Fallon & Byrne: Gourmet Groceries, Lunch and Upscale Ambience
Thoroughly posh and reliably delicious, the shelves of Fallon & Byrne’s upscale food hall are the first place to look for exotic ingredients or a taste of a far-away home. A regular stop for city-center ingredient hunters, wine lovers and fine dining-connoisseurs, Fallon & Byrne’s ground-floor grocery is the hub of good eating at home in Dublin.
Built into the elegant bones of a former telephone exchange, the food hall boasts the best when it comes to cupboard-stocking. The clack of parquet floor tiles and the hum of conversation fills the hall’s single huge room to its high ceiling. Smells of fresh bread, ripe fruits, vegetables and herbs mingle with sweet pastries, coffee and hot, filling fare in the distracting first-aisle deli.
At its heart, the shop is a haven for foreign treats. Hard-to-find chipotle peppers hang beside curry powders. Italian pastas, olives and antipasti share the floor with specialty brands of peppers, relishes and more. For American visitors hungering for a taste of home, Fallon & Byrne also stocks breakfast cereals, crackers, cake and cookie mixes and more. Fallon & Byrne’s well-stocked meat counter offers excellent cuts, homemade sausages and burgers, as well as more unique selections, including saddles of rabbit, poussin and quail eggs. The chilled sea food just a few steps away is so fresh that the lobsters and crabs in the section’s large tank are swimming even as they’re selected for the table.
The cheese and charcuterie counters boast rare rounds of European artisan cheeses (Pasteurization advocates look away, EU laws don’t require cheese makers to heat-process their products) melt-in-the-mouth aged meats, plus a bounty of olives and antipasti - a perfect complement to shop’s wine selections and sure to make the bearer a future dinner-party favorite.
From informal lunches to weekly groceries, to the stars of a gourmet menu, Fallon & Byrne is the first stop and only choice for the best and freshest food in Dublin.
Posted on Mar 8, 2011 by Bridget Reilly
