June 2025 - Neil Sowerby

What’s your beef, Brian Boru? Hawksmoor Dublin, Clontarf Castle and a Viking bloodbath

I’d wager Brian Boru was a prime steak man. As High King of Ireland you wouldn’t go into bloody battle against the Vikings on a plant-based diet. The hero’s full name indeed, Brian Boruma, means ‘Brian of the cattle tributes’. Owning beef on the hoof was a boost in the medieval bragging rights.

Flash forward a thousand years to a new invader from across the sea. Hawksmoor has landed on Dublin’s College Green to a hero’s welcome. The upmarket UK steak restaurant sets out its stall on its Dublin website: “Beef from small community farms from all corners of the island, grazing cattle on rotation on fertile Irish soil.” Apparently it has been easier to source premium grass fed, properly aged stuff in Ireland than for sister ventures in New York and Chicago.

Gazing up at the dramatic domed ceiling we were just glad they have also sourced such an amazing venue. So many of these vast bank recalibrations don’t quite get it right (witness the recent Cut and Craft in Manchester). Here the petrol blue of the bar stool leather and the velvet banquettes is a classy match to all the wood panelling and Corinthian columns. Co-founder Will Beckett reckons it is the most striking of the 13 Hawksmoors (seven in London). It was at the 10th birthday party of their Manchester venue that Will invited us over. Impossible to resist and the food and service more than lived up to Hawksmoor’s own 20 year heritage.

Of course, history is in these halls too. This was the great Bank of Ireland established in 1835 by Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’. They named Dublin’s main thoroughfare after this astute politico, who probably turned over in his hallowed grave when for a while the premises hosted a branch of Abercrombie and Fitch.

I like to think the ghost of Brian Boru was at our side as we shared a Chateaubriand with beef dripping fries and creamed spinach after starters of native lobster and roasted currach scallops. Did he enjoy the Raul Perez Mencia red from Bierzo? We certainly did. He wasn’t having any of my Cherry Negroni.

We live the Castle dream near the site of an epic battle

In 1014 Brian Boru smashed a Norse-Leinster alliance at the great Battle of Clontarf, losing his own life in the process. 10,000 others fell in the slaughter that ended Viking rule in Ireland. Hours before our Feast of Hawksmoor we had visited Boru’s Well in Clontarf. The ‘Well’ is a drinking fountain erected in 1850 to mark where the Irish warriors refreshed themselves before triumphing on the battlefield. Allegedly.

A further bovine footnote: Clontarf, pronounced Cluain Tarbh in ancient Gaelic, translates as ‘Meadow of the Bull’ because the waves crashing into the beach were said to sound like a panting bull. Hard to reconcile all this with today’s affluent coastal suburb.

With its view across to the Docks and the distant Wicklow Mountains the seafront promenade is perfect for joggers and dog walkers. Keep heading north and you’ll cross a wooden bridge that takes you to Dollymount Beach with its 5km of dunes and North Bull Island Nature Reserve, a sand spit described as a bird watcher’s paradise. Clontarf village has its share of boutique shopping and people-watching cafes.

Walk inland, though, along Castle Avenue past that Well and you come upon a historic castle almost incongruous among the posh new residences that hem it in. Clontarf Castle was erected some 150 years after the battle as part of Dublin’s outer defences and in the early 14th century passed into the hands of the Knights Templar, who made it a monastery. In the 17th century John Vernon, quartermaster of Cromwell’s invading army acquired it and for 300 years it was the family home. One of its chatelaines, Dolly Vernon, captivated Handel, who stayed here prior to the world premiere of the Messiah in Dublin. On a further musical note the first track on Thin Lizzy’s debut album is called The Friendly Ranger at Clontarf Castle.

The building Handel saw (and JMW Turner painted) is no longer there. The Vernons hired the gloriously named architect William Vetruvius Morrison to rebuild it in 1837. This is the Gothic/medieval style structure that may well have inspired Dracula’s Castle. Creator Bram Stoker grew up close by.

