Cork City by The Lee. Stay. Eat. Shop. See!

Cork City by The Lee. 
Stay. Eat. Shop. See!

Music city

The Firkin Crane in Shandon,
once the butter capital of the world

See: The Queen made it her number one stop in Cork so you’ve just got to see the English Market, an institution in the city since 1788. Nearby, you’ll see the spires of historic St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

St Anne’s Church in Shandon is another landmark. Visit and don’t forget to ring the bells.  Cork was once the butter capital of the world and the Butter Museum is in the shadow of Shandon.

Staying north of the river, why not pay a call to the storied cells of the City Gaol. The Glucksman is a lovely art gallery in the leafy grounds of the university while the well established Crawford Gallery is easily accessible in the city centre, next door to the Opera House. And don't forget Elizabeth Fort and the newly opened Nano Nagle Place. Always something interesting on at The Triskel, an arts venue in a converted church.

Shop: While in the English Market why not do a bit of shopping and check out local delicacies such as buttered eggs and spiced beef. The compact city centre boasts a few top notch shopping centres: Merchants Quay, Opera Lane and the new Capitol area. North Main Street has Bradley’s, founded in 1850, and famous for its wall of craft beers.

For a different experience head to Mahon Point Farmer’s Market every Thursday where you’ll find fantastic local cheese and meat and much more, including wild mushrooms, all within a few yards of the large shopping centre.

No shortage of farm to fork restaurants in Cork

Eat: No shortage of eating places including Greene's, Jacques, LesGourmandises and Isaac's while lively lunchtime venues include the Farmgate and Nash 19. Mad on meat? Try Son of a Bun, Holy Smoke, SpitJack, and many more. Exceptional Japanese at Miyazaki (just six stools though!) No meat? Then the amazing Cafe Paradiso is the one, Iyers is another. Idaho is the city centre cafe while coffee stops abound.  For a fuller list of restaurants and cafes, city and county, see my regularly updated list here. Also check the Whazon Cork listings.

A city of bridges

Drink: For something a little different try L’Atitude Wine Café close to the City Hall. The emphasis here is on quality wines and tasty local snacks with a continental touch. Electric, with its downstairs bar and upstairs fish bar, has taken the South Mall by storm since it opened in 2010.  SoHo and the Bodega are other modern bars with restaurants attached.

For something more traditional, including the music, there are quite a few with The Oliver Plunket being very central indeed. And, if you prefer craft beers then the Franciscan Well on the North Mall is the place to go as they have a micro brewery right behind the counter. Other pubs with micro-breweries include Rising Sons (Cornmarket Street), Elbow Lane (Oliver Plunket Street, excellent food here also) and Cotton Ball (Mayfield).

Stay: With excellent food in the building and efficient and friendly service, the River Lee is a lovely place to stay in Cork. If you need something more central, the Clayton is for you. A short distance from the centre, you'll find the Ambassador and the Montenotte, each with great views over the city. 

Fitzgerald's Park

If you are caught for time, stay at the Metropole and explore the amazing McCurtain Street, its pubs, theatre, cafes and restaurants.

Something on the traditional side? Why not the Imperial where you’ll be wined and dined and never be short of company as the locals come and go. Like it leafy? Then the Hayfield Manor and the Maryborough near Douglas are recommended as is the Radisson in Little Island.

Making a quick getaway? The Cork International Airport Hotel is excellent. Heading north or west? Check the Commons Inn.

Walk: Cork is very compact and great for walks. Call to the tourist office and pick up the maps and info for some city centre strolls.

Like to try something more energetic? Then start at the North Mall and take a brisk riverside stroll through the Mardyke, into Fitzgerald’s Park, past the UCC Grounds and then onto the Lee Fields. Just remember you have to come back!

There is a very popular walk by the harbour starting at Blackrock Castle, another great place to visit with an excellent restaurant, the Castle Cafe. For something shorter but still interesting, do the circular walk around the Lough, a suburban lake full of swans and ducks and other wildfowl.

