Meal Ticket: Thirty Four, Portobello, Dublin - more than a good coffee shop

Nestled in a row of terraced houses on Lennox St in Dublin sits Thirty Four, a coffee shop opened last year by Emmet Condon of independent music and event production company Homebeat. The space doubles up as headquarters for the company, but it also welcomes other creatives to make use of their carefully crafted cups of coffee while they work on their own projects supported by the café’s free wifi and communal table.

The building is one of several studio spaces run by artist-led organisation Mart. Behind the café front of Thirty Four is a hub of creative enterprises, with Bello Bar, Ensemble Music, ICC, milliner Laura Kinsella and more all working from the space.

“It’s so great to have a little community at work,” says Condon. “It wouldn’t be possible without Mart’s continued support and bravery in opening such spaces up to people like us.”

Coffee at Thirty Four is by Full Circle Roasters, launched last year by coffee roaster and barista Brian Birdy. “We were his first customer,” says Condon, “which is so nice to work hand in hand as two start-ups, so I hope we continue to grow together.”

Something Happenings
Alongside the coffee are baked goods from Arun Bakery in Stoneybatter and Camerino Bakery on Capel St. This ethos of supporting local, independent businesses sits happily among Condon's other work of promoting independent Irish musicians, such as the acts booked for Another Love Story in Killyon Manor in Co Meath, produced in collaboration with Happenings.

On my visit, I washed down one of Arun Bakery’s deeply savoury sausage rolls coated in flaky pastry with a perfect flat white as I took in the space’s current exhibition, Women of Notes/Mná na Notaí, a project by photographer Ruth Medjber and journalist Louise Bruton.

After realising that nearly every band she had shot for the international press was male, Medjber wanted to give women a voice not only visually but with an interview too, so she approached Bruton to partner with her on this project. Featuring portraits of Irish musicians including MayKay from Fight Like Apes, Soak, Heathers, Loah and Sorcha Brennan from Sleep Thieves, the pair launched the exhibition on March 5th.

Bruton explains their motivation behind the project.

“So often in music, women are lumped together as an actual genre. It’s exhausting that women are sidelined so often. Ruth and I took this opportunity to highlight the work of the women in the industry that we know best; music.”

So why did Thirty Four work as their venue?

“It was important for us to make this project visible to music fans and not just the art community, so that meant taking it out of a conventional gallery,” says Medjber. “Thirty Four is not only bright, welcoming and relaxed but it’s also the headquarters of Homebeat Events. They’re responsible for putting on some of the best live music shows of the last few years and introduced me to some of the acts involved in the project like Loah and Feather.”

Thirty Four is currently three-quarters of the way through the first edition of Thirty Four Saturdays, a series of free Saturday afternoon concerts taking place in the space. Drop in this weekend to catch the Women of Notes/Mná na Notaí before it moves off to its next destination, or head to the space during the week to do a bit of work, fuelled by some great locally-powered coffee and cakes.