Meal Ticket: The Fat Fox, Camden Row, Dublin 2

On a lane off Camden St in Dublin sits The Fat Fox, a sweet little takeaway-only spot, open from Monday to Friday.

“We are partners in life as well as in business,” says co-owner Rob Hallinan as he offers a cheeky smile to chef Claire Cullen through the kitchen pass. She rolls her eyes. “He just says that to annoy me,” she says, laughing back at him.

The pair made the decision to open their own place while travelling in the US a few years ago, and opened the doors of this little deli in late September 2016. Cullen had studied Culinary Arts and Culinary Entrepreneurship, and cut her teeth at Bear Paw Deli in Delgany in Co Wicklow under the tutelage of chef and owner Claire O’Brien.

Hallinan, a carpenter by trade, is now ensconced in cafe culture. He also worked for a spell at Bear Paw Deli, as he began to learn more about food and coffee. “Claire gave me the confidence to open up my own place,” says Cullen, as she pops one of her gorgeous homemade bakewell slices (€1.90) into a paper bag for me. “It was lovely to have her in here a couple of weeks ago for a visit.”

The couple did the fit-out of the business themselves, building the coffee counter and using bold tropical turquoise wallpaper to help them stand out amongst the trend towards minimalism in coffee shops in the city. They prepare all the sandwich fillings, daily soups (€3), salads and sweet treats themselves.

They source their bread from Gran Clarke’s, a family-run bakery in Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. The regular sandwiches include their Basic Betty classic ham and cheese baguette (€5.50), and their Reggie the Veggie roasted vegetables with goat cheese (€4.50).

There are also daily brioche bun specials, and I take home a moist bun filled with juicy, slow-cooked beef brisket (€6.80). Cullen’s caramelised onion relish is spectacularly good, really sweet and lush, and a light aioli adds even more moisture without over-powering the brisket and onion. Their beef is sourced from Farrelly’s of Delgany, a small family-run butchers and abattoir in Delgany, Co Wicklow.

They use organic, Irish ingredients wherever possible. That includes the milk for their coffee, sourced from Organic For Us, an organic farm at An Grianan in Co Donegal. Behind the coffee bar is barista Jack Gaughran, formerly of The Happy Pear in Greystones. “We’re doing some seasonal brews, like our gingerbread latte and our peppermint mocha,” says Gaughran. “We make all the syrups for those drinks here ourselves.” With the flick of his wrist, he creates a latte art snowman that smiles back at me from the top of my flat white.

The Fat Fox’s house roaster is Baobab Roasters, a wonderful micro-roastery owned by Alex Thorpe and Luigi Fanzini operating out of Celbridge, Co Kildare.

“I think we were their 12th customer,” says Hallinan. The Fat Fox are hoping to add another coffee grinder soon so that they can offer two coffee beans a day. For my coffee, they use a single origin Brazilian bean, with sweet tones of caramel and molasses that works beautifully with steamed milk. Gaughran’s flat white (€2.80) is the right temperature, size and texture for me. In fact, it’s perfect.

“I just wanted to create somewhere I loved working, and that the people working with me would love it too,” says Cullen. I’d say she’s nailed it. These guys are having fun and their enthusiasm comes through in the experience of grabbing lunch on the go from them. AMcE