Mussels, oysters, chicken and chips, all served by a man dressed in the long, black habit of a Trappist monk (who turns out to be Hungarian Attla Juhasz). It does get one in the mood. Belgos Restaurant starts to hum. Bisi Adigun, co-presenter of the new RTE series, Mono, is here with his wife, Kate O'Flaherty, from Kiltimagh, Co Mayo. The two celebrate their first meeting - this day five years ago.
A smiling Lucy Jones Hazlett and her brother, Albert Odoemene, are present too. Even Gozie Offiah, a first-year med student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, puts her histology book along with thoughts of this week's exams back into her bag in order to party. Her father, Dr Linus Offiah, and his wife, teacher Meg Offiah, don't seem a bit alarmed.
All in attendance at the party are friends of Metro Eireann, a monthly multicultural newspaper, which was set up just over a year ago by two Nigerian journalists, Chinedu Onyejelem and Abel Ugba. The party follows a discussion of multiculturalism and the media - maybe a bell has rung somewhere, because the assembled gathering rushes like a group of schoolchildren to the party venue after the serious part of the evening concludes.
Roddy Doyle chats to Fintan O'Toole. Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner, by Doyle, which was first serialised in Metro Eireann, will be performed later this year at the Dublin Theatre Festival, he says. Also, young readers - especially in the eight-to-12 category - will be pleased to hear that a second children's book, Rover Saves Christmas, is due out in October.
With trailing dreadlocks, Ramadan Bettamer from Libya, is a rasta man ready to go jammin'. Siraj Zaidi, an independent television producer and organiser of the monthly Bollywood at the Irish Film Centre, also attends - he jets off to network and negotiate in Cannes. From Swinford in Co Mayo, Donncha O'Connell, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, is here too, getting in party mode as he hosts one next Wednesday to celebrate the ICCL's 25th birthday. More parties! We are gluttons for punishment.