*The lobby incorporating medieval stonework*

Luxurious, arty and handily placed – Clontarf Castle Hotel

Today’s Castle has metamorphosed further as a luxury four star hotel, incorporating a contemporary wing housing its 111 bedrooms. The mod cons in our top floor Junior Suite were state of the art but, aided by the presence of a four poster bed and mullioned windows, it felt of another age.

This was more than compounded by the public rooms beyond the soaring lobby where the family motto has been retained on a banner, “Vernon Semper Viret” (Vernon Always Flourishes). It’s all a mixture or old and new, so alongside the suits of armour and Boru references, each floor of the hotel offers a riot of contemporary art. Often quite quirky. ‘Owls with hats’ outside our suite, particularly so.

*Our junior suite with* *its four-poster*

In the absence of old family retainers, the hotel staff were terrific. From the front desk man who provided us with in depth guides to the Castle and wider Clontarf to the old school barman who poured a perfect Guinness for me in the Knight’s Bar. A shame not to be able to dine in Fahrenheit, the lauded main restaurant, but Hawksmoor called.

One reason for choosing Clontarf, its amazing history apart, was easy public transport access to central Dublin, not the easiest place to park in. It was a 15 minute walk to the DART commuter line and a 10 minute ride to Parnell Street Station. What better appetiser for the glorious meal ahead than a stroll through the grounds of Trinity College.

The other reason: Clontarf is only a quiet 15 minute drive back to Dublin Ferry Port. Time on your hands first? Half an hour north of the Castle is breezy Howth with a fine headland walk and great fish dining options. On past evidence I’d go for lobster at the upmarket King Sitric restaurant with rooms. The name commemorates Norse king Sigtrygg Silkbeard, an arch-rival of Brian Boru. Defeated but lived to tell the tale and created Ireland’s first coinage. A history lesson there.

Factfile

Neil Sowerby travelled to Dublin with Irish Ferries. Short break return fares to Ireland start from £214. He took the Dublin Swift, a high speed catamaran which travels from Holyhead to Dublin in just 135 minutes, making it the fastest Irish Sea crossing. It’s the best ferry experience I can recall with a highly efficient boarding process for our car at either end. To be admired too Irish Ferries’ quest for greater sustainability; the Swift has transitioned to using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, a fossil-free biofuel, as an alternative to conventional diesel.

Highly recommended for this trip is an upgrade to Club Class from £18 per person. It includes priority vehicle boarding, an executive lounge bar (get there early to snap up a panoramic window seat), free wifi, complimentary soft drinks and snacks (and wines on the Irish Sea and Dover-Calais routes).

If you fancy a full meal check out Boylan’s Brasserie, which offers a range from a Full Irish Breakfast at 16.95 euros to mains at 21 euros.

Clontarf Castle Hotel, Castle Ave, Clontarf East, Dublin 3, D03 W5NO, Ireland. +353 1 833 2321.

Hawksmoor, 34 College Green, Dublin 2.

For tourist information go to Visit Ireland and Visit Dublin.

14 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Wine

An alternative Greek legend – Fenix pairs red snapper with mango and fills dolmades with wagyu

These days I eat out less than I did. All relative maybe. But I do cook tenaciously at home on the back of canny sourcing and our own garden bounty (again only relative). And, of course, vicarious pleasure is always there when I see chefs and restaurants I was among the very first to champion picking up plaudits. Great to see a national critic finally make it to Bavette Bistro in Horsforth and laud it to the heavens. Equally welcome is the universal praise for the great Shaun Moffat at Winsome (bring back the wild boar Barnsley chop please). Amazing but not surprising news that Pignut, Helmsley (shortly to be Pignut at the Hare in Scawton) is one of five restaurants shortlisted for the Estrella Damm Sustainability Awards).

In contrast, some eating places I have loved from the start suffer from perceptions of glam overload, which detracts from the food on offer. Take Fenix in Manchester, a pioneer in the happening quarter around Aviva Studios.

In my original 2022 review for Manchester Confidential I couldn’t help teasing about its mythical Mykonos persona while being wowed by its contemporary fine dining take on Greek food. I’ve been back several times and never been disappointed, the latest to sample its 2025 summer menu and a range of superb Greek wines.

