Terenure - Goldwater Deli, Corner Bakery, Base Pizza

Goldwater our new deli on Terenure Rd. North from the same folk as the Corner Bakery a few doors up. expensive rice and pastas if you want them but also great value to be had from top notch veg - whatever takes his fancy from Romanesco, to fab rocket to big sweet knobly tomatoes to avocados for 60c each. it is not a fruit and veg shop but he likes to have a few unusual things. suppled from the same guys that supply chapter one (forget the name). cheese - sometimes fab value - last week I bought about 6 st. marcelin cheeses for a euro each. currently munching my way through a sandwich made with fab camembert for 2 euro. I needed vanilla and they had 2 good madascar ones for about 2.75 (later I saw them for 5.99 for 2 in Tesco). Cheese is coming direct from a supplier in Paris as irish wholesalers were far too expensive he told me. Not all is good as he had a comte recently which was great value but far too young. It wasnt unpleasant it just didnt taste like comte - having said that, I put some chilli jam on the roll I made from it and all was fine. I bought a big lump of parma ham for 20 euro (good price for the size) to use in my Lidl slicer, good chorizo and other meats. They have lots of unusual things also like chocolate sardines, quality unusual crisps and tortilla chips, lemonades and root beer and cherry cola etc.

Bread from their bakery is still excellent. they charge 1.95 for a v. good stick made from french stone ground flour - excellent crust and aeration etc.not paris prices (where you would pay 1.10 at most) but still affordable. This stick is now down to one euro for a week or two to encourage new customers. The new Craft Bakery in Rathmines opposite tesco looks good from the outside but 2.65 for a stick of bread is just too much in my view. Not been yet. it looks like a franchise but cant find info about them. design of the shop and log etc. looks far too professional to be a home grown industry. I promise to check them out soon.


Also in Terenure is a new wood fired pizza place run by two young guys called Base in the old bakery opposite Downeys. Takeaway only - open 3 weeks this weekend. Excellent pizza but not cheap - 13.65 for a c.13 inch margarita. I have had good chats with them as I was interested in the wood they use (Ash) and the size of the oven (huge) whcih they shipped in from Los Angeles. All in contrast with my little oven in the garden! (see attached pic).
The are very very busy at the weekends - quality will out and they are way better than Little Caesers and Marios (who have similar prices for takeaway) - both nearby on the same side as downeys at the corner. Our regular pizza place was Bellagio but they are doing a major refurbishment at the moment (a standard italian restaurant near the car park in terenure with fantastic pizzas - margharita for 7 euro, pizza vesuvio for 9 euro! - thin crispy base and good sauce. two levels better than the ones in cafe bar deli according to Grellan and I agree). Anyway I wish Base well but wont be going every week. they have a fab plan to bring in a (proper, highly qualified) baker once they close at 11.30 and then they would sell bread in the morning - making use of the space during the day. sounds like a great idea. 5 years ago when we moved to terenure there was virtually nowhere to buy decent food (the two over priced but good quality organic butchers apart).

shebeen chic

contrary to a couple of reports I have heard - 4 of us had a fab dinner in Sheebeen Chic on Sat. lovely staff (something the seem to be quite good at finding in that group) and a good buzzy atmosphere.

Two saucepans of plump mussels for 9 euro per saucepan. Mains - a solid irish stew - oddly served with mashed potatoes (rather undercutting the one pot tradition of the dish) but after initial confusion it was concluded this was a very good thing as mash swimming in good gravy/stew is always a good thing. My rib eye steak was ordered blue and came exactly that. I had expected a thin steak but it was a good inch thick and six inches long (23 euro) - given the thick steak, blue was a bit extreme - I like the contrast between caramalised outside and raw interior and it doesnt work quite as well with a thick steak. Tender beef with good flavours and fine crispy chips and tasty gravy - so despite a little more raw meat than i am used to this was some of the best steak and chips I have had in a long while.

Solid Confit de canard and falling off the bone pork hock for the two other mains. Next a bowl of ice cream - mint, chocolate, pistachio, vanilla. all good and all for me. we all had espressos and all were perfect. Ernie whalley (a coffee obsessive that roasts his own beans and has a professional coffee maker designed for a cafe in his house) reckons this is about as good a coffee available in the city at the moment. For wine we had an albarino (not so cheap at 27) and a good red from cotes de rousillion (I think - 4 excellent pints in the porterhouse did not help my concentration!). So a v. good meal for 40 euro per head including tip.

Good to see that jay bourke was eating there also with a six or seven friends and later I bumped into another friend who runs their ranelagh cafe bar deli branch who was out all glammed up for the night with her boyfriend. good sign to see staff choosing to eat there I thought.