Aoife Cox delights in The Canteen That Could
So, how would you rate your last restaurant experience? Not just the food, but the booking, the location, the room, the service, the everything?
Was it - more or less, for better or worse - what you might call average? Somewhat by definition - or by some law of averages, at any rate - what your average diner gets, on average, is probably pretty average. True in general, perhaps, but not when the equation involves dinner in Blackrock’s Canteen at the Market. And thanks be to the dining Gods for that.
I mean, how often is it that you ring the chef’s mobile number to book a table? Officially, like. A couple of phone calls with chef-owner James later, and - what with now being on first name terms ’n’ all - it felt less like having booked into a restaurant than the prospect of having dinner cooked by a very capable acquaintance.
Finding the place, too - down an alley off Blackrock’s main street, past the shuttered stalls of the Blackrock market - felt like a bit of a discovery. It’s a small, simple room with whitewashed walls, seating for twenty guests and a counter behind which you can see chef James hard at work, while his partner Soizic is the gentle, capable front of house presence. It’s decorated here and there with pots, spoons and a menu written on a large sheet of brown paper, material which also doubles as a table covering, and dinner is served on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 7.30pm.
The menu, which changes every other week or so, is a no choice affair - four courses, three savoury and a dessert, for €42, with a couple of reds and a couple of whites available by the glass or bottle, should you feel so inclined - and while the appearance of the room might suggest rustic, the food on the plates says refined.
That James and Soizic met while working at Restaurant 41 gives some clue as to what follows: think breast of partridge and a bonbon of partridge meat served with quince and pickled walnuts, followed by brill served on a rich seafood and pumpkin bisque with samphire and onions, then pitch perfect venison - possibly the best I've ever had, says Caroline Byrne - served with chestnuts and jerusalem artichokes - pureed, roasted and crisped - and, to finish, a combination of mango ice, passion fruit custard, pineapple, coconut biscuit and meringue, alive with individual tropical flavours. Those were our four courses. Yours will be different but, I’ll warrant, no less good.
Canteen at the Market has been open since the middle of last year and initially, say James and Soizic, they thought of it as a pilot, a jumping off point for something bigger, but for now - with dinner service three days a week and a more casual (and very busy) lunch service on four days - there are merits in staying small.
"If we were out on the main street, we’d be expected to be open everyday and have more choice, but I’d rather have 20 full seats and low overheads than the pressure of filling somewhere bigger,” says James, as we chat over the counter at the end of the evening’s service.
The no-choice dinner menu, he explains, is not an ego thing - it’s not about exclusivity but practicality, given their space and staffing. Apart from one assistant in the kitchen and an additional person to help with service on busy Fridays and Saturdays, the couple handle everything themselves. They are also expecting their first child, and the arrival of Junior will bring with it its own changes. As James puts it: “You know what, if we needed to, we could close for three weeks here and, so what; that’d be harder to do in a bigger place.” Those who turn up for dinner, meanwhile, are, for the most part, here because of word of mouth, and have some idea about what to expect. By and large they’re happy to go with the four course flow, wherever that might bring them, and quite often it brings them back for more, back to a place where there are no pretensions and no frippery, just attention to the details that matter - great food and warm service - and where James and Soizic have a healthy respect for what can reasonably be done - and done well - in this little space that is theirs. They are doing what works for them. And, in a manner that is anything but average, it works for me too.
