Here is Aoife at the new Avoca Food Market in Monkstown, County Dublin: “Talk about being a kid in a candy store....”
Avoca in Monkstown is the kind of place where I could easily lose the run of my wallet. Actually, I could say as much about any of the Avoca stores, but it applies even more so to this, their newest outlet, because this latest addition to the Avoca fold is all about the food, and nothing but the food. If you're looking for one of the famous Avoca throws, then no, this is not the place for you. If eye-catching edibles are your thing, however, then step right in.
As you enter, there are gleaming, brashly coloured vegetables arrayed to your left - many sourced from Wicklow's Gold River Farm - and above, a sign that points towards the Cheese Room. Now seriously, how you can not love (or, in fact, not want to move into) a place that sports its own salon-du-cheese? This one is stuffed with fine cheeses and charcuterie, both Irish and otherwise, along with large bowls of olives, sun dried tomatoes and other antipasti-type fare. Across the way, you'll spy the rotisserie, run by Gavin McCarthy and Sara Mitchell of Poulet Bonne Femme. Though the style and the name may be French, the company is local and the slowly roasting birds are Irish, free-range and succulent.
Back in the main food hall, there are baskets of breads and generously sized scones and tables heaped with the sweet treats that Avoca do so well (even if I do occasionally flinch at some of the price tags). A bewildering array of homemade soups line the shelves of their refrigerated display, along with Avoca-To-Go meals. Across the way at the deli counter, each jauntily placed sign ('Avoca fish cakes', 'ham stuffed potato', 'duck liver paté') may as well just say 'eat me.'
Finally, at the back of the premises, the pièce de résistance, James Whelan Butchers. Presided over by master of meats, Pat Whelan, this is more artist's installation than traditional butcher shop, with butchers' blocks and a slowly revolving clutch of hanging carcasses on full view behind floor to ceiling glass panelling. You can literally have a butchers at the butchers while you choose from their extensive selection of cuts at the counter. Welcome to meat-o-rama.
Occupying the other side of the building from the food market is the Salt Café, which can seat somewhere around 70 diners. When I was there, on a Wednesday afternoon in February, it looked at or close to capacity. Head chef Mark McGillyguddy, ex of Mint, among other places, serves up the kind of fresh, well-executed seasonal fare you'll find in other Avoca cafés, featuring many ingredients that come straight from the food market side of the house.
No run-of-the-mill soup and salad here - your choices include white onion soup with a heady mix of Parmesan and truffle oil and a salad of St. Tola goat's cheese with beetroot, hazelnuts, rocket and quinoa - while there's heartier fare too, like fish pie and lamb koftas, and, among others, a glorious raspberry posset for dessert.
If it's true what they say, and we do eat with our eyes, then in Avoca, you will feast on several courses before ever a morsel passes your lips (though that, too, will happen in due course). There is great attention to detail here - it's what Simon Pratt and all at Avoca do, and do well. Expect the food you get to be beautifully packaged and presented, and expect what's in the package or on the plate to live up to its promise.
Avoca Food Market & Salt Café
The Crescent
Monkstown
County Dublin
Ireland
Store: +353 1 202 0220
Salt reservations: +353 1 202 0230
email: monkstown@shop.avoca.ie
