Fancy a draw on a hookah pipe? Shaking your booty in a drink-free club? Hanging out in a tea garden? Here is a guide to a few of the new alternative hot spots, from theatre supper clubs to temperance zones.
Feast of Fables: a dramatic dish
What happens when supper meets storytelling, and drama gets delicious? The Feast of Fables is what, and it’s the brainchild of the artists who make up the Kilkenny-based collective The Makery. Described by one, Kate Strain, as “a six-course organic feast, run in tandem with six acts of an audiovisual performance,” the Feast of Fables is fast becoming the stuff of local legend in its Thomastown home. The supper part of the evening comprises six courses of locally sourced, organic produce prepared by Luci van Delden and Daniela Rieksneuwoehner, and this is served in tandem with an audio play, written and narrated by Strain and Sid Evans.
“It’s like a cross between a theatre and a restaurant,” explains Strain. “People come in and sit down, the play opens, and the food is served, intertwined with the six acts of the play.” Attendees book in advance and receive a printed set vegetarian menu as their ticket for the evening, which takes place in Thomastown’s Bridge Brook Arms. The play that unfolds is based on the old Grennan Water Mill in Thomastown, and follows a course plotted by Captain Odysseus C Fuseblower as he steers his way through storms and sea swells beyond the banks of the nearby Nore. The performance also incorporates a Kinetic Bread Machine, built from recycled bicycle parts that spin flour, water and dough together during the evening’s entertainment to produce the home-made bread rolls that accompany the second course.
The next Feast of Fables is booked out; interested parties are advised to contact the organisers as soon as possible as these hotly tipped events sell out very quickly. With tickets at €30, the artists involved barely cover their costs, which doesn't deter any of the members of The Makery, given that their stated aim is to foster a sense of local community. "It's a social, community-engaging kind of thing," says Strain. "We wanted to put something on in the town that was a little bit different. It's in a pub environment, which people are used to, but we're trying to make fun out of art and make it a bit accessible." FMcC
feastoffables@gmail.com.
Tea Garden: laid-back cuppas
When two twentysomething Slovakian brothers, Marcel and Marian Polak, decided to set up some tea rooms on the north side of the River Liffey, the bank managers laughed and told them that if they didn’t sell alcohol, they’d never do any business. Six months on, the booze-free Tea Garden is going strong, and everyone is laughing at the bank managers. A somewhat inauspicious exterior on Lower Ormond Quay belies a warren of low-lit, bamboo-bedecked and tatami-matted rooms where cushions and comfy seating is the order of the day. Five separate rooms with differing décor but the same laid-back atmosphere and lounging potential make for intimate surroundings in which to sip on one of more than 40 teas, which come in all varieties; all are organic and are brewed from loose leaves in a strictly teabag-free zone.
White tea, green tea, oolong tea and black tea vie for attention on an elaborate menu of options from places including China, Morocco, South America, India, Nepal and Japan. Granted, these don’t come as cheap as your common-or-garden varietals: a pot of Darjeeling Pussimbing, for example, comes in at €13.50, while Gyokuro Fuki costs €14.50.
The upside for paying €30 for a round of tea, however, is that one pot is enough to buy frequenters of the Tea Garden an entire evening snug in its comfy cushioned seats.
“It’s more than a cup of tea,” as Marcel explains of the Tea Garden experience, which also offers various board games and free wi-fi to keep customers amused. “I came to Ireland three years ago, and I really missed having this kind of place. I had no place to bring my girlfriend that wasn’t a nightclub or a noisy pub.”
As an alternative to endless cups of tea, Tea Garden offers a Turkish twist in the form of Shisha or hookah water pipes for rent at €13, with an assortment of flavours including apple, lychee, grape and coconut. It’s so deliciously decadent, it’s hard to believe they’re legal but Marcel assures that the smoking of hookah pipes is all above board.
“We asked and were told that if it doesn’t contain tobacco, nicotine or tar, it’s fine,” he says. If that’s not enough to entice all comers, Marcel promises to introduce massages and food in the future – for now only snacks and biscuits accompany the pretty pots of tea.