Ballycotton cliff walk, just east of the city

Get Out: No shortage of things to see and do on the eastern side of the city. Take a trip to Fota House and its famous gardens and arboretum. If you have kids, then the Fota Wildlife Park is at hand. Much to do in Cobh also, including a trip by boat to Spike Island, a former prison with history galore. 

Spike Island

To the south then and a highlight in Crosshaven is the coastal artillery fort of Camden with a wealth of history and great views. Another fort, this also being restored, is Charlesfort in Kinsale, a historic town rich in excellent eating places and with a must visit Wine Museum in Desmond Castle. Blarney is just north of the city. The castle, and its famous stone, is a busy spot. Eat at The Square Table.

Strike off to the west and take in the impressive ruins of the abbey at Timoleague . WestCork boasts magnificent beaches and good food producers whose products you may sample in restaurants such as the Pilgrim's (Rosscarbery),  Richy’s Bistro (Clonakilty), and Bastion (Kinsale).

For more detailed guides to the county, check out my East Cork and North Cork recommendations.

Jazz time

Listen: There is almost always a music festival on in Cork and surrounds and the big one is the Jazz, always on the final weekend of October. There is a Folk Festival at the end of September and film buffs are in town in force in November. Check them all out here.

The Choral festival dominates in the spring and summer sings with the Midsummer Festival, followed by the International Folk Dancing Festival. Music in the Marquee  is a big highlight. Night after summer night, the Marquee hosts top names. Bryan Adams, Cliff Richard and Elton John played this summer (2017).

Avoid: The usual big city security precautions apply. Avoid leaving anything visible in your car and so on. Not much else to avoid. Maybe the rainy days. But even those can be fun. Never know who you’ll find singing at the local bar, even on the street. It is a fun city. So enjoy!

O’Connell’s Ivory Tower. Fusion but No Confusion

O’Connell’s Ivory Tower 

Fusion but No Confusion

Mackerel

One day in the late 60’s, I inadvertently disturbed a blonde American draft "dodger" hiding behind a couch in an upstairs artist's studio in Princes Street. Another fair-haired artist, chef Seamus O’Connell, works here these days and there’s no disturbing him in the kitchen of his first-floor restaurant, the Ivory Tower, Ryanair’s destination restaurant of 2011.

Open Thursday to Saturday 19:00 ’til late, the Ivory Tower currently offers two menus, a three course Market Menu (€33.00) and a seven course Tasting Menu (€50.00). Watch out also for special menus. Probably the best place to keep up to date with the Ivory Tower (where Seamus has been chef for over 15 years) is their Facebook page here. 

Dumpling

Though all ingredients are bought fresh each weekend and sourced locally in Cork, the cuisine is influenced by many countries, especially those in the far east and in central and southern America, not to mention those closer to home. Both menus (they change each week) are peppered with references to Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia and so on.

Take the Tasting Menu (seven courses), as we did, and you'll start with Mackerel, lime & shiso sunomono. The fish is beautifully marinated and admirably paired with the sunomono (a Japanese vinegar-ed cucumber salad). We were nodding affirmatively to each other across the table as we nibbled this one.

Tempura

And it just got better. Next up was the Korean Beef Dumplings with the Cantaloupe Kim Chee, another perfect match. More nodding. The palate was well and truly alive now, ready for anything!

And an Irish-Japanese duet emerged next: Kerry Chanterelles and Asparagus Tempura, delicate and delicious. 

And now soup. In the middle of a meal? Why not? Especially when it is his fantastic Duck, Carrot and Orange Soup. The crispy duck bits come in a separate dish and you just sprinkle them in. I had taken a spoon or two of the soup first and found it excellent but it just got better with the duck. Seems to be a particular magic of O'Connell that he can put two and two together on a plate and come up with five stars!

Soup

We were well on our way to a strong finish here in this first floor restaurant where one large window overlooks Oliver Plunket Street. We weren't admiring the view though, admiring our plates instead as the Octopus Risotto Nero Niçoise arrived. It looked dramatic and was yet another winner. Again, a superb combination. The risotto was amazing but each of the main parts would have been lovely on its own.

