Campo Viejo Tapas Trail

I'm quite fond of Spanish food and wine, so this caught my attention. It's more commercial than many of the events and activities we cover on this site but it looks fun - and the price seems pretty reasonable.

Spanish wine brand Campo Viejo, the flagship of Rioja wines, has joined forces with four of Dublin’s top restaurants for the return of the Campo Viejo Tapas Trail. A celebration of the best of Spanish cuisine, participants will have the opportunity to join the trail through Dublin city centre and discover the art and elegance of ‘tapeo’; the art of eating tapas. Guests will sample an array of small epicurean delights bursting with Spanish flavour that will tickle the taste buds and tantalise the senses. The Campo Viejo Tapas Trail runs from 27th June to 19th August.

Each Wednesday and Sunday the Campo Viejo Tapas Trail will visit four top restaurants around Dublin including Salamanca St Andrews Street, Salamanca Fusion, Parliament Street, Havana Tapas Bar and The Market Bar. During the event participants will visit each of the four featured restaurants, where they will be presented with the venue’s best three tapas. Participants will also enjoy a measure of Campo Viejo Reserva in each restaurant. Tapas in each of the restaurants will feature the best of local produce and will be designed to complement the elegance and full flavours associated with Campo Viejo Reserva. To bring the vibrancy of Spain to life, guests will be treated to an eclectic and diverse mix of Spanish-themed entertainment.

Tickets for the Campo Viejo Tapas Trail are priced at €20 with the trail taking place each Wednesday between 6.30pm and 9.00pm and each Sunday between 2.00pm and 4.30pm. 80 people can participate on the trail during each session. They will be split up into four groups of 20 with each group of 20 starting off in a different participating restaurant. Each group of 20 will be assigned a different route and work their way around the trail. Hosts will guide participants on the trail informing them on the importance of the Rioja region and describing Capo Viejo’s unique characteristics.

For further information and to purchase tickets log onto www.facebook.com/campoviejoireland (Tickets are available for purchase from June 20th).

If you don't have a Facebook login, try http://www.campoviejo.com/Age-Verification?ReturnURL=/Home instead.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - free rehearsed reading

Press release from La Touche Players below, in case you're looking for some cheap fun on Thursday:

Midsummer night - free rehearsed reading in the Teacher's Club

It's midsummer night on Thursday (sob, sob, sob, where did the summer go?)... so come along to a rehearsed reading of a Shakespearean classic comedy!

La Touche Players presents:

William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (abridged)

Directed by Emily Maher

For one midsummer night only… FREE ENTRY!

Thursday 21st June at 8pm

Teacher's Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

Follow us on Twitter @LaTouchePlayers

Full details on https://www.facebook.com/events/358204667578006/.

Fired!

Gallery Zozimus plays host to this year's NCAD 3rd year and MA ceramics students' exhibition.  It will be opened this coming Thursday, 18th June and runs until 1st July.  You can download an invitation with all the details here.

Brother Hubbard cafe

Brother Hubbard is a new cafe on Capel Street. Opened about three months ago, it's supported by 3FE and HasBean. They've recently had a big break with a favourable review by the Irish Times.



As fans of 3FE will expect the coffee is excellent. There's some variation in the style of coffee produced by the 3FE-associated cafes; Brother Hubbard's espresso is similar to the typical 3FE espresso, having a wonderfully acidic zing. Brother Hubbard also serves food - my first impressions are positive.

As for Rosemary MacCabe's assertion that "Capel Street is becoming one of Dublin’s most happening quarters"... well, maybe. The opening of The Black Sheep craft-beer pub was a good sign, but for now (as I hope the photo above illustrates) Capel Street remains rather ugly. Let's hope that Brother Hubbard's arrival is part of a trend.

Taste of Dublin

Taste of Dublin starts this evening at 5:30 pm and runs until Sunday. One of the more unusual events is Dine in the Dark by Kanchi Ireland. Here's a brief description from the press release:

Disability organisation Kanchi will give diners a truly unique culinary experience at this year’s Taste of Dublin. Fittingly entitled ‘Kanchi Dine in the Dark’, this experiential dining event will see festival goers served an exclusive tasting plate by legally blind waiting staff whilst immersed in complete darkness. The delicious culinary delights will be prepared by ten of Ireland’s most award winning chefs, including Ross Lewis, Kevin Thornton and Malcolm Starmer. The event will take place in an atmospheric pitch black dining venue in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens from 14th – 17th June.

Festival goers will be guided to their tables, where they will be served a taster plate created by Ireland’s most acclaimed culinary experts. Without their sight to guide them, guests will experience the complex tastes, flavours and textures in a completely new and innovative way. In the blacked out dining room, everyone will be immersed in complete darkness, whether they are visually impaired or not. Each sitting will last approximately 30 minutes, after which guests have the opportunity to meet with the award winning chef who prepared their food, and to discuss cooking techniques and the local produce they have sampled.

