Spice of life

Fed-up with the constant arrivals of samey, corporate-controlled venues, it felt like fate when Lucinda O’Sullivan heard that chef Keelan Higgs’s first solo venture was to be called Variety Jones

Restaurants, bars and hotels are being opened apace in Dublin by the big boys of the hospitality industry. However, by now, even the most ardent about-towners who move on to the latest new hot spot before the paint has dried on the last, must be getting tired of the faceless, formulaic format of Instagram-perfect spectacular decor, matched with food that is ‘middling, only middling’.

So many venues are being launched by this type of operation that I’ve had to start passing on some, as I’d merely be part of their PR machine, featuring them every second week. It’s good to find quirky fringe locations, where the talented young guns are doing really interesting things, with a devotion and love lacking in the big, impersonal operations, but it can be so hard for the ordinary Joe Soaps to get a premises in Dublin now.

And so, it was a joy to visit the new Variety Jones on Thomas Street in Dublin 8, just opened by Chef Keelan Higgs, who is on his first solo venture — and, while Thomas Street is not Dawson Street, it is an edgy up-and-coming location with lots of development happening, just as Camden Street was 10 years ago.

The restaurant was previously a tattoo parlour, among other things, and Higgs and his brother Aaron, who is front-ofhouse, had sleepless nights and backbreaking labour stripping back and renovating the premises but, he says “If you want to make a dream come true, you have to apply yourself fully.”

A narrow shopfront, and a long, narrow room lead to the open kitchen at the back, where Vanda, the delightful sommelier, placed us at the chef ’s table — a cute little two-seater counter right in front of the pass so we couldn’t have been more involved in the back and forth.

Keelan Higgs, originally from Greystones, has a top-notch reputation as a chef, along with a pedigree that includes Chapter One, The GreenHouse and Locks. The menu is not large, but every morsel we had was, as my friend Mary said, memorable.

Higgs has a way of making things seem so simple, but everything is classically cool and delicious, with dressings of butter and herbs, curds, hearth-roasted celeriac and wild mushrooms. It’s all very now. “It’ll be a long time before I’ll be putting 10 or twelve little things on a plate again,” he said.

We were presented with some snacks — two mouthfuls each of crispy artichoke skins topped with a Comte cream; and a duo of oysters with a sweet-sour Vietnamese dressing which would normally be €5 each, but it would have been ungracious to decline. Oh boy, they were good.

Family style

A trio of starters (€13-€15) included hearth-grilled vegetables with barley and curd. Mary’s sublime rich, silky foie gras and chicken liver parfait (€14) came in a little black cast-iron cassolette. It was topped with crispy shallot strands and sweet and sour onions, and served with potato-bread waffles. I had grilled florets of cauliflower (€14), which were blackened and gloriously enhanced with the complementary flavour of burnt yeast, and topped with slivers of sea trout, brown butter and vibrant salmon roe.

For the mains, there were three dishes to choose from — a pasta option of Comte ravioli (€16) with hearth-roasted mushrooms and a mushroom broth; or two ‘family-style’ dishes hearth-grilled sole (€50); or venison loin (€60). You do get a shock when you see the €50/€60 price point, but then you cop on and realise that it’s only €25/30 each. In fact, by the time we’d shared a sublime large sole on the bone (pictured below left) topped with a cockle and mussel sauce, laid alongside plumptuous plumes of grilled cavolo nero, and served with a little pot of warm potato and smoked eel salad, we knew we’d had the bargain of the year.

Our indulgent joy continued with a rich, dark, treacly Jamaica cake (€9), which was paired with caramelised pineapple, vanilla and coconut cream, and Sarawak pepper.

The wine list is well chosen and well priced, and you can have any of the wines by the glass. We had a delicious bottle of Bender Riesling Paulessen 2017 (€35) from the Mosel, which, with one coffee for Mary (€2.50) and optional service, brought our bill to €136.95.

Go now. Soon you won’t be able to bag a table here for love nor money.

“While Thomas Street is not Dawson Street, it is an edgy, up-and-coming location just as Camden Street was 10 years ago”