A SHORT stretch of the Liffey ought to be renamed the Tiber now that a new Italian restaurant called Trastevere has arrived on Temple Bar Square. This latest addition to the area's eateries is a new venture by Giovanni Cafolla, whose family has had many years' experience in the business. So it's no surprise that even before officially opening, the place was already attracting punters. Obviously word had leaked out that Cafolla ice cream, unavailable for many years after the family closed down its outlets on O'Connell Street, could be sampled once more.
On Thursday evening, Mr Cafolla and his brother Philip, who is also working at Trastevere, invited a few friends around to sample their menu in advance of any paying guests. However, the restaurant looked so: enticing that it quickly filled up with hungry folk happy to be charged for their food.
Among those who had been expected were the Cafollas' sister in law Cindy with her parents John and Yvonne Gernon; Jean Crowley, whose many admirers will be delighted to learn that she's planning to return to the nightclub circuit shortly; fellow restaurateur Joe Grey; and Ian and Sharon Donnelly. Additional tables were quickly snapped up by Ali Hewson with a group of friends, also RTE's John Masterson and optician Donald McNally Jr.
After dinner, a small number of these revellers adjourned to the River Club nearby where Mick Hucknall and members of the Simply Red crew were holding a party to mark the conclusion of their current tour. The highly selective guestlist here included Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, A.Wear's Deirdre Kelly, the irresistibly sociable Virginia Fortune and band manager Dave Kavanagh, who next week celebrates his 40th birthday. With Stockton's Wing playing for the crowd, it transpired that there were additional reasons for celebration; concert promoter Denis Desmond, responsible for Simply Red's dates here, heard that the consortium in which he has a stake had secured the new national radio licence.