The Seafood Café, Temple Bar review — a Chappell Roan-laced fish spot
We had never eaten a single oyster until we met Niall Sabongi. Home for Christmas while living in London ten years ago, we had heard about this tiny hatch on Crown Alley serving flamed oysters and chowder in old tin cans. It didn't sound like the Dublin we knew at all.
Squeezing into the Sylvanian Families-sized, crab shack-styled nano-restaurant, and setting ourselves upon a few rickety bar-stools in earshot of the galley kitchen, this felt like Amsterdam, Berlin or Copenhagen, not ground zero of Dublin's tourist trap, Temple Bar.
It was the ebullient Sabongi himself — whom we described before as the enfant terribleof Irish seafood, and where is the lie? — who
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It's nearly come full circle': Charlestown proud of Gallagher connection as Oasis come to Ireland
Emigration ripped the heart out of Charlestown: generations of young people took the boat to England and left behind derelict homes and shuttered shops, a hollowing chronicled in a landmark 1968 book, The Death of an Irish Town. Some returned to this corner of County Mayo for summer holidays – with children who were growing up with English accents and city ways – before vanishing back across the Irish Sea and leaving Charlestown to its decay. For those who stayed, this melancholy history may be a reason to look back in anger, but this week at least brings a measure of consolation – and pride – in the form of Oasis. Liam and Noel Gallagher will perform in Dublin this weekend and in the process are expected to remind Ireland, and global fans, that they are part of the Irish diaspora and that Charlestown is akin to a spiritual home. 'We're very, very proud of our association with the boys,' said John Casey, a renowned Gaelic footballer and resident who has befriended the Gallagher brothers. 'They were frequent visitors here before and after fame found its way with them.' The musicians were born in and grew up in Manchester but their mother, Peggy, used to drag them 'by the ear' to spend summer holidays with her relatives in Mayo, Noel recalled in a 1996 RTÉ interview. 'We had never seen the likes of nettles, fields and stacks of hay and all that, so she was determined to give us a bit of Irish culture, and it was a bit of a culture shock but we grew to love it and we still do.' According to lore, the young visitors assured sceptical locals that one day they would be famous. After becoming emblems of Cool Britannia in the mid-1990s they continued to visit their grandmother Margaret Sweeney, until she died in 2000, to socialise in pubs and, in the case of Liam, go for runs and hikes, including up Croagh Patrick, a Catholic pilgrimage site. 'It was cloudy, we couldn't see much, but he loved it,' said Casey, who accompanied the singer up the peak. When either brother entered a pub, word sometimes spread and drew busloads of fans from around the area, said Casey. 'It was my first experience of craziness. But mostly we tried to let them be, to not let them be bugged or bothered.' Charlestown mourned when Oasis broke up in 2009 and it celebrated last year's announcement of a reunion tour, which moves to Dublin's Croke Park stadium this Saturday and Sunday. 'There were a lot of relieved human beings around here when we heard they were rekindling things,' Casey said. Over the years the Gallaghers were photographed in pubs, and somebody uploaded a video of Liam joining a traditional music session at his local, JJ Finan's, but what won over the locals was a low-key normality at odds with the brothers' hell-raising image in England. 'There was no guitar-smashing and they always made time to chat to staff,' said Donal Healy, a marketing manager for Ireland West airport, also known as Knock, just outside Charlestown. Healy's journalist uncle John Healy wrote the book The Death of an Irish Town, also known as No One Shouted Stop!, that chronicled his native town's calamitous decline. That decline was part of a wider phenomenon across rural Ireland, but the local and national population has rebounded since the economy took off in the mid-1990s. The title paraphrases an interviewee in the book who said that no part of Irish society stood up to say that mass emigration was not inevitable. The poverty of the 1960s that drove a teenage Peggy Sweeney to seek work in Manchester – where she married another Irish emigrant, Tommy Gallagher – is no more, said Donal Healy. 'For Charlestown it's nearly come full circle, the fact that we have this connection with the family. We're in the news for the right reason.' Excitement is growing as the concerts approach. Radio stations fill their airwaves with Oasis songs and speculation about whether the brothers will make a surprise visit to the town. A football team sang Oasis hits in the town square and a cafe put 'Oasis soup' on the menu with the tagline 'you get a roll with it' – a reference to their 1995 hit. 'People are coming to the town just because of the connection,' said Karena Finn, who showed a photograph of Liam with his son during a visit to her family's pub, Johnny's Bar, several years ago. A customer named Anne, an emigrant back in Ireland on holiday, lauded the Gallaghers for nourishing their ties to Ireland. 'For all the faults they might have,' she said, 'they never forgot their roots.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Chili's is back, thanks to its viral mozzarella sticks: Once-flailing chain is building new restaurants again
