Hen’s Teeth Diner is the latest opening in the up-and-coming culinary hot spot that is Blackpitts in Dublin 8. It joins established food businesses such as the Fumbally, Two Pups and Liberty Kitchen, and recent arrival Spitalfields pub and restaurant.
The diner is part of Hen's Teeth gallery, studio and lifestyle store which was formerly in Fade Street but moved to Blackpitts last month on foot of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign. In 31 days between August and September, almost 600 people pledged just under €48,000, allowing Greg Spring, founder of the business, and managing director Rosie Gogan-Keogh, to take over the 240sq m (2,600sq ft) space and add a kitchen and dining space to the business.
The diner's head chef and manager is Rich Lewis, formerly of Grano and The Night Hare, who worked with Karl Whelan, chef/owner at Hang Dai Chinese on Camden Street, on menu development.
The lunchtime offering of soup, salads and sandwiches is more exciting than it sounds. Seasonal salads include chicory, blackberry, Coolea cheese kromeskies and smoked duck. Sandwiches include one with roast chicken, butterhead lettuce and cranberry mayonnaise on sage and onion brioche, and a tartine of celeriac, crushed and raw, toasted hazelnut and aioli.
Evening openings on Friday and Saturday, until 10pm, sees a move to charcuterie and cheese, and a revolving menu of small plates, with wine and wine cocktails available too.
This week, the store hosted a cookbook signing with Lee Tiernan of the hip London restaurant Black Axe Mangal, and earlier this year also ran a signing with the cult Canadian chef Matty Matheson. The space also hosts a Christmas Bazaar each weekend between now and Christmas, with 30 craftspeople, artists and vendors taking part. For more information, see hensteethstore.com.
Christmas cake
If Stir-up Sunday passed you by and you haven't got around to making a Christmas cake, these jewelled beauties from Susan Robbins Fehily's Wildberry bakery in Ballineen, west Cork, would make a worthy stand-in. They also happen to be gluten-free, made with Doves Farm flour, as well as Clonakilty free-range eggs, Bandon butter and dried fruit that has been soaked in whiskey for a week.
They are available in two sizes (800g/€15 and 1.6kg/€28) from ABC Bread concessions at Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt and Rathmines in Dublin; Naas; Bishopscourt in Cork, and Jetland in Limerick, as well as ABC Bread in Cork's English Market.
