I use my chopsticks to slice through crisp tempura batter revealing silky tofu and then dip it in smoked garlic and wasabi sauce. The piece of slate in front of me also carries umami packed pickled mushrooms, garlic and soy grilled aubergine and tempura courgette. Yet I’m sitting in Hobart’s of Ranelagh, the scene of a million hangover-busting fry-ups since 1999.
Since April, chefs Brian McCarthy and William Toft have taken over the space on Friday and Saturday nights, serving a monthly themed meal under the Salt Lick banner. “We have been friends since we both studied Culinary Arts in Cathal Brugha Street,” Brian tells us. “We had always toyed with the idea of subletting a premises that closed during restaurant hours. We decided we would find the location and then let constraints of our circumstances become the catalyst for creative and interesting ideas.”
Their friend David Kee on their creative branding and online messaging, and Rob mixing the drinks. Girlfriends Sarah and Julie help with flowers and sundry errands. But it’s Brian and William who design the menus, take bookings, come up with new ideas, order the ingredients and actually prepare the food in between their regular full-time jobs. Their theme this month is Japan. It’s €25 for two courses and €30 for three.
After our starter Izakaya plates of tempura treats – a non-vegetarian version includes Karaage (chicken tempura) – we’re delivered bowls of steaming, comforting ramen. The shredded pork shoulder ramen comes with smooth noodles, divinely poached egg, a sheet of nori, spring onions and a slice of that magic fish cake that you always see in Miyazaki animations. Its broth is teeming with meatiness yet it’s extremely fresh and light. The vegetarian miso ramen is less successful, because the broth doesn’t hold the same depth of flavour. The accompanying fries are doused in Karashi, a kind of Japanese mustard used for seasoning. It’s kind of like the saltiest salt you’ve ever experienced. It’s madly tasty but it does get overpowering so we struggle to finish.
For dessert, I have a beautifully chilled rice pudding with delicately thin slices of sesame snap. A lemon sake posset is soupy rather than set which is a shame as the taste is bang on and the peanut brittle it comes with is fab. We order coffees and are delivered a well-brewed French press that feels intimidatingly enormous after our meal. This is the only real reminder that Salt Lick are just borrowing the premises (and its limitations) for the night.
Without a drinks license, Salt Lick meet their patrons in the middle by working together to create brilliant cocktails, which they refer to as BYOC. You bring the spirits, they’ll provide a clever mixer. On our night, it was a pink grapefruit and lychee punch (€7 for a caraffe – plenty for two people to share) that tasted as great on its own as it would with vodka or gin.
What’s next on the menu? That’s a secret! Salt Lick reveal their menus on Twitter and Facebook. And what’s next for McCarthy and Toft? “Our future plans are ever changing, but we’ll focus on doing Salt Lick well for as long as it remains interesting to us and our customers.”
Salt Lick Dublin
Hobart’s of Ranelagh
Ranelagh Road
Dublin 6
085 – 1027273
http://saltlickdublin.tumblr.com/
@saltlickdublin
Words: Aoife McElwain / Photos: Mark Duggan
