Walking down Meath St has the effect of time travel. The Liberty Market, the independent butchers and grocers, and the street stalls selling biscuits and sundry, are reminiscent of a Dublin in the old days. And by old days, I’m thinking of the early 1990s. I live nearby and I love this street. I’m always struck by the sense of community, whether it’s the people shouting hellos across the road, or the big crowds surrounding St Catherine’s Church when there’s a local wedding being celebrated.
LEGIT opened here in December of 2015, bringing specialty craft coffee to Meath St. Though it is very different from its neighbours, it has settled in well. I sit and work at LEGIT’s communal table (complete with well-placed plug sockets) for a couple of hours, looking up to enjoy the view of the street through the wall to floor windows. Often, artists from nearby studios call in for a chat with the staff, while local mums manueuvre their prams around the wooden furniture to sit down the back of the café for tea and chats.
The proprietor is Daniel Vossion, a Frenchman who moved to Dublin in the noughties to work in the tech sector. Last year, he took the leap and pursued his dream of opening a coffee shop. The space used to be a butcher’s, evident by the leftover black hooks on the ceiling. Vossion has transformed the interior with his own hands, making the smaller coffee tables by sticking hacked Ikea stationary supplies onto stools to charming effect. He tells me that LEGIT has been even more warmly welcomed into the neighbourhood than he was expecting, and he has received a lot of support from the other business owners on the street.
I have a crushed avocado, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich (€5.50) on delicious rye bread, supplied by the Arun Bakery, which bakes its bread in nearby Smithfield. There are other sandwiches on offer, but it’s LEGIT’s homemade sausage rolls that are currently garnering the most attention for this new space. I scoff a pork and emmental sausage roll (a bargain at €3), and marvel at the lightness of its pastry casing and the balance of flavours in its hefty filling. Vossion is a keen baker and is making most of the sweet treats, celebrating his roots with his homemade madeleines and almond galettes, which he sells alongside local treats such as cookies by The Dublin Cookie Co.
Coffee is supplied by Baobab Coffee Roasters in Celbridge, who specialize in single origin beans as opposed to blends, and it’s perfectly brewed by LEGIT’s barista, who I recognise from her previous posts at coffeeangel and Lilliput Store; not a bad resume.
Tea leaves are from Wall & Keogh, and tea is €2, americanos are €2.50 and hot chocolates are 3. There is free WiFi, and their playlist included tUnE-yArDs and The XX. Go say hello from 7.30am to 5pm on weekdays and 9.30am to 5pm on Saturdays. And pop across the road for a gander at The Liberty Market while you’re there, for a taste of a Dublin that has faded from other parts of the city.
