What should we know about Fable?
Kate O’Sullivan and Elyse Clarke's Fable Bakery started out selling pastries at the Phibsborough Market in July of this year, and then Herbert Park Market, after both working in Smithfield's No Messin' (which is without any doubt one of the country's best purveyors of pastry, cookies, doughnuts and the rest).
After a few months of market trading they spotted this post from Sprout, offering an up and coming food entrepreneur a space at the front of their Dawson Street café, and from over 60 applicants Fable were picked to set up shop in a city centre location they could probably only have dreamt of. They opened at the end of November with sweet and savoury pastries, coffee from Imbibe, and a very warm welcome from local office workers.
What's the menu like?
Buns, tarts and cookies on the day we visited, with a mostly sweet menu but a couple of savoury options too.
The almond, cinnamon and chocolate buns are all variations of the same pastry, with the sun-dried tomato and parmesan a savoury version of the same knot.
That sun-dried tomato one was really excellent, even if half the cheese did blow off as we took it out of the bag. Big chunks of sweet, densely flavoured tomatoes, perfectly chewy pastry, fennel seeds, and cheesey swirls.
We were less keen on the almond bun, thinking it wasn't chewy or crispy enough, and needed a bit more of the X-Factor, but the sea salt chocolate cookie was a 10 - crispy on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle, perfect fresh from the oven, and still perfect hours later. Dip into tea for the best mid-afternoon pick me up you've had in a while.
What is there to drink?
Coffee is from Imbibe and while sadly using a good brand doesn't always mean you're going to get a good coffee, we got a very good coffee - smooth and brewed perfectly.
Is there seating?
Yep. Sprout don't kick off serving salads until 11:00, so the whole space is free for Fable's customers in the morning. After that it might be more of a squeeze, but if you want to eat in you can.
Why should I go?
Bakeries in Dublin city centre are practically non-existent, and before now you would have had to walk to places like Bread 41 on Pearse Street or across to No Messin' in Smithfield to get something good to have with your morning coffee. All the claps for Sprout for giving two up and coming grafters a space to spread their wings, and this is exactly the sort of small food business we need more of in central locations.
Fable Bakery
3 Dawson Street, Dublin 2