There was me, a huge fan of the Thymiopoulos red range, centring on the Xinomavro grape, and I’d forgotten how good their Malagouzia-Assyrtiko white blend from Macedonia can be, melding the full-on fruit of the former with the saline minerality of the latter. Lovely but it was eclipsed by a limpid red from Crete. Nicos Karavitakis has worked wonders in squeezing rich cherry flavours out of the pale Liatiko grape without losing the fresh acidity.

I missed the original Fenix press invitation because I was then eating my way down the Rhone Valley (OK I do get out), but answered the ‘do come along later’ call. And wasn’t disappointed. A co-production, as always by Athens-based exec chef Ippokratis Anagnostelis and in-situ head chef chef Zisis Giannouras (the one with the heroic beard), it offered no dramtic over-haul but some delicious tweaks.

Wagyu Dolmakadi, stuffed vine leaves with ‘that’ beef’ didn’t sound me but was delicious, albeit at £24.50 for a trio of the tiny wraps. Even better was charred Calamari with taramasalata cream and lime dressing. Spicy red snapper dressed in aji panca with fresh mango and olive oil felt less authentically Greek, but that’s the point of Fenix. The menu is filtered through an innovative modern Greek sensibility. It doesn’t always work. An over-sweet white sesame dressing on a broccolini side did no favours for the the robata tenderloin with potato terrine and black olive.

Mediterranean dish of the dinner was tiger prawns on a tangle of linguini in a saffron and tomato crustacean broth, infused with a hint of Pernod. Maybe more Amalfi than Athens, but who cares?

An old favourite remains irresistible among the desserts – the quartet of Greek baklava ice cream, Greek Tsoureki ice cream, yuzu-lemon sorbet and chocolate Valrhona sorbet. Definitely a trencherful for two to share. It arrived plus another new dish that’s definitely a star in the Fenix firmament – cinnamon fruit crumble and a caramelised apple crème brûlée.

Don’t forget the drinks of the Gods too (here I go again) on the cocktail list. Once again I pre-prandially tested my strength on Hercules’ Eighth Trial. For £16.50 you get an awesome back story as well as a steamingly good presentation. “Son of Zeus and Alcmene, divine monster-slaying hero Heracles was forced to undertake a series of trials. The eighth was capturing a herd of man-eating and fire-breathing horses from Diomedes. His victory is immortalised in our watermelon and whisky pre-dinner sipper.”

Fenix Restaurant and Bar, The Goods Yard Building Goods Yard Street, Manchester M3 3BG. 0161 646 0231.

5 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Restaurants, Travel

Aishling Moore’s golden touch and the wonder of West Cork wasabi

It’s commonplace these days to chart provenance on a menu. At Goldie one supplier name hopped off the list in front of me – Singing Frog Gardens. Alas, no sweetly croaking amphibians feature at Aishling Moore’s Cork restaurant famed for its ‘gill to fin’ sustainable fish cookery. But wasabi root grown in the West Cork backwoods does. It’s a speciality of the Gardens’ Alex Gazzaniga, a cultivator of rare and pungent salads and vegetables not traditionally native to Ireland (or many habitats in Europe, come to that). The name comes from the raucous frogs attracted to the damp forest setting suited to growing wasabi, brassica cousin to horseradish and mustard. Ironically the root thrives in a moist microclimate that can also encourage potato blight.

My Dublin-based colleague, the talented Caitríona Devery, has written two articles for Ireland Eats (wasabi and gardens) on this reclusive market gardener, who moved to Ireland from England 15 years ago and now supplies innovative indie restaurants with what greengrocers used to call ‘queer gear’. Wasabi seems a given for Takashi Miyazaki, guru behind Cork city’s Ichigo Ichie and Miyazaki. He was among Alex’s first customers; Aishling with her almost Japanese attention to fish is another perfect fit.

No question the meal of our recent Irish road trip was at Goldie on Oliver Plunkett Street across the road from equally casual stablemate Elbow Lane. Before seafood called Aishling honed her cooking skills at this fire-led, meat-centric micro-brewhouse (which also name-checks Singing Frog among the butchers and maltsters).

