(Previously we’ve looked at Dublin’s oldest established restaurants and the city’s first Chinese restaurants)
Italian restaurants have flourished in Dublin since at least the late 1930s. Some of the first and and most influential of these were:
The Unicorn at 12B Merrion Court (1938 – Present)
Originally based at 11 Merrion Row, it moved around the corner to Merrion Court in the early 1960s. Ran by the Sidoli family from Bardi for 57 years, it was taken over by Giorgio Casari in 1995.
In the ‘The Book of Dublin’ (1948) it was described as offering “central European cooking and very good of its kind. A quiet place for a slow meal and good conversation. The clientele is cosmopolitan, literary or artistic.”
Ostinelli’s at 17 Hawkins Street (1945 – 1963)
Opened by Ernest and Mary Ostinelli, this restaurant was a popular spot for 18 years. A WW1 veteran, Ernest from Como in Italy came to Dublin in 1944 (after spells in Leeds and Belfast) and lived in Clontarf until his death at the age of 78 in 1970. Ostinellis was purchased by the Rank Organisation and demolished to make way for Hawkins House.
Advertisement for Ostinellis restaurant. Trinity News, 27 May 1954.
Alfredo’s at 14 Marys Abbey (c. 1953 – late 1960s?)
From Ospedaletti in Northern Italy, Alfredo Vido ran this popular late-night restaurant for nearly a decade. In Fodor’s Ireland guide (1968), it was described as “a place for an after-theater meal … in one of the oldest parts of the city and, as the location suggests, is on part of the site of a one-time abbey. Small, but has character and good food.” Ulick O’Connor, in February 1978 in Magill magazine, called it “Dublin’s first late-night restaurant … You banged on the door which looked like a knocking shop and a little spy hole opened like a Judas in a prison cell. If Alfredo liked you, he let you in and gave you a flower for your girl. When he didn’t like you – and a lot of people who used to flash the green backs he didn’t like – Alfredo just wouldn’t open the door.”
Restaurant Bernardo (aka Bernardo’s) at 19 Lincoln Place (1954 – c. 1991)
Moving to Ireland from 1952 from Rieti, Bernardino Gentile opened this restaurant with his brother Mario who later took it over. It was a popular spot for 37 years. It was described in 1998 by Patricia Lysaght as Dublin’s “first restaurant to offer an exclusively Italian menu using authentic Italian ingredients”
Advertisement for Restaurant Bernardo. The Irish Independent, 29 March 1960.
The Coffee Inn at 6 South Anne Street (1954 – 1995)
An Italian snack bar run by Bernardino’s other brother Antonio Gentile. Very popular with the art, student and music set of the 1970s and 1980s especially Phill Lynott.
The Coffee Inn from 1967. Dublin City Photographic Collection.
Quo Vadis at 15 St. Andrew’s Street (1960 – 1991)
Also opened by the trendsetting Bernardino Gentile. He worked here until his retirement in 1991, he passed away in 2011 at the age of 91.
La Caverna at 18 Dame Street (1963 – early 1980s)
Ran by Bernardino’s other brother (!) Angelo Gentile who later opened Le Caprice Restaurant with his wife Feula. 1960s guide books describes how in La Caverna “dancing is also an added attraction”
Nico’s at 53 Dame Street (1963 – Present)
Long-established Italian, celebrating 50 years of business this year.
Nicos (c. 2011). Credit – Infomatique
dfallon
hXci
Sam
The Coffee Inn was a great mod hang out in the eighties. I have photos of the lads posing outside in 1985. The place was so popular that one unnamed individual was rumored to have ‘borrowed’ one of the checkered table cloths and had it made into a shirt!
I remember the Coffee Inn having a few (affectionate?) jokes at the expense of the late Jonathan Philbin Bowman — they had a “Wanker of the Week” photo of him on the wall in perpetuity, and there was supposed to be a special named after him, that if you ordered it a heated and covered bowl would be brought out, and the cover removed, so you just got a lot of hot air.
[...] (Previously we’ve looked at Dublin’s oldest established restaurants, the city’s first Chinese restaurants and the city’s first Italian restaurants) [...]
La Caverna and the coffee Inn were Mario Gentile Senior’s businesses. The coffee Inn was sold to his brother Antonio in the early 70′s, he later died and his wife owns the building, as for La Caverna he allow his drunken brother Angelo to run it but he was such a drunk his wife ran it without every paying one bill, and Mario got stuck for the tax bill for many years and the suppliers bills too. if you want to know more about the dirt on the Gentile family feel free to contact me. Mario also imported produces from Italy, bred race horses. My book will be finished by the end of 2013. the research of newspapers took the most time.
If you would like a photo of Bernardos restaurant please contact me
Your blog reminded me of the nice family dinner I had in The Unicorn three days back.We really enjoyed the awesome Italian food.This is my third visit to Dublin at my sister’s place and with my experience about Dublin’s Italian restaurants I should not forget to mention my visit to Toscana Restaurant and their Rigatoni Arrabiata
The unicorn may be the older Italian restaurant but it’s changed hands more time than I’ve changed my underwear, It’s had it’s ups and downs over the years, but still a fine place, so I’ve heard. Long time since I was there. I want to make something very clear La Caverna was the property of Mario Gentile Senior, and he allowed Angelo Gentile his brother to run it, but since he was a raging alcoholic, of the worst kind, his wife ran it, for 5 years, badly, Mario’s wine stores were in the cellars there, where feula gentile would help herself to Mario’s wines and not pay for them, She never paid any of the restaurant taxes and kept the takings every night, she rob Mario blind for 5 years and screw him with the tax bill too since it was in his name. My family history will be available in my book which will be released on the day my father Mario Gentile dies. It’s as dirty as a book can get, Sex drugs, prostitutes and a seriously abusive mother Nora Lawlor Gentile. All the family secrets, clients and business associates…..
[…] we’ve looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants and the first pizzerias.) (Note 2: Michael Kennedy’s excellent article ‘Indian […]
[…] we’ve looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants, the first pizzerias and the first Indian […]