Restaurant review: The Parlour Cafe, Cork

The Parlour Cafe, 51 Cornmarket Street, Cork, [phone]. www.parlourcafe.ie 

As a scowling youth with a greatly inflated sense of personal sophistication, yet still too young for public houses, I passed an inordinate amount of time in ‘upmarket’ cafés.

Back then, only those with notions ate dinner in the evening, so a robust carvery option was always to hand, along with soup, ‘sangidges’ and a pile of pastries. Though the primary libation was tea, I instead nursed single coffees (instant, added froth for authentic Left Bank look) for apparently months on end, spurning food altogether.