Cork-born Aishling opened Goldie when she was 24, just six months before the pandemic. From the start she was determined to create a sustainable, changing menu from what was landed daily on Ballycotton quayside. Nothing of the available catch was to be wasted, in particular those fish previously thrown back into the sea. The approach is called Whole Catch, the name of the slim volume she published in 2024, the year after she was named Ireland’s Young Chef of the Year. No glossy images, just Nicky Hooper’s characterful illustrations. These include, inside front and back, the golden salmon-shaped weathervane that has crowned the hilltop St Anne’s Church, Shandon since the 1750s and gives its name to the restaurant.

Whole Catch is in essence a pared back primer, charting how to handle fish from the whole raw state to the plate. The recipes are not afraid of powerful global flavours, but the freshest Irish raw materials never seem smothered. Surprises include her favouring the butterflied tails of round fish. From the small plates section we tried the hake tail schnitzel with gherkin and celeriac remoulade and soy cured egg yolk. Utter delight until it was surpassed by the chicken and butter miso sauce that perfectly partnered the firm, sweet flesh of pan-fried John Dory, an unexpected ‘luxury’ fish.

A pudding that is approaching a similar signature dish status is the caramelised white chocolate, Achill Island sea salt, milk sorbet, with a buckwheat tuile. Proof of the sophisticated culinary intelligence at work. Pleasure principle counterpointing the sustainability crusade. Goldie’s Michelin Bib Gourmand is throughly deserved. Surely a star must be close.

Chatting afterwards, Aishling distanced herself from the application of meat butchery/charcuterie techniques as espoused by Australian chef Josh Nyland, whose own manifesto, The Whole Fish Cookbook, echoes hers. “Lots of folk make the connection, but I’d never even heard of him when we opened Goldie. Others compare us with Lir up on the north coast of Ireland, but they follow the Nyland route, making their own fish-based charcuterie. The nearest I’ve got to that is some fish jerky!”

Lir chef patron Stevie McCarry made it to the final of the Great British Menu 2025. The closest Aishling has got to celebrity across the Irish Sea was a couple of appearances on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, the last in November, to celebrate World Fish Day. On her July debut she cooked the Shime Mackerel recipe you’ll find in Whole Catch – which I intended to replicate (the main image is Channel 4’s). It involves a 10 hour sashimi-style marinade of salt, mirin, brown rice vinegar and, crucially, dried kombu kelp (Irish and Japanese in one seasoning). Soy and wasabi to accompany. West Cork wasabi had kindly been posted to me and had to be grated quickly to guarantee its kick. Alas, I was called to a France for a week before I could source the freshest of mackerel, which this dish required. So, to avoid drying out, the surprisingly delicate wasabi was summoned to perk up some hot smoked salmon before my departure.

On my return I bought a couple of Cornish mackerel; from Out of The Blue in Chorlton, Manchester, substituting horseradish from our garden for the wasabi. On Sunday Brunch beetroot ponzu and pickled ginger were the mackerel’s sidekicks. Just some plain roasted beetroot for me, but the dish was drop dead gorgeous.

A major Aishling inspiration is another Brit expat, master fish smoker and ocean activist Sally Barnes, who has been curing wild salmon and other fish at her Woodcock Smokery near Skibbereen since 1979. Aisling confirms: “Conversations with her have massively influenced the way I think and how I perceive things.” At her venue, The Keep, Sally runs artisan masterclasses and occasional dinners. As I write this the guest chef at the latest event is Nina Matsunaga of the Black Bull, Sedbergh, Cumbria, a huge favourite of mine (read my review).

Fact file

In Cork city we stayed in two hotels – The Montenotte Hotel, Middle Glanmire Road, Montenotte, Cork, T23 E9DX, Ireland. +353 21 453 0050.and The River Lee Hotel, Western Road, The Lough, Cork, T12 X2AH, Ireland. +353 21 425 2700.

