Rebirth of Irish cuisine stirs up ballyhoo in dining circles

Nation's Restaurant News, May 31, 1999 by Bret Thorn

It's the ingredients that Vincent Fanari is working with at the Plough & the Stars in Philadelphia. "The Irish right now, because they have very good products to work with, try to keep it simple so you can really enjoy what you're getting," Fanari says.

That means some of the dishes there are not exactly what your basic American guest would expect. Then again, corned beef and cabbage isn't really Irish either. In Ireland it's more common to eat "boiler bacon," which is brined pork shoulder, more like American ham. But when Irish immigrants arrived in New York, corned beef was the closest thing on hand.

So it shouldn't be surprising that Fanari saw fit to put calamari tabbouleh on his menu. "Some of the best restaurants in Ireland work with that range of food," he says.

Fanari also makes a pan-seared sturgeon served with a salad of dulse -- a kind of Irish seaweed. The dulse is served in a dressing of lemon juice, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and olive oil. The sturgeon comes with two sauces: one of blanched, drained and pureed watercress added to a veloute; the other, champagne reduced with fish stock, mushrooms, garlic and heavy cream.

Plenty of Irish restaurants are sticking with what Americans expect in an Irish restaurant; however: Fado, a chain of Irish restaurant/bars that is based in Atlanta but actually imports its interiors -- bar, interior decor, tables and chairs -- from Ireland, serves up plenty of shepherd's pie, which is common in Irish-American pubs but is actually of Scottish origin, according to Connolly, and corned beef and cabbage as well as boxty, a soft potato pancake stuffed with items ranging from baked salmon and herbed cream cheese to chicken and roasted vegetables.

The chain also has locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver and Washington as well as in Austin, Texas.