This charming Enniskerry farmhouse with gorgeous grounds is on the market for €2.5 million
This charming Enniskerry farmhouse with gorgeous grounds is on the market for €2.5 million

Sarah Finnan

What to eat this weekend: Fish n’ courgette chips with homemade tartar sauce
What to eat this weekend: Fish n’ courgette chips with homemade tartar sauce

Meg Walker

How to quit the cycle of feeling bad from social media
How to quit the cycle of feeling bad from social media

Niamh Ennis

This spacious five-bedroom Cork City home is on the market for €1.1million
This spacious five-bedroom Cork City home is on the market for €1.1million

IMAGE

Lough Eske Castle: Five-star luxury meets laid-back leisure at this Donegal retreat
Lough Eske Castle: Five-star luxury meets laid-back leisure at this Donegal retreat

Sarah Gill

Tornant House: This extraordinary Wicklow home is on the market for €950,000
Tornant House: This extraordinary Wicklow home is on the market for €950,000

Sarah Gill

MOTHER co-founders Lisa Connell and Cormac Cashman on Cultúr Club 2024
MOTHER co-founders Lisa Connell and Cormac Cashman on Cultúr Club 2024

Sarah Gill

Supper Club: Smoked monkfish with Parma ham and rosemary
Supper Club: Smoked monkfish with Parma ham and rosemary

Meg Walker

With incredible coastal views, this future-proofed Howth home makes the most of its spectacular location
With incredible coastal views, this future-proofed Howth home makes the most of its spectacular location

Megan Burns

Birkenstock Bostons: How to style the fashion set’s favourite clogs
Birkenstock Bostons: How to style the fashion set’s favourite clogs

Sarah Finnan

Image / Editorial

This new Blackrock cafe would sit just as comfortably in Notting Hill


By Laura George
18th Sep 2018
This new Blackrock cafe would sit just as comfortably in Notting Hill

Compared to D6, D4 and Big Town, SoCoDu (South County Dublin) seems relatively starved of pretty, healthy cafes dedicated to serving breakfast bowls and avocado toast so Fable + Stey is very welcome, indeed. Brought to you by the energetic team behind Little Frieda’s, another gem of a place nestled (incredibly) behind Lidl in Deansgrange, everything about this newest venue is sunshine and light.

When we first visited, the actual sun poured into the all-glass frontage of F + S  (Newtown Park never looked so Scandi), so maybe that helped but so did the mood of the staff, the gorgeous decor and the food itself. Admittedly, we’re a sucker for anywhere with thistles in milk bottles and gleaming white marble counters.

The menu is very small, but variety comes from how you customise it, adding and subtracting proteins and extras to suit your whims. There’s also a daily special soup, which comes with tangy sourdough toast. Ours was a silky curried cauliflower sporting an artistic spiral of chilli oil and a lashing of fresh coriander leaves. Absolute perfection.

That would have been enough for most lunches but we wanted to try everything so we also gave every other savoury lunch option a go, save the Gubbeen toasties.  The chargrilled broccoli salad was dressed beautifully with Insta-ready, edible nasturtium flowers and a citrusy house vinaigrette that was applied with a light hand but still infused the tender stems with zing. Avocado toast was heaped high with properly ripe fruit, which is not always a given, and had a tasty sprinkling of toasted seeds. In retrospect, we probably should have shared one or the other but neither of us have any regrets about the piggery. Why would you when everything tastes so good?

All day breakfast looks just as compelling- overnight oats with rhubarb; homemade peanut butter and jam on sourdough; scramblers on brioche. Needless to say, we’ll be back very, very soon to test drive that, too.

F + S would sit just as comfortably in Notting Hill or Vesterbro, so we’re lucky to have it in Blackrock, just within shouting distance of IMAGE HQ. Grab a seat before the queues start…

https://www.littlefrieda.com

https://www.fableandstey.ie