`At last, somewhere good to eat in Rathmines," said my companion, with the sense of relief that only a resident of that area on Dublin's south side could muster.
We were just finishing the delicious remains of a bottle of Mendoza Malbec, at the end of a fine dinner in Carmines, Alan O'Reilly's smart new first-floor venture in the Charleville Hotel on the main strip of the village, and praising the foresight of this smart restaurateur for bringing such a nifty, accessible idea as Carmines to this culinarily benighted place. For the closest Rathmines folk get to a good restaurant is Dunville Place (locally so prized that its nickname is "Dunville Palace") but as the palace is at the lower end of Dunville Avenue, I reckon it properly belongs to Ranelagh. Otherwise, this is a Vegas of late-night fastfood joints, with only the Zen Chinese restaurant offering anything half-decent.
But with Carmines, O'Reilly has opened a restaurant which has pitched its cap perfectly for the locals, both the transient student classes and well-heeled local couples and families. This curious population has probably deterred many good restaurateurs from opening here, for it is difficult to satisfy an audience as diverse as Rathmines's. O'Reilly, though, is as shrewd an operator as you will find in Ireland, and he seems to have read his market with admirable skill.
He is best known for Morels restaurant in Glasthule, where he created an enormous success, after deciding on a complete change of style from his expensive Blackrock restaurant, Clarets. Morels became Dublin's first suburban super-bistro, quickly spawned a sister bistro on Leeson Street in the city, and selling the Glasthule operation has given O'Reilly the chance to open Carmines.
His menu is a brilliant snaphot of accessible, flavourful modern cooking, and while you could look at the funkily gaudy big menu and imagine that you are in any Rathmines diner, teasing out the influences which have shaped the menu shows just how clever it is.
The appetisers include a Boston chowder styled after New York's Union Square Cafe. The spicy buffalo wings with Caesar dressing surely owe much to another New York institution, the venerable Dean & DeLucca delicatessen. The meat and poultry dishes are also Stateside-influenced: Ground Beef Hamburger with Swiss Cheese, Mushrooms and New York Fries is one; and Peppered Fillet with Arugula Salad even borrows the American name for rocket.
The other menu sections - pastas, and pizzas and calzones - show a chef who has gone for the great classics of the genre and then augmented them with modern touches. They offer both pizza Margherita and pizza Neapolitan, for example, as well as calzone with spiced chicken and chillies, and while you can have penne with bacon, cream and garlic, you can also order mushroom tortellini with truffle oil and Parmesan.
In tribute to Dean & DeLucca, I ordered the buffalo wings, while my companion proved her local devotion by ordering Portobello mushroom caps with garlic, fresh thyme and basil. Both dishes were extremely generous, and dancing with that zippy flavour-fulness which is the modern O'Reilly trademark. The wings were arranged around the edge of a large plate with the caesar salad occupying the centre, and the caps were served with a slice of grilled baguette.
You can't argue with food like this: it is simple, logical, and delicious, and you could eat it any night of the week whether you were aged six or 60. With the starters we drank a bottle of my colleague Mary Dowey's favourite quaffer, the brilliant Spanish white, Con Class Especial, and believe me, we were in some sort of culinary heaven.
We were both keen to see what sort of a fist Carmines would make of its pizzas, and ordered a pizza Margherita, the classic which uses tomato, mozzarella, Parmesan and basil oil, and the rocket, goat's cheese and black olive pizza. Both were very good indeed, the flavours both measured and balanced. What is interesting here is that O'Reilly has gone for a thin, crispy pizza base, which is the correct way to make a proper pizza. As well as being much better to eat, because it is so much lighter, such a thin base shows off the pizza toppings to much greater effect, as both our pizzas demonstrated. Once again this was simple, delicious cooking.
But pizza is the enemy of puddings, and so we shall have to wait for a return visit to try the sweet things in Carmines.
The room is a clever compromise between various styles, and while it has a much busier design than the sort of spaces which O'Reilly created in Morels - there is a bar and curved banquettes as well as tables and a couple of silent television screens bleating away to no effect that I could see - it pulls its diverse elements together quite well. I have to admit to a personal weakness for the art work, which is a multitude of photographic stills of the many women who featured in the late Frederico Fellini's movies.
Service was just right, prices for both food and the small, choice selection of wines are very keen, and here, at last, is someplace good to eat in Rathmines.
Carmines, Charleville Hotel, Rathmines, Dublin 6, tel: 01 4968046