Epicurean food Hall closed

Arthur Daley

A highlight for me were the tapas places and getting a few nice authentic tapas in the middle of winter livened up many a dreary lunchtime. The guy who set up the original tapas place moved to his own restuarant viva in portabello and it has got decent reviews. Only got over there once or twice but found the food is still as tasty as ever.

Also remember the french guys who ran a few different places in the centre unit. The greek place and brazilian places were fine. Greek place seemed to be there years. Tasty food.

TJJP

Chinasea wrote: »

They are still there. The entrance is round the corner street off Liffey Street near the Spar.

Just re Istanbul, are they now gone altogether? The Brazilian place is still there on South Lotts but there's no sign of Istanbul. There is an 'istanbel' on Liffey Street but that was always there and looks unrelated to 'Istanbul' from the Epicurian.

Amalgam

Hanley wrote: »

Can we talk about the old Taco Taco for a while please? I feel like I'm the only one that remembers it. Musta been 7/8 years ago at this stage now, maybe longer, but hot jesus it was amazing.

And around before pretty much anywhere else in Dublin was doing cheap Mexican too.

The very first owners, over ten years ago, their Quesadillas were delicious. Only reason I went in. The man beside them (on the side towards the exit) made a nice Turkish coffee too.

The quality of the food declined after an owner/staff changeover. The staff, at the start, were from that part of the world, as far as I remember.

I occasionally mitched from school in the Abbey Mall, place was a strange deserted cowshed in the mid 80s, travel agents and secretarial services, dead dead dead. Bought my first Heavy Metal leather jacket there, then annoyed the hell out of what later became Borderline Records and Abbey Discs going through my Indie phase.. [nostalgia sniff]

Strumms

^ ahh Borderline... that's prob for another thread the great lost indie record shops.... Cant see Tower lasting much longer its like a funeral parlor in there at the best of times...

Hanley

Amalgam wrote: »

The very first owners, over ten years ago, their Quesadillas were delicious. Only reason I went in. The man beside them (on the side towards the exit) made a nice Turkish coffee too.

The quality of the food declined after an owner/staff changeover. The staff, at the start, were from that part of the world, as far as I remember.

I occasionally mitched from school in the Abbey Mall, place was a strange deserted cowshed in the mid 80s, travel agents and secretarial services, dead dead dead. Bought my first Heavy Metal leather jacket there, then annoyed the hell out of what later became Borderline Records and Abbey Discs going through my Indie phase.. [nostalgia sniff]

Ahh THANK YOU. So there wa a change in ownership at some point?

That has me feeling sane again cos I knew it wasn't as good as it used to be!

carltonleon

I see that there is a Planning Permission notice up on the Epicurean for change to be a Retail Unit. It is going to be a ....... Dealz

washiskin

What a shame....it was a real treat to go in there in the early days. Many people would have had their first experience of proper Turkish, Greek and Mexican food there and I remember being stunned by the cakes and pastries in Crème de la Crème.
Istanbul, with the original owner at the helm, was a must every Thursday night. Same people seemed to show up around 6pm and stay for ages. The owner was really keen to show off the cuisine and often would add little extras to your order of new dishes he was trying out. More than once, I saw him fill a bag of food and give it to some unfortunate who would chance coming in to beg at the tables, very few decent skins like him left now....

andekwarhola

Can the corpo not stand up and try and limit the amount of these fcuking pound shop places springing up in town? How many are actually needed?

ProudDUB

andekwarhola wrote: »

Can the corpo not stand up and try and limit the amount of these fcuking pound shop places springing up in town? How many are actually needed?

+1

We live in a free market economy, where property owners are free to charge whatever rentals they want to the highest bidders. So companies like Dealz, Starbucks, the generic English/German High Street chains etc etc are always going to be able to out bid the locals businesses, that add character and colour to our fair city.

But Jesus, wouldn't it be wonderful if someone, somewhere had the balls and the vision to come up with a plan whereby local entrepreneurs could flourish & thrive side by side with the Starbucks and the Dealz? It is a pipe dream to expect that they will ever replace them altogether, but surely to God there has to be something better than what the city centre has turned into? :mad::mad::mad:

alexjk

andekwarhola wrote: »

Can the corpo not stand up and try and limit the amount of these fcuking pound shop places springing up in town? How many are actually needed?

So there'll be the Dealz in the Ilac that opens onto Moore Street, the other Dealz at the Henry Street entrance to the Ilac, then walk from there down Liffey Street to Abbey Street and there'll be a third one. Who is approving this?

BeerNut

alexjk wrote: »

Who is approving this?

Nobody yet. The application is open for observations until 13th July. Reference 3079/16. Complaining to the planners is much more likely to make a difference than complaining here.

John_Rambo

BeerNut wrote: »

Nobody yet. The application is open for observations until 13th July. Reference 3079/16. Complaining to the planners is much more likely to make a difference than complaining here.

Will do.

Chinasea

BeerNut wrote: »

Nobody yet. The application is open for observations until 13th July. Reference 3079/16. Complaining to the planners is much more likely to make a difference than complaining here.

True, but the point is that the planners should have the cop to enable a more balanced array.

Patrons crucially though, also need to support, and see beyond the bright shiny new penny, the chain-store, the chain pizza outlet, the chain coffee shop.

RosieJoe

I see the unit on Liffey Street that was used as a pop up shop at halloween time is now a Carrolls Gift shop. One on Liffey Street, one on Henry Street and one on Mary Street. All 5 minutes walk from one another

andekwarhola

Corpo obviously don't give a flying fcuk as long as the (exorbitant) rates/rents flow in.

technocrat

RosieJoe wrote: »

I see the unit on Liffey Street that was used as a pop up shop at halloween time is now a Carrolls Gift shop. One on Liffey Street, one on Henry Street and one on Mary Street. All 5 minutes walk from one another

Add O'Connell st to that list.

m320325

technocrat wrote: »

Add O'Connell st to that list.

1 on Upper O`Connell St and another on Lower O`Connell St, another on Talbot Street

RosieJoe

That's some amount of Dealz and Carrolls in such a small space

Chinasea

andekwarhola wrote: »

Can the corpo not stand up and try and limit the amount of these fcuking pound shop places springing up in town? How many are actually needed?

The city is crying out for a bit of diversity, but bit by bit, the small amount that we had, is being run outta town by the fast asleep Coco and citizens.

BeerNut

Chinasea wrote: »

the fast asleep Coco and citizens.

The City Council is wide awake and currently in phase 3 of the 2016-22 Dublin City Development Plan. If the citizens want to wake up, have a bit of scratch, and then get involved, submissions are currently open. It is a lot of reading, though. Might be easier just to complain on Boards about Dealz.

Chinasea

BeerNut wrote: »

The City Council is wide awake and currently in phase 3 of the 2016-22 Dublin City Development Plan. If the citizens want to wake up, have a bit of scratch, and then get involved, submissions are currently open. It is a lot of reading, though. Might be easier just to complain on Boards about Dealz.

Might be easier if people supported a bit of diversity instead of knocking it is the point.

As an example, look at some of the posts in this thread, reporting the Epicurean food court was dirty etc. Actually it twasan't. It was a little 'worn' but it was kept very clean.

The diverse range of stall holders tried their utmost to make do with what they had, and were reliant on the landlord to inject some of the cash back into the premises which he didn't.

Lepidoptera

BeerNut wrote: »

Nobody yet. The application is open for observations until 13th July. Reference 3079/16. Complaining to the planners is much more likely to make a difference than complaining here.

Thanks for this info. I had no idea that you could complain to the planners about things like this or how to even find out that information.

I would encourage anyone who has voiced concern/complaints in this thread to go to the reference listed and lodge your concerns. All I had to do was google "Reference 3079/16" and it brought up the page on the Dublin CC site.

Hanley

Lepidoptera wrote: »

Thanks for this info. I had no idea that you could complain to the planners about things like this or how to even find out that information.

I would encourage anyone who has voiced concern/complaints in this thread to go to the reference listed and lodge your concerns. All I had to do was google "Reference 3079/16" and it brought up the page on the Dublin CC site.

Awesome call.

Just did it.

It's "observation" right?

RasTa

It costs €20 to object which is ridiculous. Today is the last day anyway

ongarboy

Does anyone have any official evidence that it is going to be a Dealz? This article seems to suggest the owners confirming it will not be a Dealz but something "exciting".

http://www.dublininquirer.com/2016/04/06/with-the-epicurean-food-hall-closed-whats-become-of-its-delicacies/

TJJP

Not sure about Deals, but that article isn't altogether accurate. There's no 'Istanbul' on Liffey Street. There's an 'Istanbel' alright, but it was always there and bears no relation or resemblance to the epicurean's Istanbul which was a fine establishment.

Muahahaha

Charging €20 for a citizen to submit their opinion on a planning issue is a sure fire way of making sure very few citizens do so. Its a racket.

RosieJoe

I think the fee was introduced so that genuine complaints only would be lodged. It was a way of stopping someone from say Dublin objecting to PP on a site in Leitrim where they had no real interest in the place of development.

spurious

Muahahaha wrote: »

Charging €20 for a citizen to submit their opinion on a planning issue is a sure fire way of making sure very few citizens do so. Its a racket.

It gets better. If you want to submit an appeal, it's 200 euro (or could even be 220) per appeal and you don't get it back even if you win.
It's how JC Decaux managed to get those god-awful 'Metropoles' put up all over the city. Instead of entering them as one application, they did one application for each one, which made objecting to all of them impossible for a normal person.

Muahahaha

Jaysis that is a scam and nothing else.

I can understand the council charging for objections but €20 is very rich, it should be something nominal like a fiver or so. Most people will only spend €20 to object to something that affects them directly such as a neighbours planning application.

Its shameful too that an appeal is €220 with no refunds. Its like they are operating a we know best philosophy and those pesky citizens can put up or else pay up. Its a disgraceful way to run what is a check and balance on bad planning decisions. The council has rigged the game to suit themselves, youd never think their wages are paid by the general public with the arrogance of them.