Whole Catch (Blasta Books, 17 euros plus postage) is available from the Goldie website.

1 June 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Beer, Travel, Wine

Nightingale season, radical seeds and troubled dreams in sparkling Sussex

Never meet your heroes, they say. Does it help if they are not at the very top of your worshipful bucket list? Take this random trio – folk singer and nightingale champion Sam Lee, revolutionary political philosopher Thomas Paine and Limerick-born Dermot Sugrue, described by his wife as the ‘Don Corleone of English wine’. I’m a big fan of all three, all of whom were integral, in their different ways, to a spring visit to Lewes, East Sussex.

The roots of our big wedding anniversary break lay in Sam’s Singing With Nightingales project. It felt like the perfect present for a spouse in tune with all things avian and Shakespeare (the special theme of our chosen night in a ‘secret’ Sussex wood).

Each spring several thousand nghtingales make the long migration from Sub-Saharan Africa to reside in southern England and indulge in all-night mating ritual. The chance to hear the song, from the male only, long celebrated in myth, poetry and folk culture was irresistible. Sam, who has himself written a book on the bird, describes it as “an act of immersive theatre and ritual, both otherworldly and yet something we might collectively have done since the dawn of humans. This communion with the more than human world reminds us that we are nature and nature is in us all.

Our unique experience encompassed a bell tent for the night, chummy campfire supper, a lutanist, Shakespeare from a Globe Theatre story teller and a song plus eco rallying cry from charismatic Sam; then towards the witching hour a single file promenade into the dark woods. The goal, achieved – to hunker down by a hedge to eavesdrop on the ecstatic piping of a nightingale. So few left, a 90 per cent decline in the UK since the sixties, so it felt a magical encounter. All too brief. What was it Keats concluded his great Ode with? “Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music:— Do I wake or sleep?”

At the close, in the deep darkness, Sam and his musical guests duetted softly with the invisible bird. You can get a feel from a 2021 EP how it sounds. Nothing, though can match the real thing. Each year the window of opportunity is short, scarcely six weeks. I highly recommend making the trek to Sussex (or a newer site in Bedfordshire)). Just 40 folk are allowed for each session.

The Trouble with Dreams, the beauty of English bubbles

The same number, 40, is the guest maximum for Sugrue Sundays, a series of alfresco summer lunches at Sugrue South Downs winery, eight miles north of Lewes. After an aperitif among the vines, a four course lunch is cooked over vine cuttings and served en plein air with views of the Bee Tree Vineyard and the South Downs. The August 10 lunch sold out in a flash, understandably with kitchen legends Mark Hix and Henry Harris doing the cooking (I’m on a waiting list).

The wines, made by Dermot Sugrue, are an equal attraction. His Champagne method The Trouble with Dreams was recently named Britain’s best sparkling wine, ahead of the likes Nyetimber and Wiston, both of which once benefitted from Dermot as their contract winemaker.

Since 2023 the genial Irishman, now 47, has been master of his own vinous destiny, thanks to backers such as actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey and Paddington) and Robin Hutson, founder of The Pig boutique hotel collection (Soho House and Hotel du Vin are also in his cv). Evidence of burgeoning ambition is everywhere at the Bee Tree HQ, run by Dermot and his Croatian-born wife Ana. What was once a side project is now the real deal.

En route for Lewes, we popped in for a tasting with the pair’s marketing director, Callum Edge. Limerick (where Dermot began brewing at 14) met Cork (my wife, proud of her hibernian heritage) in the state of the art winery in front of the map charting his 11 hectare Sussex empire. Five vineyards with differing terroirs provide the Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir for the sparklers that have made is reputation.

Storrington Priory Vineyard has a special place in the legend. The Trouble With Dreams was tangentially born there on a plot planted to make wine for the resident monastic order. When the inaugural vintage was wiped out by birds, the Prior, Fr Paul McMahon took it on the chin, saying “That’s the trouble with dreams.”

As long time Trouble fans, we bought a bottle of the 2020 to celebrate our big anniversary. Not in the bell tent; back home in the North, lightly chilled in crystal glasses.

