The Irish Mail on Sunday

The restaurant where lunch is a work of art

- RONAN O’REILLY RONAN’S TABLE

I’M probably telling you something you already know, but here goes anyway. Next year marks the centenary of the death of Hugh Lane, one of the great Irishmen of modern times. Lane, who perished on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed off the coast of his native Cork, was a tireless champion of Irish artists in the influentia­l circles he frequented in London and Paris. He also became one of Europe’s most prominent collectors of Impression­ist paintings. The story behind the gallery he founded in Dublin is a long and convoluted one, but suffice ffice to say it is currently home to paintings by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Pissarro and Degas. If the cylindrica­l lead containers that Lane was reportedly y carrying with him are ever found on the ocean floor, then works by y Rembrandt, Rubens and others will be added to the collection.

For most people, though, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (to use the full, slightly peculiar-sounding g name) is best known for its associatio­n with Francis Bacon. Famously, the thirsty artist’s chaotic London studio – strewn with empty champagne bottles, slashed canvases and half-used tubes of paint – has been painstakin­gly reconstruc­ted on the premises. Some of his most harrowing paintings hang on the walls of the exhibition spaces. Actually, given that Bacon’s work often depicts nightmaris­h images, I’ve often thought it would have been interestin­g if he had been let loose in the very locale where so much of his art is housed.

He’d have found no shortage of subject matter around Parnell Square. There was the old Groome’s Hotel where Charlie Haughey, Brian Lenihan Sr and other members of the Fianna Fáil mohair suit brigade held court almost nightly during the Sixties and Seventies. Around the corner was Conway’s pub, later used by Frank Dunlop as a venue for greasing councillor­s’ clammy palms in return for planning votes. Another 90-degree turn and you’ve got the forbidding headquarte­rs of Sinn Féin and all it stands for. For my own part, though, I’ve always associated that bit of the square with the depressing sight of mothers-to-be having a fag in their dressing gown outside the Rotunda Hospital. Like I say, old Francis would have had a field day.

I was actually reminded of him by a quote from Napoleon that appears on the wine list in this week’s restaurant: ‘I drink champagne when I win, to celebrate... and I drink champagne when I lose, to console myself.’ Not bad, in fairness, but I think Bacon’s line just pips it. ‘Champagne for real friends, real pain for sham friends’, he liked to say, presumably with flute in hand. No pun intended.

The Hot Stove – which opened for business early last year – is owned by chef Joy Beattie, whose CV includes a stint at the Michelin-starred Chapter One around the corner. It occupies a basement premises on the side of the square where it is almost impossible to walk more than five paces without passing a bus stop that has at least 67 people waiting at it. For a downstairs place, the restaurant manages to have an airy feel. There is a reception and bar area that’s heavy on the wood, and then you go up four steps into two interconne­cting dining rooms with bright tiled floors and bare red brickwork.

The lunch menu is €20 for two courses, €25 for three. Side orders are €3.50 each, except for the fiver-a-portion duck fat chips. There’s also a separate list of daily specials and healthy options. My guest kicked off with an excellent asparagus risotto and followed it with a generous cut of beef brisket. Though my nettle soup was a very pleasant starter, I’m not sure the small potato dumplings in it brought much to the party. My main course of ray wing was a nicely cooked piece of fish, but serving it on a bed of tagliatell­e seemed like a bit of a pointless exercise. We shared an excellent plate of Irish cheese to finish, which added a fiver supplement to the set lunch bill.

Fair is fair, though, any quibbles are minor ones. Service was excellent, the cooking is of a very high standard and plenty of imaginatio­n has gone into the menu. Besides, let’s face it: this part of the capital needs more places that are unlikely to inspire the kind of disturbing representa­tions you can see around the corner. I’m sure the old reprobate Bacon would raise a celestial glass to that.

 ??  ?? master chef: Joy Beattie in The Hot Stove dining room
master chef: Joy Beattie in The Hot Stove dining room
 ??  ?? TheHotStov­e 38ParnellS­quareWest,Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 874 7778 Open:Tues-Thurs12-2.30pm, 5.30-9.30pm; Fri 12-2.30pm, 5.30-10pm;Sat5.30-10pm
TheHotStov­e 38ParnellS­quareWest,Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 874 7778 Open:Tues-Thurs12-2.30pm, 5.30-9.30pm; Fri 12-2.30pm, 5.30-10pm;Sat5.30-10pm
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 ??  ?? overture: overtur The nettle soup and asparagus risotto were promisin promising openers to an imaginativ­e lunch
overture: overtur The nettle soup and asparagus risotto were promisin promising openers to an imaginativ­e lunch
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