Octopus

And now for the meat, the Wagyu Beef Steak adoborojo. The last word there, I think, refers to a Peruvian treatment and the Wagyu, from Cork, was all the better for it. Purple potato too. The steak was cooked to perfection and could have cut with a plastic knife, no bother. Not a bit left.

There would be a sweet finalé, of course: Flourless Chocolate and pecan cake, accompanied by Scandi liquorice ice-cream. We had no worries about the quality but, in advance, were wondering if there’s going to be too much! But, no, the chef had also judged the quantity to perfection and we enjoyed the crisp topping, the crunch of the nuts, the soft centre and the coolness of the ice-cream and flavours of the dish as a whole. Quite the finish to quite a meal.

Wagyu

We enjoyed a few glasses of wine too, a couple of Cotes de Rhone and a crianza as well. The Ivory Tower has quite a selection, about 40 in all, with three of each colour available by the glass. 

Service, by the way, was excellent throughout. A change to the menu was notified at the start and we got extra info on each dish as it arrived in a rather grand, if somewhat faded, room. Babel may have been a tower of confusion; just food fusion here though. Very Highly Recommended.

Dessert

The Grand Dame Celebrates. Metropole 120 Party

The Grand Dame Celebrates

Metropole 120 Party

“McCurtain Street is back on the map. Is Grand Dame, the Metropole Hotel, never went away and, in appropriate style, she celebrated her 120 anniversary at the weekend. The hotel and especially the ballroom, where so many couples met and married over the decades, was looking splendid as the many guests arrived.

And there were many of the couples who got married here along with former staff members among the invited guests. Newly elected Lord Mayor Tony Fitzgerald recalled a wedding occasion in his speech. He was a page boy at his aunt’s reception in the Met in the early sixties but admitted to spending most of the day checking out the lift! Indeed, that very lift was a major attraction in the very early days of the hotel when it was owned by the Musgrave family.

“Cork,” he said, “is a great city to work and live in. And also a great city to visit.” He told us that mayors from two of our twin cities will visit this year and he is also looking forward to a visit from the World Health Organisation to mark Cork's designation as a healthy city. “The Metropole has played its part in the development of the city. Long may it continue.”

General manager Roger Russell was next to address the guests and said it was a great opportunity to look back through the memories. “The response has been phenomenal, especially from former team members. What a story she, the Grand Dame, could tell, of the city, of the world. After starting in 1897, the Metropole, which was a temperance hotel owned by the local Musgrave family, quickly established itself."

This week's photo of the hotel's front and, below (from a few years ago), the back is reflected in the Lee

"In more recent times, just forty years ago, it began its relationship with the Cork Jazz Festival and we’re looking forward to the new Oyster Festival in September. I'm very proud to be manager here this evening.” And he finished with a big thank you to the team.

Aaron Mansworth, Group General Manager and Director at Trigon Hotels (they also include the Cork International Hotel and the Cork Airport Hotel in their portfolio), extended a big welcome. “It’s wonderful to be here. I spent five years working in the Waldorf Astoria in New York and there are certain similarities. We had a great team there and a great team here.

And he spoke of the exciting plans for the area and their new “M” hotel to be built nearby on the old PJ O'Hea site. “It is a wonderful project. Will be a huge benefit to the area, especially in terms of jobs. I’d like to acknowledge the local  business people who have put McCurtain Street back on the map. Here in the Metropole, we hope to continue creating memories for life! So please join with me in raising a glass to the wonderful Grand Dame!” 

And that we were all glad to do. The hospitality was terrific. All kinds of drinks: bubbles, beer, wine, cocktails. And chef Shane O’Sullivan sent out a constant stream of delicious canapés. And all the while the band (jazz, of course) played. A lavish party, they promised. And that is exactly what the Grand Dame and the team delivered. Here’s to another 120.

These ladies know how to organise a party!