The Trouble With Dreams is available by the glass for £20 at Manchester’s Michelin-starred Mana; on the same list Sugrue’s Cuve Boz Blanc de Blancs 2015 is by the bottle at £210. I bought mine from the Wine Society for £65.

Given 36 months on the lees, it is steely and fresh and quite wonderful. It too has scooped awards, but Sugrue’s latest sensation has undoubtedly been – take a deep breath – a still white called BONKERS Zombie Robot Alien Monsters from the Future Ate My Brain (sur lie). This multi-vintage solera Chardonnay, sold out in a heartbeat. It was is the result of a blend of Chardonnay from the near perfect 2022 vintage which was lightly oxidised, with fruit from 2023. The blend was aged in large, old French oak barrels and was taut and refreshing with complexity emerging down the bottle. The next expression will be released in late 2025. You’d be bonkers to ignore it. And watch this space for a 100 per cent Pinot Noir in the pipeline.

Does the ghost of Thomas Paine haunt the Hart?

Lewes is synonymous with tumultuous Bonfire Night celebrations, marking both the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the 17 Protestant martyrs burned at the stake in Lewes during the reign of Queen Mary. Political dynamite was also fashioned in the town; Thomas ‘Rights of Man’ Paine, key figure in both the French and American Revolutions, lived at Bull House from 1768 to 1774 and honed his debating skills at the Headstrong Club held in The White Hart on the High Street. Did the historical revolutionary zeal rub off on these seekers of nightingale song? Our room in the latest incarnation of the hotel was across the first floor landing from the Headstrong’s meeting room, lovingly preserved by Heartwood Inns during a £4m spend. As are the timbery creaks in a building dating back to the 1560s.

The town, radical chic to the core even with its hilltop castle and well-heeled retirees, does not neglect Paine. There’s a rival pub named after him and while visiting the excellent Friday Food Market we spotted a mural of the young firebrand in the Market Tower. Bull House, his residence while working in the town as an exciseman, has recently re-opened to the public as a museum (Thursdays and Saturdays, 11am-3pm). In 2026, Thomas Paine: Legacy and its partners will launch a Sussex-wide programme of events to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Some two decades after Paine’s time there Lewes’s most famous institution came into being. Family-owned Harvey’s https://www.harveys.org.uk/ still dominates the Ouse river bank and on the attractive Cliffe High Street there’s a large store flogging merchandise and the range of their award-winning beers. The true classic that never fails to delight is Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter. It is crafted from four local hop varieties, Downs water and a 60-year-old yeast strain.

The best place to sample it is The Lewes Arms, an institution for over 200 years up on Mount Place. Moving with the times, it’s home to idiosyncratic events such as the World Pea Throwing Championships, Spaniel Racing and the ancient pastime of Dwyle Flunking (look it up). or you could just order a heritage grain, wood-fired pizza with your Harvey’s and seek out the hidden garden up top. Lewes is full of such hidden corners, making it a delight to ramble around.

221st century craft beer boasts its own stronghold. It’s well worth the 15 minute walk out of town to Beak’s brewery tap, set under a white chalk cliff. They don’t spare the hops here for hazy NEIPAs and the like, but the result is consistently impressive – at a price. Great branding too.

Best foodie destination? Definitely, Dill, just awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand for chef Dan Cooper’s globally inspired small plates, which have the added virtue of being quite substantial.

FACT FILE

Singing With Nightingales

The 2026 season will run from April 10 to May 28. Dates for the season will be announced and tickets will go on general sale, maximum 40 per session, in November 2025.

Sugrue South Downs, Bee Tree Vineyard, South Rd, Wivelsfield Green, Haywards Heath RH17 7QS. Visits by appointment. There are also Bee Experience Days, exploring the life cycle of the bee, nectar foraging, and honey production to a full hive inspection

The White Hart, 55 High St, Lewes BN7 1XE.

For further details on a fascinating town go to Visit Lewes. Further afield there’s the South Downs Way and Bloomsbury literary shrines, Monk’s House, Rodmell and Charleston – homes respectively of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell.