Saturday Dinner

Dingle is filling up as we approach New Year’s Eve. Surprisingly, Dingle has become a New Year’s Eve destination for the Irish and the English and even beyond.

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From the Irish Times:

They know how to throw a party in Kerry, oft referred to as the Kingdom. From Killorglin’s Puck Fair to the Rose of Tralee, you can be guaranteed some serious devilment. Nowhere is this more true than in the coastal town of Dingle on New Year’s Eve. Perched on one of the westernmost tips of the country, there’s a wildness to the landscape and a wildness to the locals. NYE is celebrated in spectacular fashion, starting early in the evening, when it’s standing room only in the town’s pubs. Consider Dick Macks on Greene Street and Foxy John’s famous hardware store/bikeshop/pub on the Main Street to be at the centre of the action. At 10pm the entire town takes to the streets and heads down the hill to the harbour. There’s an impressive fireworks display from the pier (this can be seen from around the town, even if you don’t make it to the water’s edge). Then it’s back inside for a hot whiskey to warm your bones (they make a great drop in the local Dingle Distillery) before heading outside again to follow the Dingle Fife and Drum Band on its procession around the town. This culminates just before midnight, when thousands gather on the Main Street to ring in the new year.

Anyway, Saturday was a quiet day for us. Elaine took her walk in the morning. I stopped at the SuperValu for another bottle of Dingle Vodka. Of late going back to 2012, Dingle has it’s own distillery, aptly named the Dingle Distillery, just at the edge of town. It started by brewing up Dingle Gin and has since expanded into vodka and three types of whiskeys. It is very highly thought of, and I can vouch that their vodka, whilst expensive, is deliciously good in gimlets. (I can’t find Rose’s lime juice like I use at home, so I use Robinson’s Crushed Lime & Mind cordial – very good!) .

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On Saturday night we decided to try a relatively new entry on the Dingle restaurant scene – the Random Restaurant. We arrived at 7:45 for our reservation to a bustling scene. We started with glasses of champagne – what a surprise. Notice the Christmas ornaments made by one of the staff – Christmas trees made entirely of pasta! Then we both had seafood chowder for starters and agreed it was the best we have had in Dingle – high praise indeed. Elaine had hake, a haddock like fish, for her main while I had the 1/2 duckling. Excellent and plentiful food! That duck had to be a fat critter when he gave it up to be my dinner. No room for desserts.

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We stopped in at the Dingle Pub to see old friend Richie O’Brien of Dreams of Freedom, an excellent Irish Rebel Band. He wasn’t starting until 10:30 PM, so we just chatted a bit. He plays at 9:30 on Sunday and we may see him then. We also stopped at O’Flaherty’s (where we had parked the car), but there was a private party going on.

Tomorrow is another day – see you then.