Let us take a  few “flashbacks” to incidents in the hotel’s history before we finish. Edward VII is reputed to have had tea on the roof of The Metropole when he visited Cork in 1903 for the city’s Great Exhibition. Down the years many more famous personalities have been guests of the Metropole, and included Gregory Peck, James Mason, Frank O’Connor, John Steinbeck, Vittoria de Sica, John Huston and Walt Disney. 

However it was Dawn Adams, the 1950’s British film star, who created the greatest stir when she stayed at The Metropole. When she was attending the Cork Film Festival she requested a bath of milk. Douglas Vance, the famous hotelier of the Metropole, refused such a request as the people of Cork were finding it hard to makes ends meet. The story made headlines around the world at that time.

It wouldn’t be Cork without someone taking the pee!  According to a weekend Facebook post, one Cork comedian said that Dawn Adams eventually had her milk bath and while it was being poured a porter knocked at her door and she told him to go away as she was having a milk bath. He asked if it was pasteurised and she replied "it isn't past my ass yet“.

A City by the Sea. Exhibition at St Peter’s

A City by the Sea. 
Exhibition at St Peter’s

Is this the oldest outdoor advert in Cork?

 The Cork Harbour Festival Week has come and gone, and a very enjoyable week it was, but the exhibition A City by the Sea at St Peter’s in North Main Street goes on and is well worth a visit.

A large number of info panels illustrate, mainly in words, the city’s relationship with the sea, the good things and the bad things, tourists and invaders. And food and drink of course, flowing in and flowing out, and that was the thread that I noted on my read-about.

And the first thing I see is Bertha’s Revenge! The exhibition, curated by Turtle Bunberry, had many helpers and there, in among the librarians and historians, I spotted the name Justin Green (of Bertha’s). Well done to all.

And then I spotted another name, my family name. Apparently, in the 4th century, the Uí Liatháin ruled the region and had colonies in South Wales, also Devon and Cornwall. Must go and see my cousins sometime!

Brian Boru Bridge. Although no longer opening, the bridge is an important reminder of the history of the river and quays.

Did you know that in 1273, Richard Wine was the Mayor of Cork. Indeed, in the following centuries, many Cork mayors were closely connected to the French and Portuguese wine trade.

The Flight of the Wild Geese begins in 1691 when 14,000 Jacobite soldiers, along with 6.000 women and children, set sail from Cork for Europe. The mainly Catholic exiles, many of them merchant families, included the Galwey family who became prominent wine merchants in the Loire.

Fitzgerald's Park, site of the 1902/3 exhibition

Among those who fled in Penal Times were the O’Murphy draper family. Their daughter Marie Louise, also known as La Petite Murfi, became mistress of Louis XV. Legend holds that her fortune helped the Murphy family establish their brewery a century later! A revealing portrait of Marie Louise now hangs in the Alta Pinakothek in Munich, a city well known for its beer.

Cruise liner at Cobh

 In 1756, France and Britain were at each other’s throats in the Seven Years War and “the Great Ox-slaying city of Cork” emerged as the Royal Navy’s preferred supplier for beef, pork and butter.

Less than a hundred years later, that beef boom was long forgotten as famine struck. In 1847, the USS Jamestown warship arrives in the harbour with 800 tons of food and clothing. The commander is shown around the stricken streets of the city by Fr Matthew.

The Firkin Crane, a  reminder when Cork led the world in butter.

In 1859, Sir John Arnott, originally from Fife in Scotland, is elected mayor for the first of three times. He is a well known and successful businessman. He was involved in shipping in Cork and Passage, founded the Cork racecourse (later Henry Ford built on the site), the Arnott shop and a brewery (St Finnbarr’s).

By 1861, the Cork Butter Exchange becomes the largest butter exchange in the world. Exports peak in the 1870s.

 By 1880, the spectre of famine rears its head again. It is a borderline case but enough to see more help from the USA. Five hundred tons of provisions and clothing arrive on the sloop of war Constellation and the distribution of supplies is supervised by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Outward bound; passing Cobh

 In 1902, the Cork International Exhibition took place in the Mardyke. Harutun Batmazian, an Armenian exile, is an exhibitor and his Hadji Bey’s Turkish Delight is such a treat that he stays and opens a shop in the city, a shop that lasts for decades. Though it is no longer made in Cork, you can still get the treat (produced now in Kildare). We'll finish on that sweet note.

