Meal Ticket: Pudding Row, Easky, Sligo

This is a bright new cafe just opened in Easky, the latest in a series of local ventures reviving the fortunes of this small historic village whose rugged coastline is popular with surfers.

Dervla James, better known for her Pepper Pot cafe and its famous bagels in the Powerscourt Centre which she runs with Marion Kilcoyne, returned home to open this cafe and bakery called after a street where she lived when a student at the National Bakery School in Dublin.

Handsomely furnished using recycled flooring, hemlock pine and witch hazel by Sligo-based Colin Ritchie of mudandwood.com, it also has a display of vintage china, etchings by local artist Caroline Donohue and wonderful sea views.

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm for breakfast and lunch (closed Monday and Tuesday) everything is freshly made in the open kitchen. The menu features homemade scones, a variety of breads, porridges, bagels, sandwiches, salads, soups and cold drinks whose ingredients are all sourced – where possible – from local producers.

James, who always wanted to be a baker and pastry chef, once made a cake for Lady Gaga, and cakes are also a speciality of the cafe.

The free range bacon comes from Pigs on the Green in Tullamore, vegetables and fruits from an organic farm in Tubbercurry, fresh eggs from a farm in Strandhill and the coffee beans from Coffee Ariosta in Ashbourne.

“I want this cafe to be a focal point,” she says. “It’s about bringing my community together: to eat, drink and share things with them.”