Cafe of the Year - The Farmhouse Cafe
The Farmhouse Café is on the Longmile Road, in Dublin. If that sounds surreal, it is. There are no farms on the Longmile Road. There are no houses. There are car dealerships, trade-only outlets, big box shops, petrol stations, and lots and lots of traffic. And, mercifully, there is Susan O’Sullivan’s inspired Farmhouse Café, with its inspiring cooking. You couldn’t make it up, but we’re sure glad Ms O’Sullivan did.
Retail Shop of the Year - Organico
Rachel and Hannah Dare's Organico is not just a wholefood shop, bakery and café in Bantry. It is a benchmark wholefood shop, bakery and café in Bantry, a place in which to discover every smart new food of the region, and to enjoy spirited and imaginative cooking, served by an ace team. It’s an icon of the Wild Atlantic Way, and not to be missed by any WAW voyager.
Coffee Shop of the Year - Coffeewerk & Press
Ireland today is a world-class coffee destination, with world-class coffee roasters and world-class baristas. From Dublin to Waterford, Belfast to Dingle, there is classy coffee, and smart people taking infinite care over fashioning that perfect cup of joe. But, of the numerous outstanding cups made for us in 2016, it was the one poured by Daniel Ulrichs in Galways Coffeewerk & Press that stood out. Using kalita wave brewers and with Coffee Collective beans, this was coffee as narcotic. Drunk from a paper cup, sitting on the window ledge on the first floor, it was a moment of total sublimity.
