shopping

Tagged as Baking, Cake, Cake decorating, Cupcake, Dublin, Dublin shops

July 10, 2011 · 9:18 pm

♥ Favourite Shops//Bow

If I were a tourist in a foreign city Bow is exactly the sort of shop I would like to stumble upon; Dublin is fortunate to have this unique addition to the city’s retail landscape. Bow is co-owned by three talented people, Ellis Boyle (creator of ethereally pretty clothes), Margaret O’Rourke (jewellery designer and founder of her own label MoMuse) and Wendy Crawford (finder of vintage treasures). The mix in the shop is thus clothes, jewellery and vintage items.

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Filed under Designers, Dublin, Fashion, Shops/Shopping, Style

Tagged as Bow, Bow Powerscourt, Dublin, Eilis Boyle, MoMuse, Shopping, Wendy's Wardrobe, Where to shop Dublin

July 8, 2011 · 4:35 pm

♥ Thread

Thread is a new free fashion magazine for Dublin that will be published quarterly. It’s the very clever idea of the owners of six independent Dublin boutiques (Bow, Costume, Dolls, Indigo & Cloth, Smock and uCCa) who banded together to showcase their stock (often original and sometimes quirky) and to shine a light on Dublin’s vibrant creative fashion scene.

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♥ Cornucopia

Cornucopia is the answer; the question was where do you eat in Dublin when you are detoxing. I only discovered it a few years ago but Cornucopia has been around for a quarter of a century, starting off as a health food shop with a few tables to the back for eating at, then morphing into a café/restaurant. Cornucopia has expanded over the years and now occupies the ground floor space of two building on Wicklow Street and there are plans to open the first and second floors of the buildings, later this year, for dining, catering and arts events.

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Filed under Dublin, Food/Wine, Healthy Living, Restaurants/Cafés

Tagged as Cornucopia, Dublin, Food, Restaurants in Dublin, Vegetarian Restaurant Dublin, Where to eat in Dublin

June 19, 2011 · 10:07 pm

♥ Bits of my Week

This morning when I woke up, in those few fleeting moments betwixt dreamlike forgetfulness and full wakefulness, I realized with a jolt, that it was Sunday and yet another week had galloped by.

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Filed under Designers, Dublin, Musings

Tagged as Dalkey, Eyeliner, Irish Designers, Musings, Peter O'Brien, Sales, Tramyard Gallery

June 16, 2011 · 1:24 am

♥ Bloomsday: Ulysses meets Twitter

Today the 16th of June is Bloomsday. James Joyce set his modernist novel Ulysses in Dublin and all the action takes place within a twenty-four hour period on the 16th June 1904. Bloomsday celebrates the book and is named after Ulysses’s central character, Leopold Bloom.

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Filed under Books, Culture, Dublin

Tagged as Arts, Bloomsday, Dublin, James Joyce, Literature, Twitter, Ulysses

June 11, 2011 · 7:45 am

♥ Peter and Pygmalion

Last night I went to see George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. The plot (to win a bet, phonetics expert Professor Henry Higgins transforms cockney flower girl Eliza Dolittle from a “draggled-tailed guttersnipe” into someone who could pass for a duchess, at a society garden party) could so easily, as so many before me have suggested, segue into a reality TV show.