I'm sitting at a counter in a small cafe, just off Limerick City's grand Georgian main thoroughfare. The sun streams in through the cafe's window, shining a spotlight on the wooden tray in front of me. The tray holds a plump, moist blueberry muffin (€3.50), freshly baked in-house, and a perfectly petite flat white (€2.80), made with Badger and Dodo coffee and served in a small 7oz cup, just as I like it.
Opened three years ago by Paul Williams, the mission of Canteen on Mallow St is to serve honest fast food. Williams doesn't see himself as a chef in the traditional sense, though he has a BA in Culinary Arts in DIT and worked for a stint at The Fat Duck outside London with Heston Blumenthal. You can read about his time there on his blog at wearecanteen.com/ life-at-the-fat-duck.
“I loved The Fat Duck and working in a science-based kitchen,” says Williams. “I love fine dining, but I would prefer to eat all my meals with my hands, rather then eat with a Laguiole knife any day.”
Williams was drawn to the ethos behind the trend of healthy fast-food joints in London during his time there. “Importing the best vegetables, caviar and truffles in the world is exciting when you arrive in London first, but somehow it doesn’t seem real,” he says. “Getting simple local food, like Mossfield organic milk, Riot Rye sourdough, or Badger and Dodo coffee is more real to me.”
Williams came back to Ireland and settled back in with a culinary and viticulture teaching job in Shannon Hotel College. The price of rent in Limerick made it an attractive choice, and I'm sure the proximity to great produce
such as Tipperary’s Riot Rye bread and Crowe’s outdoor reared pork, and Offaly’s Mossfield organic milk (used in Canteen’s milky coffees) helped, too.
As I perch at my counter seat, streams of Limerick office workers and other regular customers pile in to Canteen for their lunch. For lunch, there are wraps, salads and hearty meals such as the Amazing Organic Meatballs (€9) lunch box. I choose a lunch box of a Persian Stew (€8.50), a light vegetarian stew served with couscous. I enjoy it but I think its Persian-ness could have been accentuated more, perhaps with a little added intensity in its spice content. I’m glad I’ve ordered the excellent house-made dukkah (50c) as a topping, as it gives the stew a welcome personality boost.
Passion
The Canteen staff, and their clear passion for the place, really makes my visit. The barista Dalton knows everything about the menu – where the produce comes from, how the dishes are cooked - and his coffee is flawless. The waitress Tiffany makes my stay a particularly pleasant one, thanks to her welcoming manner and attentive service. I'm impressed at how well they communicate the ethos of Canteen.
Later on, I sit outside The Hunt Museum and get stuck into a Confit lamb wrap (€6.50). The wrap is really well balanced in its proportions, not too stuffed but generous still, meaning it has travelled well on my walk around King John’s Castle along the River Shannon. The wrap holds plenty of crunch, thanks to a tasty slaw and vibrantly fresh lettuce. A chilli sauce adds a little extra bite to the juicy lamb leg, slow-cooked for six hours before it makes its way to this lunchtime wrap.
Canteen are doing a pop-up coffee event with Ormston House (ormstonhouse.com) in April, and they’re hoping to bring back their own pop-up night in Canteen sometime before the summer. Next time you find yourself on the streets of Limerick, you’ll know where to go for a great coffee and a perfect blueberry muffin. This really is good fast food.
