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July 10, 2007
The pressure is on..
Deadlines looming, forecasts to hit (or miss, more likely) and meetings to attend. But enough about waiting for the baby to arrive..
With Siofra packed off to my parents for the day, we headed to Lock's for the first time on Saturday for lunch. It's been getting good reviews and we were impressed. It's a step-up price-wise from L'Gueuleton (which seems to have pushed it's prices up a bit lately too) but the food, at lunchtime at least, is very interesting and very well put together. My main was a ham hock wrapped in green leaves with cream sitting in a chicken stock which was very tasty indeed. Roisin thought that it was a bit salty, but I'm a bit of a fiend for the NaCl. One of the mains was a 'Blossom', but I neglected to ask what exactly it was. My dessert was an interesting combo of nuts and raisin icecream with carrott and ginger cake. The coffee is absolutely top notch, far better than anything I've had lately.
The room is very nicely done, warm beige in the main, with a banquette running the length of the wall in the main downstairs dining room. There is a small bar area in front of the open plan kitchen (where Mr Maguire was perched) There are a couple of rooms upstairs too, one has a 12 seat table that would be a cert if our lotto numbers come in, while the other has very nice views over the canal.
The menu follows on from L'Gueuleton in making no distinction between starters and mains, but at lunchtime there are two soups which cost from 7-8, with the other dishes coming in at around 14-16 and desserts from 7-8. The wine list is fairly tilted towards the mid-range with not much below 30, but there is a fairly extensive selection of half bottles. All-in-all you could do a two course lunch with a glass of wine for about 30 a head. Indeed you could just order the antipasti plate between two and a coffee and get away for a tenner. We'll be back for an evening meal.
Following on from lunch we had a bit of a wander around Portobello, before repairing to a local for a pint which made for a slightly wobbly journey home. It's a very nice part of town, and if we were celebrating a lotto win in Lock's we would also be scanning the local streets for 'For Sale' signs. It is a shame though that there are no decent boozers between the restaurant and home though. Leonard's Corner bar is ok, but a SCR branch of Walshe's or The Lord Edward would have been perfect.
Posted by Richard at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2007
Down with that sort of thing...
So I popped into the famous Morrissey's of Abbeyleix for a cup of coffee on the way back up to Dublin last night. The coffee was nothing to talk about, the pints looked tasty though, and not a panini in sight.
All seemed well in the world until I made to leave. And then I saw it, in the far corner of the bar. It had cast aside the biscuit tins and cornflake packets and glared down on the room with it's silvery blackness.
They had put in a feckin' plasma screen. In Morrissey's! Is nothing sacred?
At least it was switched off, a repeat edition of Pimp My Ride or somesuch would have been a cultural collision too far.
Posted by Richard at 11:57 PM | Comments (3)
July 03, 2007
Couch About Car
After a weekend in Nenagh I'm in Cork today, next week should see me in Longford and Donegal. So, not quite to the four corners of the country, more like two corners and a bit of a wander around the middle.
According to my beer-mat, I'll have to plant 300kg of forest to atone for my carbon emissions. That's this summer's gardening taken care of then..
Posted by Richard at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2007
Cobwebs everywhere..
About bloody time, eh?
Well, I've switched ManAboutCouch HQ over to a Mac (or should that be MAC is now Mac powered), but that's not my only excuse; new house, baby #2 on the way, overload at work etc. etc. It makes for zero blog time.
I'm not going to promise any change to that, but if I have time I'll put some more content up here.
Posted by Richard at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)