Nearly ten years ago, Chef Paul McNerney was seeing a girl that lived on Bath Avenue. When he went to visit her, a vacant café on the corner of Bath Avenue near Grand Canal Street kept catching his eye. His brother Barry, who was having a miserable time as a stockbroker, was only too happy to jump ship and work with his brother to open Junior’s Deli & Café on the July 4th 2008. And what of the girl Paul was seeing? She became his wife.
The brothers wanted to give people options by serving clever but approachable food in a relaxed atmosphere because, when they opened, it wasn’t easy to eat out well in Dublin without breaking the bank. Apart from a smattering of places, such as Jo’Burger, there was still a baffling gap in the casual dining market. Things have improved since then and thankfully eating out well is an easier task now. “The standards have come up since we opened in 2008,” Barry McNerney tells me. “Now you’ll find the food is as good as anywhere in Europe. We’ve played our part as much as everybody else in bringing up that standard.”
Junior’s Deli & Café went so well for the brothers (they currently do around 350 sandwiches a day and always seem be full for dinner) that they opened Paulie’s Pizza just around the corner on Grand Canal Street in 2010. Together they work with Head Chef Roberto Govoni and his sous-chef Maurizio Bizzi to whack out a menu that boasts over 15 pizzas (including the daily specials) as well as plenty of antipasta and pasta.
Paulie’s is set over two floors, with the downstairs room a bustling hub of activity with a great view of the open kitchen while the upstairs has its own micro-buzz of chatter and cocktail shaking. We share a generous portion of tomato bruschetta (€7 and there’s plenty for two) that arrives marinated in oil, vinegar and herbs and sits on top of thick slices of sourdough made in-house. It’s everything you want in a bruschetta; fresh and unfussy.
The pizza menu is divided into House Creations, New York style and Napoli inspired. The Junior’s Pizza (€15), is their usual enormous, beautifully blistered pizza base covered in a butternut squash purée, pancetta and three types of cheese. The butternut squash purée is a little too sweet for me but luckily I ordered a delicious bowl of paccheri pasta with mussels, ‘nduja (a spicy Italian sausage paste that may well prove to be the new chorizo) and cherry tomatoes (€16). It proves that the pasta dishes on offer aren’t just an afterthought.
Dessert is a shared slice of tiramisu, which is a little bitter and I would have preferred a touch more sugar in the coffee component of this classic dessert. Our bill, which also included a refreshing Cucumber Gin Fizz (€8.50), a non-alcoholic Strawberry cocktail (€5) and two well-made Italian style macchiatos (€2.50 each), comes to €65 even.
As well as changes to Dublin’s eating opportunities, it’s interesting to note how the area around Bath Avenue has changed in the last decade. The brothers didn’t know Google and Facebook would become such hungry neighbours for them. There was probably a bit of luck in them finding a spot for Paulie’s so close to Junior’s but it’s a move that has really emphasised their contribution to the community at this particular Dublin crossroad. Between the McNerney brothers and Slattery’s Bar, Bath Avenue is buzzing.
And the brothers have more to contribute with the arrival of their gastropub The Old Spot this September. They’ve moved into what was The Landsdowne Bar on Bath Avenue, just down the road from Junior’s. They’re excited about sharing that enthusiasm for affordable and creative food in a new setting, giving us Dubliners even more choice for places to eat.
Paulie’s Pizza
58 Upper Grand Canal Street, Dublin 4
t: 01-6643658
Words: Aoife McElwain / Photography: Mark Duggan
