Avoca: Fashion and food perfection in Rathcoole
The original business may have been textiles, but today Avoca Handweavers are Ireland's chic lifestyle empire, combining popular cookbooks, women's fashion and home decor. With the company's original headquarters in distant Wicklow, and a small but perfectly formed outpost in Dublin's city centre, visitors get the full Avoca experience at the company's landmark Rathcoole location.
In this purpose-built facility the lifestyle brand comes into its own, with bakery, wine and cheese shoppe, Birdcage Cafe and the casually elegant Egg Restaurant. At Egg, lunch becomes an occasion as Avoca chefs serve up new classics using the very best ingredients. Filling lamb stews, rich pates and plates of Avoca's famously fresh breads are just the beginning. The beef burger (€14.95), paired with seriously crispy thick-cut fries, is a comfort food must.
For cool sips on a cool summer day, the restaurant offers a refreshing raspberry and rose water presse (€6.95), served in a sweating jug with fresh berries, lemon and lime. Well chosen wines average about €30 a bottle, with soft drinks sold by the glass starting at €2.50.
Diners hungry for a childhood favorite with a grown up twist will savor Avoca's Mac & Cheese reboot for €13.95, featuring salty ham lardons and Romano cheese, gilded with a few drops of white truffle oil and paired with garlic foccacia. The Egg's dessert menu keeps the goodness going, with key lime pie (garnished with a few tooth-achingly-sweet candied lemon peels) and whipped cream for €6.50, or a deeply chocolaty tort (€6.50) paired perfectly with a creamy peanut ganache that simply cannot be shared.
HelloDublin tip: Diners at Egg aren't required to be timely, as reservations aren't required. However, those hungry for a delicious lunch as well as a few good buys should allow at least an hour for a tool around the shop.
Posted by Bridget Reilly
