The menu: Where dinner is centre stage

While the pre-theatre dinner is a great boon to the restaurateurs, The Menu confesses to finding such dining to be overly rushed so is much taken with the Ballyvolane House solution, whereby the theatre comes to the diners.

Broken Crow Theatre Company present period drama Madame Chavelle (Oct 26/27), while Ballyvolane supply the three-course dinner (€55 pp, 10% discount for tables of 10), www.ballyvolanehouse.ie. But as the diners push back chairs after their feed to indulge in some cultural sustenance, food blogger Paul O’Callaghan will be coming to the tail end of his attempt to run a half marathon in each of the 32 counties in aid of Aware. Having himself bounced back from depression, ‘Calso’ will begin his clockwise circuit of Ireland in Clare on Oct 18, finishing up in Limerick 12 days later having run the equivalent of 16 marathons. www.mycharity.ie/event/calsocooksontherun/

SLOW FOOD, QUICK BEFORE IT’S SOLD OUT