IF he wanted to trade in his glittering career as a restaurateur for something new, Dan Mullane could easily carve out a lucrative little number for himself showing lottery millionaires, trust fund babies and others who have stumbled on windfalls how to spend their dosh the tasteful way. The distinguished way.
For Mr Mullane has experience of how to disperse a considerable sum of money in a short period of time. He as, he reckons, spent a million quid in a year on his splendiferous new space, the elegantly named Echo Lodge.
Shyly mustard yellow in colour, Echo Lodge sits high, wide and handsome on the hill overlooking the quiet little village of Ballingarry, Co Limerick. It doesn't look like a million quids' worth, but when all the figures are totted up, you end up with six noughts after the figure 1. And Echo Lodge is gorgeous.
Contrasting with those who believe the object of spending a million quid on a house is to ensure everyone sees where every penny has been spent, Echo Lodge is almost demure. The design is such that each object is show cased in the most subtle way.
The intrinsic aesthetic of each thing the ticking which decorates some of the chairs, the garden architecture prints in the library, the contemplative warmth of the hallway dedicated to diverse religions is revealed, and then congratulated, by the other objects around it. "The house feels like it has been here for ever," says Mr Mullane, and it most certainly does.
But Dan Mullane has only been here for a year. That he has succeeded so quickly will come as no surprise to those who knew his work in The Mustard Seed, when it was housed in a dreamily nostalgic thatched cottage in Adare village, seven miles back up the road towards Limerick.
The Mustard Seed was one of the most successful, and enjoyable, restaurants in Ireland, and its success and its enjoyability were founded on a simple premise. Mr Mullane made it a place where everything was right, and felt right. The decor was modestly theatrical, the greeting was genuine, the cooking was succinct and perfectly achieved.
It was a restaurant which trumpeted all the good things that make restaurants special, memorable places, and which managed to ditch the bad bits which make restaurants exasperating.
When you ate at The Mustard Seed, the stylishness and warmth of the place meant you wanted never to leave, and Dan Mullane has pulled this off again at Echo Lodge. Step through the grand double door into the capacious hall, and you don't want to have to ever think about checking out.
Limerick should thank its lucky stars that, when Dan Mullane decided it was time for a change, he did not decamp from the county.
Echo Lodge was built in 1884 by the local Catholic priest who erected this grand pile to annoy the Protestant rector of the village, who had a grand pile just across the way. Object achieved, he sold the house to a religious order for £1, and the sisters inhabited it until seven years ago.
Mr Mullane looked at it then, but didn't buy. Just over a year ago, in March 1995, he looked again, and this time bought.
Echo Lodge is a place which ups the ante in terms of ambience and interior design in Ireland. For the most part, B&Bs, country houses and hotels in Ireland choose a style of decor and design which works, which does the job, rather than opting for decor and design which makes a statement about itself. Houses are still too concerned with function, rather than simple aesthetics. Echo Lodge is different.
The use of colour for example, works here because at times its use is restrained, and then suddenly the bright shock from the Villeroy and Bosch plates will leap out at you. There are few paintings throughout the house, but the use of photographs, prints, and covers from magazines such as America's Gourmet works perfectly slightly ironic, and yet effective.
Though it is a public house, it feels like a private space thanks to the use of prized rather than merely valuable objects. Mr Mullane had been collecting for years before he moved here, and so we feel we are in the presence of little pieces, little fragments of Mr Mullane's personal history.
David Norris is the chef, and his style continues the Modern Irish Cooking which Dan Mullane achieved so successfully at The Mustard Seed. Principal ingredients meet with friendly partners grilled goat's cheese on a waldorf salad with a beetroot and chive dressing wood pigeon on braised lentils with match stick potatoes and a port gravy spring lamb on a lightly curried pasta a novel touch with a coriander and apricot jus.
And, of course, there are classics such as beef with a peppercorn crust and a port and thyme jus, or grilled turbot on a wild garlic, lemon and mustard beurre blanc orange pudding with a vanilla anglaise, homemade ice creams with a warm butterscotch sauce.
Like the house, the food mixes classicism with modernism, hut keeps a clear focus on the simple ambition which drives Dan Mullane. "Everything must work, he says. Everything does.