Student exhibitions - the rising talent of Ireland

Model Hex, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books,
by Natalie Murphy, BA (Hons) Model Making,
Design & Digital Effects, IADT. (Photo: Sorcha O'Brien)

The next week sees graduate exhibitions of the future big names of the Irish art scene. The Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire opened its graduate showcase on 7 June. It will continue until Thursday 14 June and from the reports I'm hearing is a must for anyone interested in the creative arts. You can find the information about opening times and how to get there on the website.

The National College of Art and Design opened its graduate show on Friday 8 June and this will continue until Sunday 17 June. Visiting information for this show is available on the NCAD's front page.

Dublin Institute of Technology is organising a variety of graduate shows, in a number of venues, with the hours and dates available here.

Great Music in Irish Houses Festival 12th - 17th June

You would never guess from looking out the window that it's the summer.  Nevertheless, many planned summer events are going ahead and Great Music in Irish Houses is just one of them, starting next Tuesday.

Chamber music to me seems a perfect fit for big houses.  I like to imagine the same scenes 200 years before with awesome Regency outfits and card parties going on in the background.  Venues featured this year include the newly-refurbished Rathfarnham Castle, the Mansion House, Smock Alley, Killruddery House and Castletown House (the last two technically not in Dublin but we'll overlook it JUST THIS ONCE).  The Doric Quartet, Xuefei Yang, shown below, Carol McGonnell and Henning Ruhe are just some of the performers involved.  Clever cross-marketing means all booking can be done through the National Concert Hall's website.  I like this - no use of evil ticketmaster required and just as well because the actual festival website could be better - it's fiddly and hard to find exactly what you're looking for.

The final event of the festival will actually be held in the National Concert Hall -  a performance of Steve Reich's "Drumming" by the Colin Currie Group, which is about as far away from chamber music as you can get but pretty cool anyway.

Alain de Botton at the Dublin Writers Festival

I knew little about Alain de Botton before his talk yesterday at the Dublin Writers Festival. I knew roughly what kind of stuff he wrote about and that he had a Twitter account with "inspiring" tweets. My husband is a fan, and managed to persuade me to go see the talk. The Liberty Hall Theatre, where the talk was held, turned out to be a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing venue, which was stuffed to the gills with enthusiastic listeners.

De Botton turned out to be an excellent speaker, a pleasure to listen to even if you didn't know his work or didn't always agree with him. He spoke mostly about his latest book, Religion for Atheists, which discusses what dedicated atheists, such as he himself, might have to learn from religions. His main argument was that the secular should not automatically consider religions stupid and childish, but instead appreciate and be inspired by their methods of teaching, creating communities and producing art. He had insights into education and organisation of the humanities as well as such diverse material as the calendar year, functions of art and the necessity of beauty in architecture. Unfortunately he only touched these topics; I would have been interested to hear more about them. I suspect that he could have easily done an entire series of talks. On a number of occasions he directly or indirectly addressed Richard Dawkins (albeit not in a particularly agreeing manner), and it occurred to me that scheduling his talk the day after Dawkins's created a very interesting two-day theme of Atheism Today, or, the Problem of Religion Today, if you prefer.

You can see photographs of the talk on the festival website. The festival continues until the weekend.

Comedy Cream: A night of stand up in Little Green Street Gallery

There's a BYOB comedy night on Friday in Little Green Street Gallery. The gallery is on the corner of Little Green Street and Little Britain Street, just off Capel Street.

Here's what they say about the event:

Little Green Street Gallery & Padraic Coffey present... COMEDY CREAM Fancy an evening of delicious entertainment? Well be serving up the cream of the crop in the comedy circuit, in the intimate surrounds of the Little Green Gallery. An alternative night out, Dublin's only BYOB comedy event, so grab a few beers and let the laughs roll out! Featuring outstanding acts: Danny O'Brien ("A quality stand up with a one track mind... enjoy the ride!" - Nighthawks) Trevor Browne ("Hilariously aloof" - Hot Press) and Robbie Bonham (Winner - 98FM Best Comedian) plus guests!! Only 50 seats available so be sure to pre-book a ticket at little.green.gallery@gmail.com 6e (with student ID) 8e full price Complimentary drinks on the night (dont forget to bring your own though) Friday, June 8th, 9:00pm. Hope to see you there!

Dublin Biennial POP-UP

There's a new art exhibition due to begin soon, Dublin Biennial POP-UP. Here's the description from their website:

The Dublin Biennial POP-UP, is an International Contemporary Art Exhibition featuring 55 International and National Artists. The Exhibition will be showcased at The Point Village, and will run from June 15th - June 24th, with a Gala opening on Bloomsday, June 16th.