The good life

You wouldn’t need to win Lotto to take over from Otto says Tommy Barker.

THE good life, and possibly an organic good life, beckons for those who make the move an hour, or marginally less, west of Cork city to the coast.

Newly up for sale, on c4.5 acres of productive organic ground, is this delightful Dunworley mix, set just a short and scenic haul out of Clonakilty or Timoleague, with a beguiling mix of bespoke five-bedroomed house (with two compact guest suites), with possible continuing restaurant use, just a trot from the beach and the sea.

Developed over the last few years by chef Otto and Hilda Kunze and known as Otto’s Creative Catering, this drop-in Dunworley spot is described as “a dream house in a dream location” by its selling agents, John F Kerr in Clonakilty, and Savills Hamilton Osborne King in Cork city. Price guide is €1 million.

It has been run as a business, primarily, in the past few years, and was the second restaurant started by the Geman chef in this vicinity. The first was back in 1984, later he took a different career path and sold the restaurant Mark 1, which continued for a number of years under the capable care of Scandinavian Katherine Noren.

Now, it is sale time again, and though the restaurant is open until September, after that it may go private, or be bought as a going concern: auctioneer John Kerr says the vendors would love to see their good work continue on. It can be bought with all the necessary contents to keep on the creative cooking for which is has rightly become a destination eaterie, with the approach country lanes serving as an appetiser of more good things to come.

It developed out of an original stone cottage, in fits and starts, and with as much taste put into the design as into the food produced and served in the 350 sq ft dining room/conservatory, with its overhanging sun screen of vinery, black hamburgs and muscadet grapes.

As might be expected, it has environmentally-friendly features such as solar panels and wood burning stoves, with underfloor heating, plus gas backup, very energy efficient, well-insulated and done to approved SEI standards.

Hand-hewn woodwork like elm and pine features heavily, or lightly, depending on your interpretation, with Scandinavian touches and efficiencies, clever nooks and niches, quirky storage areas and smart showers, one deliberately wheelchair-accessible.

Bedrooms in the house, which have been used for guests, have lobbies to the front for extra privacy, while the two other guest suites have their own separate access points.

The sitting room, with elm floor, has a traditional feel, with crane, bellows and kettle in the open fireplace where wood is burned. Overhead in the chimney stack is space for smoking meats, pig meat and charcuterie being Otto’s noted specialism.

The kitchen is fitted to commercial standards, with stainless steel predominating and Marmoleum flooring, and there are also food prep and storage rooms and well as two WCs, along with small wine cellar.

The overall feel is one of comfort, with natural materials softly used and kept in a vernacular style, and externally there’s a workshop/ store room, polytunnel and highly productive fruit and veg garden, in a setting between the lighthouses at the Old Head of Kinsale and the Galley Head which Otto Kunze says has the lowest annual rainfall and the highest average temperature in the country.

As a slice of the Irish idyll, it is good enough to eat.