Chili's is good now, apparently! Not that Chili's was ever bad. The restaurant enjoyed — or perhaps was burdened with — the image of a reliable, though not remarkable, casual dining spot. Good in a pinch, but not necessarily an outing you'd mark on a calendar. Now, the restaurant chain is reportedly on the rise, thanks largely due to huge dollars poured into its marketing budget, viral sucess and the simplification of its menu. It topped its revenue and profit estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter, according to Kevin Hochman, the CEO of its parent company, Brinker. He made the comments during an earnings call on Wednesday, Business Insider reports. "Chili's is officially back, baby back," Hochman said, throwing back to the ever-present "baby back ribs" commercials of the mid-to-late 1990's. Hochman said the chain's recent successes — its comparable restaurant sales grew by 24 percent, which was two percent over analyst's expectations, and Brinker's overall revenue hit $1.46 billion — are thanks in part to a revamped menu that focuses on fewer, better offerings that still keep in line with the brand's imaging. He noted that the return of the chain's famous ribs was a win with customers. "Customers are raving about the look, the size, and the taste of the ribs," Hochman said. "It's clear we have a winning product with our new ribs, and our intent now is to use them to drive traffic." Brinker has only been steering the Chili's ship for three years, and it appears its marketing strategies are paying off. The restaurant went viral on TikTok thanks to videos showing off the stretchiness of its new mozzarella sticks. The videos pulled in more than 200 million views on the platform. The restaurants' "Triple Dipper" appetizer platter — which includes the cheese sticks — has become the hot item to have for the Chili's converts and faithful. Chili's recent successes are such that the chain is looking to open new locations and revamp old ones — starting with a quartet of Dallas storefronts — to align with its new image, according to Bloomberg. 'I can't tell you how much of a surprise Chili's performance has been within the industry,' Jonathan Maze, the editor-in-chief of Restaurant Magazine, told Slate. He said the chain's turnaround was "shocking." Hochman isn't necessarily surprised as he knows how much money went into the marketing revamp; according to the CEO, Chili's marketing budget was boosted from $32 million in FY 2022 to $137 million in 2025. "We are a much different Chili's today than we were three years ago," Hochman said.
BreakingNews.ie
5 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Woman who was given pound by Noel Gallagher when she was young 'buzzing' for Oasis gig
A professional make-up artist who recalled being given a pound by Oasis when she was a young girl said she was 'buzzing' after securing last-minute tickets for the concert. Dawn Finnegan met the brothers when she was six years old and the Gallagher brothers were visiting their aunt in Drogheda, Co Louth at the height of their Wonderwall smash hit. Advertisement She was out playing tennis on the green with her friend in the Ballsgrove Estate in Drogheda when a big black car pulled up at one of the houses and two men got out. "I remember thinking it must be someone important so we ran over and my friend said the men were the ones who sang Wonderwall." It turns out it was Liam and Noel Gallagher. "They turned to us and one of them said in a real UK accent, 'alright trouble. what's happening?' Advertisement "I said are you the men who sing Wonderwall? And they said 'yeah, why do you like the song?' and we both said yes and that we sang it all the time. "So Noel told us to put out our hands and they fished in their pockets and pulled out one pound for each of us. Then they walked into the house, which was their aunts. "I remember one was wearing a denim jacket and one was wearing a black leather jacket but I really remember their hair and the 90s bowl cut. It was about 1996 I'd say." Dawn Finnegan met the brothers when she was six years old, Dawn said she and her friend ran down to the shop and bought "a truck load" of sweets and then went back home to tell her gran what happened. Advertisement At that stage, people had realised who was in the estate and a crowd was starting to form around the house. Dawn has been a big fan of Oasis ever since but didn't think she would get a ticket for this weekend's concert until she was offered some on Thursday. "I absolutely love them. I think their songs just remind me of my childhood when everything was just simple and so much fun. "I am buzzing! I am genuinely the happiest girl in the world right now. I have been manifesting this for the past year and today it all worked out. Advertisement "The community of people, I have here on social media, you are all absolute angels of the earth." Ireland Oasis in Croke Park: All you need to know for the... Read More Dawn was "buzzing" after getting tickets for the concert. The Gallagher brothers aren't the only celebrities who Dawn has come across as in recent months, Love Island's Ekin Su was seen wearing Dawn L.A.'s own brand of Bombshell Eyelashes "I sent out a PR pack to a fabulous make-up artist in the UK called Zoe James and she was so delighted with the quality of my eyelashes that she said she would use them on the next celebrity she was using make up on. "A few days later, she tagged me in a post and there was Ekin Su wearing my eyelashes. I couldn't believe it. I was thrilled."
