Shake it up, baby

Wassim Dakik had just completed a business degree in London when it came to him that what Dublin really needed was a dedicated milkshake emporium. A few weeks ago he opened Shakes at 15 College Green.

“People thought I was mad opening a business in a recession, but I couldn’t get a job and I didn’t want to go on benefits. It’s going well so far, there are queues out the door,” he says.

Shakes brings the milkshake to a new and sinful level. Dakik, whose father is Lebanese and mother is Irish, takes favourite chocolate bars, biscuits, cereals or sweets and blends them with ice-cream to create more than 100 different milkshake combinations.

When we visited, the place was packed with teenagers taking advantage of the 10 per cent student discount offered by a canny Dakik. In the interests of research we downed a shake made from a bar of Cadbury’s Whole Nut. Verdict: We’ll be back.