(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 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
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
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!
Does anyone remember the Palm Grove Café at 74 Grafton Street in the early 60s? I think an Italian couple owned it. An Irish girl Ita worked there in 1962/63 waitressing. Well she thinks it was this café. It was around Grafton Street and sold coffee and cakes – run by an Italian couple and their son.
I remember the Palm Grove ice cream parlour. My parents had just moved from Reading, Berkshire in England (Home of Huntley & Palmer’s biscuits and GWR junction) to Dublin. I was at a boarding school near Reading; I went as a day-pupil before. It was 1947 and Christmas holidays. I flew from Heath Row (nothing more than a Nissan hut) on a Vickers Viking to Dublin. The headmistress took me to the air terminal in London, where I met the Senior Lab Assistant at Guinness. My parent’s met me in their Rover 14 and we went to our house rented from Guinness on James street. Opposite were the St James Chapel, the Harbour Store, and the oak fermentation vats. Soon after my arrival, my parents took me to the Palm Grove. I think I had a Royal Truffle. Four weeks later, I went back to Reading. However, we returned many times to the Palm Grove. It closed before 1954, I think, because I used to go to restaurants in or near Grafton Street and it was not there when we moved near the Three-Rock Mountain.
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.
Please enlighten us as I took over the coffee inn in 1986
Mario genties wife Ann zgorzg was my landlady and she was a very good landlady in 1993i sold my lease a few years later ruined it ended up as a shoe shop
Hi Julie Ann Gentile was the wife of Mario Gentile’s Brother Antonio Gentile he died around 1972. She does own the building, And she never really mixed with the Gentile family after Antonio died, though she did come along to Mrs. F Gentile’s family dinners Christmas dinners or the like, Angelo Gentile’s wife. I am writing a book on the Gentile family. I’ll give you all the details here closer to the date. did you know when Mario had the coffee inn he was the first person in Dublin if not Ireland to have the tables and chairs on the street. anyway. I hope to have it finished in around August or September all going well.
Where is the book Fabio?
Hi all I am getting closer to finishing the book but nothing will happen until my father estate is settled. and I get rid of my part so that way I can write the truth and shame all and if they want to sue me I’ll have nothing to give. So it’s now 15 months since my father past and nothing has been sorted with his estate. I had to get a solicitor to get a copy of his will at a cost of almost €2000, because my mother has a hatred for me, I learned at a young age if people abuse you stand up to them and call their lies out in public to shame them more.
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…..
I knew nor gentile
My view was different as I knew her from 1986to1993
I find the comments quite unlike the person I knew
I remember the incident that she took in the dishwasher from the Indian restaurant called the taj mahal
She was treated like a slave and Nora put her up out of the clutches of the owner who threatened to deport the woman if she refused to return back to work
Nora got her to the people that applied to get her asylum
That differs from the abusive woman
I am trying to contact Mario Junior. Would you know where he is today?
KEVIN WHO, i CAN’T JUST HAND OUT MY BROTHER’S NUMBER OVER THE INTERNET.
[…] 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 […]
[…] previously looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants, the first pizzerias and the first Indian restaurants) This is part two of our article looking at […]
Bernarbo’s Restaurant was 1954 to 2000 not 1991 as stated, Mario Gentile’s youngest son Junior and eldest Daughter too possession in 1991 to 2000, when they shut the doors for the last time, Bernardos was the longest established Italian family run restaurant in Ireland
[…] we’ve looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants, the first pizzerias and the first Indian […]
I tried my first ‘Reefer’ in the Coffee Inn loo in 1967………… Ahhhhhhhh
Mario Gentile Senior of Bernardo’s Restaurant died today at 2:30pm in st James hospital Dublin. 24 June 2014
Very sorry to hear this Fabio. Condolences.
Did you know my father ? Thanks
I put up a little something on youtube in rememberance of Papa Mario, I hope you like it and I’ll be putting up more and better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYodr06hdxY
Just a correction for bernardos it closed it’s doors in 2000. Opened in September 1954.
[…] (one of the Italian restaurants oldest in the city) which first opened in 1963. It is mentioned in this piece from the Dublin blog ‘Come Here to Me’ that also includes a really nice photograph of the […]
Great article I have relations in Italy and I would love to forward this to them as they are visiting next year and would love to take them to an Italian restaurant in Dublin. I know it would be risky but it would be an experience for them. Once again great post thanks.
Sorry Katherine, I only saw your message while going over the many many messages I get, One of the finest Italian restaurants if it’s still trading (Old school) and I think they have or had a Michelin star too is DA Panza 1 Yeates centre Summerhill road Dunboyne Co.Meath 00353 1 8255859. The owner was a friend of my fathers.
Bernardo’s was established September 1954 until 2000. Not 1991. If was my father’s restaurant. La Caverna was established by Mario Gentile senior and he allowed his brother Angelo to run it. As for the coffee Inn that was established by Mario Gentile senior then sold on to Antonio Gentile. Mario Gentile senior was and if I’m right the first and only person to produce and sell fresh pastas to hotels and other restaurants. Mario Bernardino Antonio Angelo Gentile and ther cousins of same age Othello and Ottavio Faenza were the chefs for so many Royals. Not in order nor stating who worked for which Royal. The King of Spain. The Queen Mother and Queen of England The King of Belgium The King of Greece The agnelli FIAT family the elite layers side. Many many embassies. From British Brazilianto the Saudi Arabianand more. I am close to finishing the book. Marco Gentile son of Bernardino trained under his father in the Quo Vadis and is one of Irelands great Italian chefs as too is Mario junior son of Mario senior.
Fabio when is the book out?
I often ask Dubliners “Did you know Ostinelli’s Restaurant” in Hawkins Street.
Very few say yes they do. I have very fond memories of Ostinelli’s as my aunt and uncle had their lunch there every day as they both worked in the city centre.
As I recall (I am about 13 years old at this time) the restaurant was on the first floor of the building it occupied. It was a great treat to join Joe and Nora for lunch and for a little lad the experience of eating Italian was amazing and exotic.
About ten years ago I was sheltering out of the rain after leaving a conference in the RDS. Another guy joined to get out of the weather and his conference name badge told me he was an Ostinelli. Indeed he was a grandson of the original owner.