As quickly as you can eat an hors d’ouvres, “small plates” have clattered in and out of fashion in zeitgeisty restaurants — all of a sudden the hottest trend, only to be whipped away by the fickle bus boy of fashion a couple of years later. Ultimately more suited to the chef than the diner, these diminutive dishes were despatched from the kitchen, in no particular order, and piled up on small tables in front of unwitting diners at now-defunct restaurants such as Conrad Gallagher’s Salon de Saveurs on Aungier Street, and Indie Dhaba on South Anne Street.
Other proponents of the modish morsel have adapted. Oliver Dunne, at Cleaver East in Temple Bar, readjusted his menu from bijou to big. Ultimately, though, the small, shared plate retreated to its natural habitat, tapas restaurants like Cava in Galway, and Las Tapas de Lola and the Port House in Dublin. Increasingly, though, wine bars are moving into this space. Some, like the Wine Cellar in Fallon & Byrne, the French Paradox in Ballsbridge and 64 Wine in Glasthule,
are well established, serving simple charcuterie and cheese plates with a small selection of hot dishes; and newer additions like Stanley’s on St Andrew’s Street, Cavern on Baggot Street and Green Man Wines in Terenure are feeding into the trend. But until now, small plate gastronomy in a wine bar setting hasn’t really made its mark.
“We’re opening a wine bar with very high end food,” says John Wyer, chef and owner of Forest Avenue on Sussex Terrace in Ballsbridge with his wife, New York native Sandy Sabek. They are collaborating with Ciaran Sweeney, who will be joining the duo as head chef, to open Forest & Marcy on nearby Leeson Street, in the space that was previously occupied by Rigby’s. The team pack a serious culinary pedigree. Wyer and Sabek worked together in Michelin-starred L’Ecrivain for many years, and Sweeney cut his teeth in the Michelin two-starred Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, followed by Thornton’s and the Greenhouse in Dublin. It was after Sweeney ran a number of successful pop-up dinners in Forest Avenue on Sunday nights that the three chefs realised that they shared the same ambition to open in a more casual space.
“We don’t want it to be just charcuterie and cheese, we want it to be an amazing plate of food, and pair that with interesting new wines,” says Wyer.
“We basically asked: where would we like to hang out for a weekend? We see a huge gap for something that is not a restaurant and not a bar. You see it all over Europe; in Spain, people hang out in tapas bars, but here we have the pub or we have the restaurant, there’s no in between. Forest & Macey will be a place where you can go to meet up with someone, you can go in and have a glass of wine and if you like, something to eat. We want to make just as much an effort with the food as we do with the wine and the ambiance.”
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While a wine bar serving top-end food is something new in Ireland, it is a growing trend in cities like New York and London. “More recent influences for us would have been Wildair in New York City,” says Wyer. “It’s a wine bar that was opened by two restaurateurs; it’s the sister restaurant of a hugely successful restaurant called Contra, and you don’t have to book in advance. They’re doing food that’s conducive to eating with wine, so it’s lots of small plates. Light, creative food. It could be deep fried squid, beef tartare with smoked cheese and horseradish.
“People don’t have to commit to a gastronomic experience. In London, for instance, you have Sager & Wilde. They started with a wine bar in Hackney, they were serving excellent wine with toasted sandwiches. Now they’ve taken their wine approach and opened a second place which is more of a restaurant, with food that’s more gastronomic,” he says.
“And then there’s Noble Rot, another place in London that’s creating a bit of a stir at the moment. It’s doing classic food with a great wine list and a brilliant atmosphere. There are people with a great pedigree in restaurants that are using their experience to apply it to a slightly different model,” adds Wyer.
Seating in the 25-seater restaurant will mostly be at the long stone counter, there is an open kitchen at the back of the space, and Sweeney is planning to serve some of the dishes he has developed over the last few months at Forest Avenue. He is taking a step back from the formality of the Michelin-starred restaurants he’s worked at in the past, and will offer plates ranging in price from €4 to €18.
“We want the food to be relatively simple, so people can have three or four plates rather than starter, main course and dessert. If they want another course they can, it’s not systematic; it’s down to the customer,” says Sweeney.
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“I really wanted to start stripping my food back and make the ingredients stand out for themselves. But I didn’t want to step away from my Irish roots,” says Sweeney. “So I’ve been looking at what I can do with classic Irish things.
“I’ve been developing a few dishes, such as fermented potato bread. I’m
from Donegal, and the potato farl is a traditional thing there, so I’ve taken it to a new level. I ferment my own potatoes and make a traditional bread. The flavour is stunning. I serve it with a leg of bacon and cabbage, so it’s a breakdown of a traditional dish — it’s an Irish dinner. The bread is fired on a grill at the last second, so it’s soft, it’s bready and cakey at the same time; and the relish of bacon and cabbage is on the side.