Clientele come from all over, with Czech, Slovakian and Lebanese tea-drinkers mixing with their Irish counterparts. Late opening times also ensure that the Tea Garden can provide an alternative to the bar bedlam that is a Friday or Saturday night. Monday to Thursday, the Tea Garden is open from 3pm with the last teas served at 11pm, while Friday, Saturday and Sunday opening time is at 1pm with last orders at 11pm, though customers are allowed to linger over their libations till well past this time. Mrs Doyle, eat your heart out. FMcC
Nikala: full belly for €15
“Voted Dublin’s best Georgian restaurant 2008,” boasts Nikala’s website, which isn’t much of an accolade considering that as far as the owners are aware, they may just be the only place in town serving food from this particular country in Caucasia. Established by two friends from Georgia who arrived in Ireland six years ago, Nikala is the brainchild of Michael Kandelaki and George Motsonelidze who saw a gap in the market and decided it was time to introduce their country’s cuisine to the Irish palate. The blend of Middle Eastern and European culinary traditions has created something unique in Georgian cuisine, making for a distinctive and delicious alternative to the various tried and tested options on the Irish restaurant circuit.
“Georgian cuisine is very famous in the former Soviet Union countries and eastern European countries,” Kandelaki assures, which was part of his impetus when he and his countryman opened their new restaurant on Talbot Street just over two years ago. “Because we’re from Georgia and the cuisine is different, so we wanted to try.”
In the restaurant, a wood-panelled dining room with red wine glasses and paper table cloths that come straight from your holiday restaurant in Croatia make for an authentically different experience, while the Celine Dion coming over the speakers (on days that live Georgian music is not on offer) and the mix of eastern European clientele are reminders that this is no fly-by-night fusion affair.
A mixed menu includes adjaruli – a freshly baked bread that comes with melted cheese and a raw egg to be whisked into the filling at the table, and consumed while still piping hot and scrumptious – as well as Russian blini (pancakes with caviar), kharcho (a rice and beef soup), chakapuli (lamb with scallions, tarragon and wine) and oraguli salmon.
However, superlatives are saved for the mouth-watering khinkali, peppered dumplings from the mountains of Georgia that are freshly prepared and must be ordered in advance. “You have to have somebody Georgian with you to watch how they eat dumplings, otherwise it could be messy!” cautions Kandelaki, who says true connoisseurs eat with their hands to preserve the all-important juices parcelled inside.
Though the menu changes constantly, the prices at Nikala remain resolutely recession-proof, with a full belly and beer guaranteed for less than €15, and even less if you opt for the dumplings. So how is business for the best – and possibly only – Georgian restaurant in town? "We're still open!" is Kandelaki's answer. Get there quickly to make sure it stays so. FMcC
Nikala, 74 Talbot Street, Dublin 1. Tel: 01-8363050
Red Space: the artists’ hub
Seven desk spaces, four studio spaces, a rehearsal room, an art gallery and a recording studio all go to make the 3,000 sq ft that is Red Space, a not-for-profit, artist-led initiative right in the heart of Dublin 1. Just over a year in the making, Red Space has gone from strength to strength since artists Jack Phelan and Erin Hermosa teamed up with Brian Solon and brought in Fiona Hallinan to turn a northside warehouse into an artistic endeavour, a space for experiment and collaboration.
Red Space is now home to the Joy Gallery downstairs, as well as four resident bands, a novelist, an illustrator, a media artist, a graphic artist, a pair of documentary film-makers, a web developer and a radio production company, to name just some of those who have become part of this growing collective. “We run the place as a club and everyone joins, with various subscription fees,” explains Phelan.
People who come in the graffiti-covered doors use the various spaces for projects myriad, leaving a contribution to the collective, with the option, if their cashflow is limited, of helping out instead by painting a wall or two.
Artists renting the upstairs desk or studio spaces pay for the privilege, though the payback comes with an opportunity to collaborate on any of the projects underway in this space. “We wanted to create something that would be open for people to come into, rather than a closed group,” explains Hermosa of the Red Space ethos. With this in mind, artists are giving 24-hour access to the building, which is almost always populated by an overnight or early-rising artist or two, given that inspiration can strike at any time.
