Holiday weather makes us want to head off to the seaside and the resort town, like right now. And when we head off, of course, we always want to find something like that simple little place you stumbled upon years ago, somewhere in France or Spain or Italy, someplace where they just grilled some fish, opened some cool white wine, offered some decent bread, and you suddenly found yourself having the lunch of a lifetime.
Well, when I first walked into the new Kinsale Gourmet store, which has moved up to a bigger premises in the Guardwell and has added a simple seafood bar, I reckoned that Martin and Marie Shanahan had set out to create just such a space. The sun streamed in the windows onto plain tables, and the bright yellow and blue colours of the little room were vivid and fun. The fish dishes of the day were chalked on a blackboard - tiger prawns with smoked bacon and chickpeas; six crevettes with salad; john dory with a basil dressing; penne with seafood. The wine rested beside the tables in a chiller, and I would defy anyone not to want to sit down, open a bottle, and ask for some seafood.
But, in fact, it turns out that the Shanahans had no Continental prototype for their shop and seafood bar. "We've been married almost 30 years, and every year he says he will take me to the south of France, but it hasn't happened yet," said Martina. It probably hasn't happened because Martin works so hard. "I was driving through Clonakilty at five this morning with the fish," he said, and certainly the wet fish counter in the Gourmet Store was fabulous, with banks of gleaming fresh fish and shellfish arranged alongside lots of interesting food-to-go.
"I got fed up sending people who wanted to eat fresh fish to other places in town, so I decided to have a seafood bar with the shop when we moved," said Martin, who trained as a chef.
"Our food is very simple, but people seem to like it". They sure do: the day before I visited they had done 60 covers for lunch, an amazing figure for so early in the season. I think this is a valuable addition to Kinsale, a town currently undergoing changes - Max's Wine Bar has just changed hands and The Blue Haven is on the market, and I suspect The Gourmet Store is in for a busy summer.
Kinsale Gourmet Store & Seafood Bar, Guardwell, Kinsale, Co Cork. Tel (021) 774453. Seafood bar open 11.30 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. each day, later hours in high season.