The team behind Bastible in Dublin 8 are opening a second restaurant in the same neighbourhood next week. Clanbrassil House, at 6 Clanbrassil Street Upper, will open to the public on Tuesday, October 3rd, serving dinner Tuesday to Saturday (5-10pm).
Chef Barry FitzGerald and his partner Claremarie Thomas’s second venture in the capital will seat 25 for dinner, with plans to expand into an adjoining space and add a coffee and sandwich shop in early 2018.
“The restaurant is divided into two rooms, one with high tables suitable for walk-ins looking for a relaxed meal and the other with regular low tables available to book online. The style of the restaurant is quite casual but also warm and homely,” says FitzGerald, who describes the new addition as being “just a stones throw away from Bastible”, the restaurant he and Thomas opened in November 2015.
"The menu, too, is divided into two main sections: a list of simple and seasonal small plates and also a selection of main dishes cooked over a charcoal fire. The open barbecue is the focal point of the kitchen and we are excited to learn a new approach to cooking with it," says FitzGerald, who was head chef at the Harwood Arms gastropub in Fulham, London, before coming home to Ireland to be the launch chef at Etto on Merrion Row.
The cooked over charcoal section of the short menu at Clanbrassil House will include lamb chops, burnt onions and gentleman’s relish (€22); Middlewhite pig cheek sausage, lentils and mustard (€18); Shorthorn picanha steak, bone marrow and chimichurri (€21), and turbot shoulder, smoked hollandaise and cauliflower (€24), as well as a specials board.
"The wine list, curated by James Brooke who was previously head sommelier at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, will be very small and affordable, but will change quite frequently to keep things fresh and exciting. Wines will be bought by the 10 cases and when they are gone, we introduce the next 10 cases," FitzGerald says.
Grainne O'Keefe is head chef at Clanbrassil House, with Barry O'Neill as sous chef. O'Keefe has worked at Bastible and previously at Pichet, and is also involved in what she describes as a "fast casual pasta bar" on London's Tottenham Court Road , which she opened this year with her friend George Wells. This is her first head chef appointment.
“I will be working closely with the kitchen team on the menu development and during the opening weeks, but Grainne O’Keefe and Barry O’Neill will be responsible for the daily running of the kitchen. We are delighted to be working with such a talented duo such as these two,” Fitzgerald says.
