In 2004, a Wisconsin woman named Alissa brought her Irish grandparents to visit Inis Oírr, the smallest of the Aran Islands. On that first trip, she met islander Micheál Donoghue. Twelve years later, and the pair are married with three children, and run a busy café together from the downstairs of their family house.
The house is known as Teach an Tea, home to Café Aran and Tea Rooms. Alissa, who worked in environmental education before she set eyes on Inis Oirr, set up the tea rooms in 2005. She took over the front room of the Donoghue family home, built in the 1800s, where Micheál had grown up.
Today, the café has taken over the entire downstairs of the house, where photographs of the Donoghue family hang on the walls, watching over the café.
As part of the contemporary cultural biennale Drop Everything that took over the island on the last weekend of May, I attended a talk with Micheál about how the islanders have been growing potatoes for centuries using seaweed to help fertilise their sandy, rocky soil.
The result is a floury spud that holds its shape, and it’s just one of the ingredients the Donoghues grow themselves to serve in the café. Written on a chalkboard in the café is that week’s harvest, which includes rhubarb, rainbow swiss chard, parsley, chives, and French sorrel. “Every year we get closer to being self-sufficient, but every year we get busier so it’s a bit of a moving target,” Alissa tells me.
Back in the café, the day’s specials include an Island Tart (€7), which features those super spuds alongside the Donoghue’s homegrown herb pesto, wrapped in a light filo pastry. Also dotted amongst the pesto and the spuds are dollops of Aran Goat Cheese, made by Gabriel and Orla Faherty on the nearby Inis Mór.
Other suppliers include the Friendly Farmer in Galway for the chicken in their traditional soup stew, known as Gran’s Chucnky Chicken Broth. Café Aran’s coffee is a Fairtrade blend from Café Direct, served at the table in individual French presses The practicalities of having a coffee machine on the island have deterred Alissa from going down the frothy coffee route.
What if it broke down or she needed it serviced? French press results in a decent standard of coffee that’s easily maintained by the team at Café Aran. It could be improved by using a more interesting bean from an Irish specialty roaster, though that would have an impact on the cost, which is currently €2 for a pot of coffee.
In the impressively extensive baked good section, there are freshly baked scones with homemade blackberry jam (€2.50), brownies (€2) and coffee cake (€3) on offer. I go for the rhubarb and almond slice (€3), and it’s a thick slab of light cake, topped with sweet, sweet rhubarb, perfect for stowing away for sustenance on an island bike ride.
Also on the daily special’s board is freshly caught mackerel, pan-fried whole so that its skin takes on a delicious crispiness while its rich, oily flesh remains moist. It’s served simply with some good coleslaw, excellent potato salad and some beautiful mixed-salad greens from the Donoghue’s garden.
Also on the mackerel plate (€8) are thick slices of brown bread, which Alissa bakes using her mother-in-law’s recipe, whose name was Mary Donoghue. Mary’s bread is light in colour, and springy rather than crumbly. It has many guest appearances on the regular menu, used as the base for a selection of open sandwiches. The Hens’ Egg Salad open sandwich (€7) looks particularly good, especially as the Donoghues own the hens which supply the eggs. You can’t get more local than that. Café Aran is open from Easter to September/October.
