A street with an edge, with a sense that it is being sensitively regenerated, always gives me a little frisson as I walk down it, counting the units that have found a new purpose and envisioning what independent business might come next. Cornmarket Street in Cork has been embracing its legacy bones in this way, with the Saturday Coal Quay food market providing a thread of continuity as the street evolves around it. Counterintuitively, the pandemic sparked some of this change.
Brian McCarthy’s Cork Rooftop Farm perched on the 6,000sq ft flat roof of a larch-clad building began as a lockdown project. Documenting it on social media, his urban farming venture with raised beds of microgreens and vegetables captured the public imagination. It has since grown into a 60-acre organic farm on the outskirts of Cork city.
A few hundred metres down the street, Ballymaloe-trained Anne Zager and chef and Cork native David Devereaux had only opened the doors of their new daytime restaurant, 51 Cornmarket, in February 2020, when everything shut down. Operating just four months out of the following 12, they adapted, opening as a takeaway offering baked savoury and sweet treats, a daily soup and a hot pot.
Investing in a wine licence meant that the restaurant began to operate in the evenings, and it now offers dinner only. This is not a restaurant you want to chance your arm on booking. It is full as we rock up for our 7pm reservation on a Thursday, and settle into a high table with a nosy-parker’s view of the long table beside us, occupied by a group of about 10 men. They have gone down the three-course route, none of this sharing plates carry-on, but there’s so much of interest that we plan a nibbles, snacks and plates strategy.
Zager’s enthusiasm for wine shows on a carefully-chosen list that begins with a few accessible bottles and moves into more adventurous territory with an emphasis on organic and low intervention producers. Margins are reasonable – in some cases 20 per cent lower than you would normally find – so it is well worth having a chat and discovering something new. We keep things simple with a crisp Loire Chardonnay, Aurore, St Fiacre sur Maine (€45), which immediately comes into its own alongside a “nibble” of plaice ceviche served on four crispy corn chips (€12.50). The fish clearly hasn’t been left to cure for too long, as it has texture and freshness.
Asparagus from Ultan Walsh’s Gort na Nain farm (€16.50) is lightly cooked and topped with roasted hazelnuts, a lovely touch. A poached egg, hazelnut butter and anchovy mayonnaise provide plenty to dip the tender stems. Also from the snacks section comes a cuttlefish bun (€16.50) dusted with nori and served in a nduja-spiked bouillabaisse that is as playful as it is delicious, the cuttlefish spilling from the bun like an intense seafood ragù. We face a pile-up on our small table as our third snack arrives, three chicken tortellini in a chicken consommé (€16). They have good flavour, although the filling is firmer than expected, closer to that of a dumpling.
The market fish is cod (€36), a substantial piece skilfully pan-roasted and served with asparagus and clams in a roast chicken sauce mounted with butter for extra richness. On the side, the house chips (€6.50) are spectacular – golden, crunchy and piping hot.
I’ve been noticing something of an affogato trend lately. It may seem like a bit of a cop-out as desserts go, but they can vary considerably. At 51 Cornmarket, the affogato…