Go on a romantic break to Seville, and your career may swerve with the giddy daring of a flamenco dancer. It happened to Erik Robson, the clean-shaven young chap who was a fixture in Mitchells' Kildare Street wine shop for nine full years: he had whisked away his girlfriend, Michelle Moyles, a rep for Robert Roberts coffee, for a spot of romance in Spain. "After we'd done half the tapas bars, we sat in a park and the whole idea suddenly came together." The whole idea is Ely, Dublin's exciting new cafe-cum-wine-bar.
It could be in Berlin or Barcelona, with its focus on good coffee and great wine; its way of infusing modern decor with a comfortable, lived-in, languid air. But hooray, it's here, occupying the ground floor and basement of a Georgian house not two minutes from Stephen's Green. At street level, there's a coffee bar in a long room with a flickering fire. Downstairs, you can loll on padded chairs in Shaker colours, or sit up at the steel-sided counter and admire a battery of bottles.
"We had a shoestring budget, so I ended up doing most of the work," reports Erik, surveying arches of ancient brickwork recently exposed. `I filled 11 skips.'
With a Verre de Vin machine to keep opened bottles fresh, Ely offers 58 wines by the glass - anything from a decent Chilean Sauvignon (£3.30) or the engaging Spanish red from Ribero del Duero, Condado de Haza (£4.85) to swanky things such as the Tuscan beauty, Ornellaia (£15.50). These are generous glasses - and elegant ones, too, of Schott Zwiesel crystal. Trade has built up swiftly since a low-key opening on the brink of Christmas. "In the first week alone, we sold half a dozen bottles of Puligny-Montrachet at £9.50 a glass," says Erik Robson, sounding amazed. "Yesterday we sold a bottle of Bollinger Grande Annee 1990 e) at £14.80 a glass. Our less expensive wines and half bottles of sherry are flying out, too. And February's supposed to be quiet!'
Well over a 100 wines are available by the bottle and price mark-ups are consistently fair. So far, Ely's clientele seems to be shunning New World Chardonnay and red Bordeaux in favour of more adventurous choices - Spanish Sauvignon Blanc, for instance, or Semillon, or even Australian Barbera. If you feel like food, the emphasis is on simplicity and top-quality produce, with organic meat coming from the Robson family farm in the Burren. The most popular dish so far is organic bangers and mash. But I can see wine buffs eagerly sharing the "Ely charger" of cheeses and cold meats, or swapping forkfuls of risotto for seared salmon.
"It's not without its downside," says the proprietor, who was born into the restaurant business (his parents ran the Coastguard in Bettystown for 20 years). He and Michelle have only had two nights out since Ely opened - "and on one of them, all we could manage was Eddie Rocket's and a film". His biggest kick so far? "The fact I've pulled it off." His biggest problem? "Fear. Can I keep it going?" Get in there, folks, and deliver the answer. We've waited years for a modern wine bar that lassoes you at the door with the smell of superlative coffee.
But let's not forget the stalwart. The pioneer. The long-term oasis in this desert of a capital city. La Cave, with its cosy red walls and red napkins and red carnations, its velvet banquettes and assortment of lamps, has been glowing away like a crimson beacon in the heart of the city these past 11 years.
"It was incredibly difficult at first," says Margaret Beskri, a Dublin language teacher who had lived in Algeria for years. It was her husband, Akim, who fell on the wine bar idea. "Women began to come in because they found the atmosphere non-threatening compared to pubs at that time, and eventually men followed." Perhaps so, but Margaret and her right-hand-woman, manager Trudi Rothwell, are also ardently admired by Ireland's wine fraternity (still overwhelmingly male) for being (a) incredibly glamorous and (b) serious tasters. "We're tough tasters," Beskri admits.
"A wine has to be really good to get on to the list." And a jolly good list it is, with a solid French core to suit La Cave's leanings towards classic French food. (There are pates, cheeses and charcuterie here, too -you don't necessarily have to eat a whole meal.) Again, prices are pretty reasonable throughout the list, which includes 27 wines by the glass (£2.50£7.50), a strong South African, Italian and Spanish line-up, a dash of the New World and some intriguing offerings from Greece, the Lebanon, Hungary and Mexico. The range of champagnes is so inviting that I have seen visiting wine producers effortlessly lured La Cave-wards at all hours of the night. Any hour, any day - that's part of the secret of La Cave's success. Drop in after midday and you'll find circumspect lunchers - academics, literary people, stockbrokers, solicitors. By early evening this subterranean womb has become a snug dinner spot for couples, but watch out: with African or Latin American music, the tempo is changing. "You can see consternation on some customers' faces around 11 p.m. when we start clearing the middle of the floor for dancing," Beskri chuckles. "At night it can get pretty lively."
The wine list is constantly changing to reflect new discoveries. The Beskris import about 30 per cent of their wines direct, and they hope that figure will soon be higher. In the meantime, with 170 full bottles and 27 halves on offer at every imaginable price (stopping at £350 for Mouton 1985), nobody is likely to feel deprived. La Cave draws its customers back, year in, year out. "They become friends," says the genial boss. "So many people have come here on their first date that we say love stories begin at La Cave. We usually end up having the wedding party upstairs."
Ely, 22 Ely Place, Dublin 2, 01 6768986. Open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-about midnight; Saturday 5.30 p.m.-about midnight.
La Cave, 28 South Anne Street, Dublin 2, 01 6794409, www.lacavewinebar.com. Open Monday-Saturday 12.30 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sunday 6 p.m.-2 a.m.