The Farmgate Cafe. Where hearty tradition thrives

 The Farmgate Cafe. Where hearty tradition thrives

Beef Cheek Stew

The teenager remembers the table setting, especially those flowers floating in a bowl. She is sitting with her mother in a room overlooking the Front Strand in Youghal in the mid 1960s. It is the house of her mother’s friend and soon dinner is served. The meat was boiled leg of mutton and the 16-year old was given a bit of the nap of mutton as a treat. 

“I never forgot that meal,” Kay Harte told me some time back. “It was my first time at an adult meal and it was absolutely divine….That was my first realisation that plain simple Irish food can be so sophisticated.”

Kay couldn’t have known then that she would go on to found the Farm Gate Restaurant in Cork’s English Market in 1994 and that the restaurant would thrive on serving traditional Irish food and that particular tradition itself would thrive under her guidance. The Farmgate has now entered its 4th decade with Kay’s daughter Rebecca at the helm.

Cod

The cuisine here is not so much traditional as timeless. As long as local producers and growers maintain their high standards and as long as the café survives then these treasures of the ages will be available to visitors and locals alike in an uniquely Irish tradition, enhanced with new influences in this dynamic multicultural food market and port city experience.

Christmas Pudding

 “A restau­rant rooted in good things and fine tastes, all served with plea­sure and good nature”. Read the review here by famous critic AA Gill  

As it happens, we were in there last Friday week for lunch. We had of course booked in advance. Glad to report that that the good-natured service is still a key part of the experience here. Everyone we met from start to finish was calm, courteous and effortlessly efficient. And one or two were well able to introduce a little humour to break the ice and put the customer at ease.

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On our way up the stairs we read the short list of specials, the traditional stew, fish of the day, soup of the day (apple and celeriac) and also a quiche (which had sold out when we arrived at 2,30pm).

Apple Tart

Once seated in the glass-walled restaurant section, overlooking the floor of the English Market below, the staff filled us in on the specials again with some extra detail. We nibbled at a little bowl of Toonsbridge Atlas green olives and some of the Farmgate's brown soda bread. 

We had been hoping to get some of superb white loaf at the shop downstairs but we were too late. It is very popular towards the weekend and goes quickly! Quite a list of starters included Ardsallagh goats cheese ciabatta, balsamic roasted onions, kale and walnut pesto; Moroccan spiced chicken sandwich, ras el hanout mayonnaise & cucumber; and Toasted sandwich, loin of bacon, scamorza cheese, onion marmalade.

Sometimes you hear: Ireland’ has no food culture. - don't repeat that to Kay!!! Her more gentle response will be to ask you to read Humphrey O’Sullivan’s “The diary of an Irish countryman, 1827-1835 “. Humphrey was an “enjoyer of good food and drink”  and the book records the good food that was around at the time. The hot ticket of a Sunday was to stroll up to the local Parish Priest’s house, once you had an invite of course.  

The book is available in local libraries and, if my memory serves me well, they have a copy at the Farmgate. The main cultural exhibit in café though is “the poetry wall’, which is on per­ma­nent view in the din­ing room. This unique col­lec­tion of handwritten poems, by Cork, Irish and inter­na­tional poets, was com­mis­sioned by the Far­m­gate n 2005 to cel­e­brate Cork’s year as Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture.

Elderflower Fizz

Anyhow, time to return to our lunch. Our top class mains were the cod (Fish of the Day) and the Beef Cheek Stew and, as always, there’s a side of those balls of flour, potatoes from East Cork. Other mains on offer included: Irish lamb stew; Risotto - Ardsallagh Phantom Ash, pea, basil and hazelnut; Braised lentil pie with olive oil mash, roast root vegetables; Free-range supreme of chicken, fennel & lemon sauce; and of course, the old Cork favourite of Tripe and onions with Drisheen, also with Ladysbridge potatoes.

When it came to dessert, there was a surprising "extra" still on offer: Christmas Pudding and Custard. I gave that an immediate nod and it made for a superb conclusion to a lovely meal. By the way, their Bread and butter pudding is a regular and highly recommended.

Dining on the balcony