Restaurant Review: Paperboys Café sizes up to legendary eateries at Triskel Arts Centre
Eggs Benedict at Paperboys Café and Garden
- Paperboys Cafe & Garden
- Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork
- Opening Hours; Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm
- The Tab: €87 (excluding drinks, coffees and tip)
- https://www.instagram.com/paperboys_cork/
Paperboys is the brainchild of Ciarán O’Regan (of the very good Dublin pizza restaurant, Rita’s) and Colin Ryan (of justifiably popular Hansum rotisserie chicken, at the Marina Market), and the latest to assume the cafe franchise in the Triskel Arts Centre, a mixed bag over the decades that began with the legendary Yumi Yuki Club, a Japanese-style sushi bar, first opened by Seamus O’Connell and where this scribe spent many a wonderful night sipping the occasional lychee sakatini back in the day.
The best approach to a scrappy little shoebox room is to keep it cosy and cheerful, and decor is pared back to a few tasteful prints including an eye-catching poster of Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Paperboi in Atlanta, myself and No 2 Son’s current favourite TV series, but the restaurant’s name is in fact an homage to the Echo boys whose honking calls of ‘Eeee’nin’, Eeee’nin’ Echo!’ once ricochetted around the streets of Cork.
Brunch is really an excuse to pig out long before the more usual pigging out time at the end of the day and, it has to be said with no judgement either way, that ‘brunch’ is very often a recovery pitstop for those nursing or possibly even defibrillating a hungover body, an American diner-style update of the more traditional Irish ‘medicine’, The Fry and served at a more civilised hour.
There is always a nod, token or otherwise, to ‘healthy’ options, also present and correct on the Paperboys’ menu: granola and porridge, with all the bells and whistles, including vegan alternatives to traditional dairy dancing partners.
None of us are hungover, but neither are we feeling our inner Goldilocks.
Leaving porridge for dust, we drive on past sautéed garlic and thyme mushrooms with crispy kale, poached eggs, sourdough toast and detour beyond hash — veggie and black pudding — until La Daughter pulls up the handbrake somewhere around Eggs Benny and tinkers a bit under the hood, replacing Market pulled ham with streaky rashers, giving the nod of approval to poached eggs and breakfast muffin and with strict instructions that a wholegrain mustard hollandaise be left very much to the side and most definitely not touching anything else on the plate.
This medicine would raise the dead: an unctuous, oozing spillage of golden yoke from perfectly poached eggs is fine sauce for crispy bacon, pillowy muffin cleans up all remaining evidence.
The Hollandaise is sublime, citric lemon shearing through the lush, rich emulsion of eggs and butter with arresting and perfectly judged acidity, but she only needs to look at it to know it’s not for her; her loss, my gain.
I was never going to look beyond the Paperboys Reuben until No 2 Brother reckoned he saw it first; if I hadn’t been there in a professional capacity, that would have made two Reubens, with cold cut pastrami, sauerkraut, gherkins, cheese and mustard mayo.
Sister-in-law plumps for the Banh Mi, a Vietnamese street food classic. It is a fine version, savoury, even sweet, roast pork belly, wearing creamy homemade hoisin mayo, enervated by the crisp crunch of cucumber, fresh coriander, the acid sting of pickles and chilli nipping around the ankles to ensure no one is asleep in the back of class.
I’ve ordered the SFC rather reluctantly but it knocks my socks off, a top-drawer creation: tender, juicy buttermilk chicken encased in savoury deep-fried coating, with fresh pickles, creamy sriracha mayo, shredded lettuce, cheese, slaw, served in a brioche bun with homemade crisps. Sadly, the few wines available are pedestrian at best or else I’d have had something white, chilled and invigorating.
The Juice — ‘little’ to her cousin LD’s ‘large’, a dynamic duo with wildly comic potential — opts for the Mexican club and, if LD can be picky, then TJ is full-blown Howard Hughes in her contrary culinary whims.
She allows charred chipotle chicken, McCarthy’s streaked smoky bacon and chipotle mayo but bans shredded Romaine lettuce and beef tomato, merely hinting at what could have been another very fine sandwich so judgement must wait for another day.
I collect Reubens; rather, I collect Reuben experiences, for it is one of my most favourite sandwiches, first encountered in a New York Jewish deli diner in another lifetime.
While memories of an NYC deli in a subzero snowstorm certainly add a nostalgic patina to my flavour memories, two superb local renditions in recent years were every bit as good: the Sonny’s Deli version and an especially fine take on this venerable classic from the late, lamented Ron D’s food truck.
Taking our server’s advice, No 2 Brother has opted for sourdough but almost immediately begins to fret, wishing he’d chosen the hoagie instead, but the soft toasted bread is quite perfect, and a closer relative to traditional NYC rye or grilled pumpernickel.
Sauerkraut and gherkins impart a lively lactic tang and mustard mayo adds creamy, feisty heat. It is the pick of the bunch and another new favourite for my list of Ravishing Reubens.
LD and TJ hit the sugar, 'a selection of cakes’, today, two brownies and a raspberry and white chocolate tart.
A very sugary berry compote alongside cranks sweetness levels up to wincing but O’Regan and Ryan are both canny operators so there must be more than a few wannabe diabetics out there keen on same.
The tart is far too sweet for my taste but the brownies are quite fine, barely resistant to the tooth before imploding into molten, fudgey chocolatey interior; the hazelnut version is better again, roasted nuts adding texture and further ribbons of complexity to the flavour.
Since Gulpd departed, Triskel Arts Centre has struggled to find a ‘tenant’ for the cafe with the personality and chops worthy of this iconic Cork institution and the very fine Paperboys appears to have finally plugged that gap with a real keeper and, come next summer, they will really start to put their mark on the adjoining al fresco space, outside Triskel Christchurch, one of the best live venues in the country.
The style of dining on offer may be a furrow long ploughed by others but far fewer have done it with such casual aplomb, such careful attention to sourcing and such deceptively simple precision on the plate.
This is unfussy yet very delicious food served with real pride and the venue rocks along very nicely, bonhomie seemingly spritzed into the air at regular intervals.
When they finally get around to evening openings, planned for the future, and maybe put a bit more effort into the wine list and drinks offering, then all will be right in the world once more — although I doubt I’ll ever again squeeze into my Yumi Yuki pants!
- Food: 9
- Service: 9
- Value: 9
- Atmosphere: 8.5
