A cafe, and a museum, that are worth visiting, writes TOM DOORLEY
I HAVE A particular fondness for Waterford, the oldest city in Ireland and the urbs intacta. The latter phrase refers to the steadfastness of the people of the city. Pulling the wool over the eyes of Waterford folk is not easily done, as Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel found. Henry VII, a true gangster if ever there was one, granted Waterford the Latin title which means “the untaken city”.
Anyway, if this kind of thing interests you – and the odd thing is that it interests me more now than when I was a student of medieval history – a visit to the Waterford Treasures Museum is a good way to while away a rainy day.
And so, when I had exhausted the attractions of the museum, I headed into the Granary Cafe. I tend not to head into cafes lightly. I generally need to be forced (or at least advised by a kindly reader of this column who has found somewhere really good). I suppose I have been disappointed too many times.
I think we all know what I’m getting at. Those “muffins” in flow-wrap plastic (how did these things ever come to be called muffins?); the plastic ham glistening moistly, its shiny surface reflecting light in the way that oil does; the industrial tea bags, the coleslaw out of a tub; the breathtakingly inappropriate hot dishes which have been sweltering in their bains maries for hours on end; the bizarre texture of the mashed potato which you never find anywhere else; the vastly overpriced soft drinks; the cappuccino that would barely pass muster as a latte.
If you happen to be planning a day out to some attraction that comes with a cafe, my advice is to bring a picnic. It’s a great deal cheaper, you get what you want and children prefer this to virtually any other form of dining. How long is it since you made a Scotch egg? Yeah, me too. Anyway, it’s better than muffins and plastic ham.
On the other hand, if you happen to be going to the Waterford Treasures Museum, you could do a lot worse than to grab a bite in the Granary Cafe. For a start, it’s a lovely, bright room and it has utterly charming staff who press coffee refills on customers in a friendly fashion.
The food is not bad. There are good cakes and tarts, of a home-made sort, the scones are first rate and the coffee is fine.
I had a rather strange, but not unattractive, soup of onion and potato which was creamier than is probably advisable. And thicker, too. But it was no hardship to eat and the slab of brown soda bread that came with it was the business.
And then there was the “Granary pizza” which is a fair and accurate description because this kind of pizza is certainly not found in Naples. But it was very tasty as Irish pizza goes: a reasonable dough base, a topping of tomato and chopped ham with mozzarella and red cheddar. Authentically Hibernian, it filled a gap for me.
Salads were adventurous. I’m not sure that red cabbage and apple is a great combination in raw form, even if very thinly sliced. Not even the accompanying sultanas could cheer it up for me. I generally loathe raw peppers, but the very finely sliced ones that came with beansprouts and a sharp dressing made a fine, crunchy contrast to my rather limp but pleasant “pizza”.
With a mini-bottle of red wine, this trayful of cafe fare came to €19, which struck me as being a little steep considering the times we live in. But there’s no faulting this place as a friendly pit-stop with some good baking. tdoorley@irishtimes.com
Read Megabites, Tom Doorley’s blog, at irishtimes.com/blogs/megabites