Visit some of the best coffee shops in Ireland

Friends and Central Perk introduced Ireland to the concept of the coffee shop. Today, business is booming with cafes dominating the high street. But which ones are best? Food writers Tony Clayton-Lea and Joe McNamee decide.

BOOM or no boom time, it looks as if coffee houses are not going away. While it has been many years since having a mug of coffee could be equated with radical political thought (by the end of the 19th century, the coffee houses of, for example, Budapest, were places where artists, intellectuals and other freethinkers gathered to discuss, debate, gossip and generally plan their lives and the lives of others) it seems that a year hasn’t passed since the late 1990s without some variation of Friends’ fictional coffee shop, Central Perk, opening up and acting as a cosy location for discourse. And gossip.

Why so many? Well, you can, initially at least, blame the Celtic Tiger. As we know, thousands of apartments were built, but they weren’t too spacious to house people earning so much money that they had to go out and spend it. Coffee houses quickly turned into the right kind of chatrooms, and if you can’t remember how maddening it was listening to overpaid, smug types prattling on about how much they were paying for their tiny apartment each month, then clearly you didn’t like coffee.

Come the downturn, more than several of the expensive coffee houses rolled over and claimed bankruptcy, but even during the past five years smaller, more independent (and frankly, funkier) replacements have arrived on the scene. Quite likely taking advantage of lower rental rates, entrepreneurs (burgeoning and established) in most towns across Ireland have established a raft of entry level coffee spots – some are poor, most are good, yet all aim to place what they offer at the heart of a community-driven experience.

Even in these days of constant connectivity, community remains crucial. Ask any dedicated owner of a coffee house what is the first thing they want people to get a sense of when they walk across their threshold and they’ll say the following: they want customers to feel at home, to get a sense of community, and they want to ensure that the atmosphere is relaxed, easy going and friendly.

In the early days, relates Dairine Keogh of Dublin coffee shop, Clement & Peko, she and her husband/co-owner, Simon, had to deal with quizzical looks from new customers. “I learnt to take that as a compliment, that we were doing something different. We have the counter of our café at the front, and so the size of the place can be deceptive.

I love when a customer comes in to get their coffee on the run, but has second thoughts whether to just sit down or browse in the shop. As an independent café, the biggest mistake we could make would be to lose the soul that we have. A customer wanting to spend more time with us – that’s fantastic.”

In a nutshell, time – that contrarily tangible yet elusive entity – is what it’s all about. Time to take a breather, time to talk, time to think. Time, quite genuinely, to wake up and smell the coffee.

Dairine Keogh

Eoin McCarthy and Alex O’Callaghan

Filter, 19 George’s Quay, Cork, 021 2397046

What moved/inspired you to open your own coffee shop?

It was the next natural step for me having worked in the business since I finished school, starting with my first job, in Gloria Jean’s, the day I got my Leaving Cert and I began to fall for the whole coffee world. Then my time in Australia really nailed it on the head for me. I spent time running restaurants but a coffee shop was my first love, my first job. This is going back to what I know best.

Where do you source it from and why?

I wanted to do a brew bar, with all the best local roasts under one roof and we stock beans from Golden Bean, Badger & Dodo and 3FE, in Dublin. I had met Mark Kingston (Golden Bean) when he was first starting and I know him a long time and watched the progression of his product. I would have also met Brock Lewin (Badger & Dodo) and he was very interested and came on board. We always have about 20 coffees in stock and there are a lot of light roasts, light profile, as opposed to the heavy French blends. That’s where the coffee scene is right now.

Your perfect coffee – location, type and who to share it with?

The place: Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, and their coffee ceremony which happens three times a day turning raw, unwashed beans into finished cups of coffee. Coffee would have to be a heirloom variety yirgacheffe and I’d have it with Alex, our staff and our roasters, Mark, Brock and Colin from 3FE.

Joe McNamee says:

What’s it like:

Eoin and Alex have transformed a difficult, narrow space alongside the North Channel of the Lee, just off the main commercial centre, into a light, bright and very funky little coffee bar with old wooden doors and cabinets upcycled into a counter and furniture, also regular art exhibitions on the walls.

Who goes there:

Very mixed clientele from teens right through to people in their 70s and 80s, but the serious coffee geeks congregate down the back.

Overall:

This writer and his pre-schooling daughter are very partial to a mid-morning brew and an almond croissant and serious coffee geeks will be treated to a tasting cup of random speciality filter brews while waiting.

John Gowan

Cork Coffee Roasters, 2 Bridge St, Cork, 021 731 9158

What moved/inspired you to open a coffee shop?

I lived in Seattle for 20 years where there’s been a huge coffee culture for a long time, I had loads of friends with coffee shops and saw an opening in Cork, it’s like a pub without alcohol. Not long after we opened, a buddy came in and said, this place will work: look, over there, two lovestruck teenagers holding hands and over there a guy reading the Financial Times, all happy to be in the same place.

Where do you source it from and why?

I roast my own beans. We only use Arabica beans, sourced from my contacts in the US who have guys on the ground in all the coffee-producing countries. I do small batch, locally-roasted coffee. My blends are Morning Growler, Summerhill and Rebel Espressout I always have a single origin roast for sale in the shop.

Your perfect coffee – location, type and who to share it with?

I love to take a break from roasting and sit down on the dock in the Marina Commercial Park where the roastery is and drink a short Americano made with Cork Coffee Roasters Rebel Espresso blend and look up the river at the city and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Joe McNamee says:

What’s it like: One of the nicest hospitality spaces in the city, old traditional shopfront with large front window to sit and watch the world pass by, full of nooks and crannies, it is a cosy and intimate clutter of furniture and coffee paraphernalia.

Who goes there: Literally at a crossroads, a lively link between commercial and residential Cork, plus loads of schools nearby, a funeral parlour and a strip club round the corner so you get students, strippers, business-people, artists, musicians, tourists, everybody from schoolgirls getting hot chocolate to homeless guys spending their coppers.

Overall: Perch on a stool by the counter watching all humanity stream past – you’ll find it hard to leave the caffeinated womb of this Cork institution.

Dublin’s Top 5 coffee shops

Raglan Coffee, 56-58 Drury Street, 01-6799453; raglan.ie

Clement & Pekoe, 50 South William Street; 087-6370123; www.clementandpekoe.com

Kaph, 31 Drury Street; no phone number; www.kaph.ie

Roasted Brown, Curved Street, Temple Bar; no phone number; www.facebook.com/RoastedBrown

Bewley’s Grafton Street; 01-6727720; www.bewleys.com

Cork’s Top 5 coffee shops

Cork Coffee Roasters, No 2 Bridge St, Cork, 021 731 9158

Filter, 19 George’s Quay, Cork, 021 2397046

Golden Bean @ The Rocket Man HQ, Princes St, Cork www.facebook/therocketman

Gulp’d, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork Tel [phone] www.facebook/gulpcafe

Café Gusto Washington St & Lapp’s Quay, Cork Tel [phone] www.cafegusto.com