There are also a number of events programmed for Red Space and the Joy Gallery, including a regular experimental jazz night, a poetry night, an exhibition of some of the installations from the forthcoming graduates of Trinity’s music and media technologies programme, a storytelling event as part of Dublin’s Fringe Festival, and a special Red Space event to coincide with Dublin’s Culture Night later this year.
For Phelan, the space is a hub of artistic endeavour that illustrates a growing creative culture in the city. “There’s a healthy surge of activity in new and alternative spaces around Dublin,” he says, adding that places such as Red Space, the Shed (a shared workshop space and venue off Bolton Street aimed at foreign artists resident in Ireland) and the Joinery (an experimental space in Stoneybatter consisting of a gallery, photo studio and various artist workspaces), have much to offer Dublin.
"Places like this, and the Shed and the Joinery can help the city." For Phelan, the space can also provide inspiration for other artists looking for ways to collaborate. "We'd suggest to people that they do it themselves." FMcC
www.redspace.cc
Funky Seomra: booze-free fun
The Funky Seomra – a drink- and drug-free club night – has been running in Dublin for six months. Held monthly on a Saturday, it has expanded far beyond the expectations of organiser David Mooney, who moved it to the RDS Concert Hall to make room for more than 300 punters. “It has been a huge success,” he says. “It’s obviously needed and wanted in Dublin.”
Mooney is aiming to provide what organisations such as the Pioneers’ Association do not: the adrenaline of a night on the town, without the heavy drinking. “It was something I really, really wanted,” he says, “and I realised that a lot of people want this, where it’s still a good night out – you’re not sacrificing any of the excitement, and you’ve got good music, and the whole vibe of going out on a Saturday night, without drink or drugs.”
Enter the Funky Seomra and you’ll find 200 or so people on the dancefloor, while others are lounging around the place. The music is hard – midnight-on-a-Saturday hard – and there isn’t a mojito in sight. The atmosphere is jolly, but wouldn’t many people feel that dancing only really becomes an option after a few drinks? “A lot of people might say they’d be inhibited from getting up dancing if they didn’t have a drink,” says Mooney, “but everyone’s in the same boat in the club. Everyone’s sober, and that kind of collective thing seems to work. A lot of the feedback I get is that people feel quite safe there. It’s very friendly.”
Part of that, he says, is to do with avoiding the cultural pressures that come with the club scene. “You have to dress a particular way, you have to dance a particular way. And if you dance in a way that’s out of the norm, you get looks. In the Funky Seomra, you’re free to dance however you want. And people kind of get that. There’s no dress code or anything. It’s more a place to just be yourself.”
Overall, the feeling is probably more wedding than club: it’s a party where nobody feels like they have to be cool. The dancefloor is populated by people of ages you’d never see in a club.
“If you’re looking for a cross-section of society in Dublin, come to the Funky Seomra,” says Mooney. “There are people from all walks of life.”
It has to be said, though, that the crowd has more than its fair share of dreadlocks and Thai-fisherman trousers. There is a certain New Age aspect to the proceedings – an impression which is borne out by the smoothies, the wholemeal flapjacks, and the chai teas available on the night. But my reservations are quelled by the pleasant atmosphere. While wandering around, I feel that people are looking at me. After a little while, I realise that people are simply looking at each other. It seems unusual after so many eyes-down evenings in the city.
“Romances are happening all right,” says Mooney. “I know of a few couples already, from the night. I think it’s because people feel comfortable. People were telling me that it’s easier to meet people there than it is in a nightclub where there’s lots of drink, because there aren’t these set ways of interacting – they just feel like they can be themselves.” Eccentrics aside, there seems no doubt that the Funky Seomra offers that rare thing: a real night out that’s dry as a bone. It might not have the community spirit or the longevity of the Pioneers, but pending their reinvention, it possibly has more sex appeal.
“It’s not necessarily an anti-drink or an anti-drug thing,” Mooney says, “it’s just good to have a choice.” In short, nobody is trying to take away your God-given right to bawl out Come On Eileen with 500 strangers at three in the morning – but if you don’t want to, there might be something else out there. MF
www.dancefree.ie