Sage. New Superlatives Please!

Sage. New Superlatives Please!

Ravioli

Mackerl

Think I’d need a stack of superlatives to describe a recent dinner at Sage on Midleton, the home of the 12 mile menu. I could easily go over the top as Kevin Aherne’s kitchen is easily ahead of many around the country. But I’ll try and not bore you, just to say here at the start that the place, in a courtyard just off Midleton’s main street, has never ever disappointed.

Sage and its junior sister, the Greenroom, cater for a variety of tastes and budgets and the recent addition - the semi-open courtyard itself -  is a lively food and drink venue and was indeed booked out on the night we visited. Sage too was full by the eight o’clock mark so the advise is to book ahead.

Then you can relax. Everything will be fine: the fresh local food, the very friendly efficient service, the drink (much of the wine is organic) and the beer is craft and local as you'd expect. You can spot the crew cooking in the kitchen as you sit back in a lovely simple room, one of whose walls honours the many suppliers from within that 12 mile radius.

We, subsidised by the last of the gift vouchers from Christmas, were on the A la Carte but I spotted much of the same menu on the Early Evening offering (three courses for thirty euro!). Breads were delivered to the table as we studied the menu. We also thought about the drink and, with steak in mind, I settled on the regular stout from O’Hara’s. Regular but excellent, a bottle for 6.00. Soon we were nibbling on the amuse bouche of Apple rings  and Ardsallagh Goats cheese.

Hake

Great choice of starters, and mine was magnificent: Mackerel, oyster mushroom and samphire (10.00). It was a great combination, the warm soft flesh of the mackerel, full of flavour, perfectly complemented by the supple mushroom, the peppery crunch of the radish and the salty bite of the samphire.

Hard to guess sometimes what you are going to get on your plate when you read the brief description, as CL did: Beef cheek ravioli, horseradish, parsnip (9.00). Well, the beef was contained in one big plate-filling ravioli and the parsnip was a crisp. But it all worked so well together, another delicious interesting starter. I'm sure the other four on the list would have been of the same standard, each perhaps with a little surprise.

Beef

So, surprised and happy, we moved on to the mains. No big ambush for me: Beef Fillet (Charlie Terry), horseradish, shallots and spinach (30.00). I've long maintained that if a chef looks after the little things, that he will also come up trumps with the big items. In this case, for example, the shallots were outstanding, sweet and good and the spinach was fresh and tasty. The fillet? Add any meaty superlative you wish. As good as you’ll get and better than most.

And was the other side of the table jealous? No, not a bit of it. She loves her hake and that affair was enhanced by Sage’s: Hake, pasta, mussels, chorizo, samphire (24.00). A lot on the plate but another winning combination, well cooked, well presented and well served.

Sweet

It is strawberry time in Ireland so we both finished with a Strawberry and Marshmallow Posset (8.00). The two glass bowls were well stripped, as indeed were all the previous plates, when the servers came to take them away. We like good food and there’s no shortage of that in Sage. Very Highly Recommended!

Taste of the Week. Cream Donuts

Taste of the Week

Cream Donuts

Cream is a new donut, coffee and ice-cream place in town. Its first base, open just two weeks back, is at the corner of Daunt's Square and Paul Street and a second outlet, in Oliver Plunket Street, is due to open any day now.

Donuts are popular in Cork, always have been. But are now much different, more colourful, than the basic jam and cream filled bullet of a few decades ago. I'm thinking in particular of one, by Cream, the Caramel Donut, our sweet Taste of the Week.

It is not the most spectacular donut on display here but it is amazingly popular, already established as a best-seller. Take a taste of the outside and its good but get those teeth in a little deeper, into that luscious lake of caramel in the middle. Death by caramel!

Cream 

1 Daunt’s Square

Cork.