Irish food opens a new door

FROM borscht to boxty is quite a culinary leap but this week the long established Grey Door restaurant in Dublin changed its menu from a Scandinavian and Russian emphasis to an Irish one.

PJ Daly, who owns the restaurant with Barry Wyse, stressed that they haven't exactly swopped pickled herring for hairy bacon and very boiled cabbage - the new menu devised by Irish chef Michael Durkin is as coolly modern as the refit of the restaurant by architect Ken Edmondson, which features work by furniture makers Michael Bell and Paul Berg.

Not that you could see a stick of furniture in the restaurant on its opening night - it was simply packed with a crowd that included Myrtle Allen who travelled up from Ballymaloe for the evening, Garech de Brun and Vakntine Gotti, Marty and Maria Whelan, Helen Kilmartin and Frank Haughton.