Meal Ticket: Brother Sister, Powerscourt Townhouse, Dublin 2

Touré and Yvonne Kizza are siblings who share an enthusiasm for coffee. Over the past few years, they had been keeping an eye open for a space to share their fervor with the hot-drink-loving public.

Towards the end of 2015, they acquired a segment of the stairway at one of the quieter entrances of Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, on the South William Street side, and opened for business in November.

It’s a great example of how to use an area that could easily be written off as dead space. Once in the door, you’re greeted with a stairway straight ahead, which leads to Pygmalion Bar. The Kizza siblings have set up shop in a wooden bar, squished onto the left of the stairwell. Their coffee bar is called it Brother Sister, and it’s open every day from 8am to 6pm.

Brother Sister is currently featuring one coffee bean per day, highlighting Irish roasters such as Coffee Mojo, Two Fifty Squared and The Happy Pear, which roasts its beans in collaboration with Baobab Coffee Roasters in Celbridge. Brother Sister’s cakes and buns are supplied by the exemplary Wicklow-based Firehouse Bread Bakery. There is also a selection of freshly baked Aungier Danger donuts as additional counter top temptation.

My flat white is perfect – strong and at the ideal temperature of gentle heat – and I pair it with a huge cinnamon bun with a lemony zing from Firehouse (€3). Coffees are normally €2.50 but the Kizzas are offering a €2 special for the whole month of January.

There is tea too, of course, and hot chocolate, complete with marshmallows. Before Christmas, Brother Sister tweeted about their Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate – I want to go to there.

There are plans to introduce soups and sandwiches in 2016, and ideas for pop-up art exhibitions and DJ sets in the high-ceilinged landing above the coffee bar. Definitely ones to watch.