Shopping

A curious feature of Dublin’s dining scene is the lack of decent seafood restaurants. It is after all located by the sea, on an island.

To find the best seafood restaurant in the city, one must head out to Caviston’s, in the genteel southside suburb of Sandycove.

Caviston’s is actually two businesses in one, with the restaurant and a food emporium next door to each other. The emporium stocks a whole range of wonderful goods, but the speciality is seafood. The fish are so gleamingly fresh they practically wink at you.

The small, simply furnished restaurant is the kind of place that could probably live off its reputation by now and still pack them in. It is to its credit that it maintains a consistently high standard of cooking, and excellent service. They keep things simple and let the freshness and flavours of the fish speak for themselves.

They have an outstanding lunchtime offer at the moment of a starter and main course for €12.95, or with a glass of wine for €15.95 – provided you order before 12.30. It is early, but it really is worth the effort. On one visit I had grilled fillet of mackerel followed by Claire Island organic salmon. I can honestly say it was the best value for money lunch I’ve ever had in Ireland.

Caviston’s is always full of the kind of southside ladies who lunch (eavesdropping on their conversations is part of the enjoyment for me – its a different world), so booking is essential.

Builders and developers are almost as reviled in Ireland these days as bankers and politicians. The exception is a colourful character called Mick Wallace (now an Independent politician also), who was responsible for developing Bloom’s Lane back in the early Noughties.

A lover of Italian culture, Wallace’s ambition was to bring a slice of the continental lifestyle, with good food and wine at affordable prices, to Dublin at a time when prices elsewhere were soaring.

It is an attractive walkway which links the Millenium Bridge with Strand Street and Upper Abbey Street and is lined with restaurants, cafes and a few shops. There is a concentration of Italian restaurants at one end, hence it is generally referred to locally as the “Italian Quarter.”

Whether this area can still be said to offer better value for money than can be found elsewhere in the city is debatable. The Italian fare on offer tends to be decent and reliable rather than exciting or inventive. Nevertheless, it is a very pleasant option for al fresco dining or a simple glass of wine. Bloom’s Lane is also one of Dublin’s prime people-watching locations on a sunny day, forming a perfect runway for the city’s beautiful people – usually foreigners.

Incidentally, the picture above is of a mural to be found at the heart of Bloom’s Lane. Featuring a collection of random individuals chosen by the local artist responsible for the work, it is a clever and amusing take on the Last Supper.

There’s a nice scattering of appealing home-grown design stores in Dublin at the moment. There’s Designist on South Great George’s Street, Article in Powerscourt Townhouse, and this one – Industry on Smock Alley, Essex Street West, in the old Temple Bar. All have a similar refined aesthetic, and there’s a certain amount of crossover on stock, but all have their own distinct offering.

Industry, appearance-wise, is all about the typography. Letters loom large on high shelves, hang heavy from walls, dance from baskets of papers and announce their artfulness from spare, framed prints. The concept is ‘vintage, upcycled and new’ and there are some gorgeously fancy pieces to be found here. If money were no object, I’d buy the lot. As it lamentably is an object, I’d recommend the pretty retro print vases (€ 17.00 – € 21.00), the very fine line in clever scatter cushions, or the excellent selection of unique greetings cards.

There are a few good independent booksellers left in Dublin. The new-ish Gutter Bookshop is particularly pleasing for its bright, inspiring layout and well-chosen stock. The white shelves are neatly laid out in interesting categories, with half a wall dedicated to staff recommendations, which are frequently brilliant. It’s not a place for pulp or cut-price bestsellers – this is where to come for a carefully considered gift or to find your new favourite author.

It’s also lovely for children, who get their own ample corner, complete with colourful hand-puppets that are also offered for sale. There’s some gorgeous giftware too – if, like me, you find a good notebook hard to resist, you might leave with more wordless paperbacks than wordy ones. Staff picks that I would wholeheartedly endorse have included Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters To A Young Poet’; Haruki Murukami’s ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’; and Kevin Barry’s magnificent short story collection, ‘There Are Little Kingdoms’.

Oh, yes, and in case you missed the link, the Gutter Bookshop is so-called after the Oscar Wilde quotation that runs, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’

Many people that have watched the movie Chocolat with Juliette Binoche, often dream of having such a little shop in their city, town, or neighbourhood… a place where they can go into and be greeted by an honest smile that understands what chocolate invokes once the first bite is taken.

Dubliners now have such a place. Although it is not found in a remote town in France like in the film, Cocoa Atelier definitely creates that space of serenity, warmth and intimacy within that many city dwellers & chocoholics crave.

Inside Cocoa Atelier you will find a multitude of truffles in all sorts of flavour combinations sitting before you, with columns of chocolate Florentines, jars and bottles oozing chocolatey deliciousness adorning the walls, and almost endless rows of macaroons waiting to be picked.

The place is a temple to the art of all things chocolate. Everything you see on display is produced in the downstairs kitchen using the best quality ingredients to make Cocoa Atelier an experience to be had while in Dublin. My favourites so far are the salted caramels & the white chocolate and pistachio Florentines.

Another thing to highlight at Cocoa Atelier is the modern and soothing ambience within the shop where chocolate is the pièce de résistance, all divinely enhanced by the always smiling Sheena, the store’s manager. Cocoa Atelier is probably the type of shop Brioche’s character would have started had she had the city and the 21st century at her disposal.