“I try to get as much flavour as possible into food. It doesn’t have to be rich, it could be a little bit of poached salmon with potato mousse and leeks. The menu will be short, so my plan is to change it every three or four weeks. I’ll change it dish by dish as new products come in, following seasonality.”
Rather than the usual suspects, Sabek, who will be running front of house in the wine bar, has created an eclectic wine list, which, like the menu, will change regularly. “Because I’m a chef, I don’t think of wine like other people do,” she explains. “I think of it in palate terms rather than thinking, people drink chardonnay and I need those things on the list. So I look for wines that excite me rather than following a format.
“I think people can enjoy different things if the opportunity is there. Often people are interested in trying a special wine but don’t want to pay the price for the bottle,” she says. “We want to do wines by the glass where people can try these wines. We’ll try the Coravin system [a device that extracts a glass of wine from a bottle but keeps the wine fresh as the cork is not removed from the bottle], but it’s a very slow pour, so we’ll see how that works in a busy bar,” she says.
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“I’d like to be able to offer a wine that is €20 by the glass that people would never consider buying by the bottle. We have lots of ideas. I think a wine bar like this is exactly what the customers want.” Forest & Marcy, No 126 Leeson Street Upper, Dublin 4; forestandmarcy.ie
Corking wine bars
64 Wine The friendly neighbourhood shop and cafe run by Gerard Maguire, far right, offers homemade scones for breakfast, excellent sandwiches for lunch, and cheese and charcuterie in the evening. There’s also a broad range of wines. No 64 Glasthule Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin; 64wine.ie
Cavern on Baggot Street In the basement of Baggot Street Wines, the Cavern offers €5 corkage and an extensive wine list of its own. In the evening there’s a great selection of reasonably priced sharing boards; not just the usual meats and cheeses but interesting seafood and pâté choices.
No 17 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4; cavernbaggotst.com
Ely Wine Bar/Ely Bar & Brasserie A winner of numerous awards, Ely is a long-established favourite on Ely Place, near St Stephen’s Green (its wine manager is Ian Brosnan, above right). Ely Bar & Brasserie is a sister location in Custom House Quay, located in beautifully restored wine vaults . The menu includes organic beef and pork from the family farm in the Burren.
No 22 Ely Place, Dublin 2; North Dock, Georges Dock, Dublin 1; elywinebar.ie
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Fallon & Byrne On Mondays, corkage on any bottle among the 600-plus wines lining the walls is just €1 (normally €10). There are light bites as well as hearty, rustic full meals.
No 11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2; fallonandbyrne.com
Green Man Wines Wines from small artisan growers, including many that are organic, biodynamic or “natural”. In addition to an extensive wine list, you can buy any bottle in the shop to have in the wine bar for an €8 corkage fee. There’s also a good selection of hot and cold platters with a Spanish influence.
No 3 Terenure Road North, Dublin 6; greenmanwines.ie http://greenmanwines.ie/
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L’Atitude 51 Wine Cafe Winner of the Georgina Campbell Wine Award of the Year in 2015, L’Atitude offers light evening meals and an extensive wine list. It is also fully licensed with an interesting variety of craft beers and spirits.
No 1 Union Quay, Cork; latitude51.ie http://latitude51.ie/ http://latitude51.ie/
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Sheridans Cheesemongers Sheridans is Ireland’s best-known maker of top-quality cheeses, with shops in Dublin, Kells, Galway and Waterford. Its Galway location also has a buzzy wine bar above the shop, with an emphasis on Italian wines, all imported directly.
No 14 Church Yard Street, Galway; sheridanscheesemongers.com
Stanley’s Restaurant & Wine Bar Winner of the Best Dublin Wine Experience in 2015, Stanley’s is one of the buzziest tables in town. Sommelier Morgan VanderKamer has selected an eclectic, wide-ranging list — try a “skin-contact” orange wine for something you won’t taste every day.
No 7 St Andrew’s Street, Dublin 2; stanleysrestaurant.ie http://stanleysrestaurant.ie/ http://stanleysrestaurant.ie/
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Red Bank 1736 Wine Tavern This old-school wine bar in a cosy basement attracts an artistic and musical crowd. There are complimentary food platters some weeknights before 10pm, and live tunes from virtuoso guitar-playing duo Mick Pyro and Ger Kiely on Friday nights after 10pm. No 17 Duke Street, Dublin 2