By Colette Fitzpatrick
New year, new favourite eatery.
As Editor of Bean, I debated about content to mark the new year but everything about resolutions and whether to make them or not seemed so dang tired and trite. I attempted a few drafts before abandoning them and continuing my hibernation before real life was set to start again for me today (i.e. my return to my big girl job). Then, yesterday, I sank my teeth into brunch, the clouds cleared, light shone down on me and all was clear: the new year with Bean needed to be kicked off with a Tasty Bean and my new favourite hang, Storyboard.
What?
Storyboard is a café in the Kilmainham area that was opened in 2017 and, therefore, isn’t new but was new to me. A quick google immediately unearths pretty glowing reviews all around with The Irish Times’ Catherine Cleary saying of it, “This is the best cafe food I’ve eaten in Ireland.”
It is a perfect spot to grab lunch, brunch or a coffee and a treat for those spending a day wandering the gaol or IMMA and grabbing some groceries in the Dublin Co-op and is a delightfully chic and minimalist little joint on the ground floor of a new apartment building in Islandbridge.
Where?
Camden Block, Islandbridge, Clancy Quay, Dublin 8
When?
Mon-Fri 7.30am to 4pm
Sat & Sun 10am to 4.30pm
How?
It’s just after 3pm on a mild (but relatively cool) January afternoon and a couple are sitting at a table outside. When I step inside, I can see that the less than ten tables are all full. Clearly, the two outside were not going to wait. A group of three in front of me hold menus and anxiously wait to be seated. I hate queuing with an inordinately burning passion but I’ve made the trek to Kilmainham and don’t want to have to google an alternative. I request a menu as I, too, wait. Luckily, it’s not long before several tables leave at once and I sit down, knowing I’m going to order the scrambled eggs on sourdough toast. I’m a bit disappointed in myself for being so safe but I’m starving and need to actually eat something and not pick at an adventurous but ill-informed choice.
When the food arrives, I genuinely pause in shock at the first bite and grab my notebook to put the thoughts to paper. This is not your regular scrambled eggs and toast. A wonderfully fluffy concoction of plentiful parmesan and melt-in-the-mouth eggs, tangy on the tip of the tongue from the sourcream and chives over top, robust and hearty afterwards, served on the perfect sourdough: crisp crusts but not so hard you have to battle it, porous and soft at the centre, solid enough to carry the weight of the ingredients on top. I forgive my “safe choice” as I scrape the plate clean and savour every delicious bite. It is sinfully good and a long time since an eatery knocked my socks off so thoroughly.
The short menu is full of such dishes; familiar at a glance but so much more in reality. Things are reinvented and made truly tasty with little twists.
Final thoughts?
While I wasn’t blown away by the service, overall, two especially sweet staff members and the impossibly satisfying food more than made up for it. I could taste my eggs all day afterwards, which may be over-sharing and not necessarily a selling point for some, but I would gladly have to keep a distance from other humans for the rest of the day in order to consume such a delightful brunch again. Cannot wait to return.
For more Tasty Bean posts, check out our reviews of Masa and Pi.
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