Suze

Chew & Chat night again. We ate in The Hot Stove on Parnell Square, which is close to Tom's place, so we met there for aperitifs. It was wet and miserable approaching our meeting time, which is why I got a Hailo taxi over. And there was Tom, waiting on the doorstep of his apartment block: all very efficient.

He broke open a rather nice bottle of bubbly and then produced Suze, which we'd had before in his place and I'd forgotten about since. It's a rather nice bevvy, and I can see Carl and me having one or two in France next month.

The Hot Stove was new to me, though not to Tom. I commented on the room and we were told that it was formerly the canteen for the Teachers Union of Ireland. The food was good too — pigeon breast starter for me, followed by a lovely piece of turbet in a gorgeous sauce, which was somewhat spoiled by the accompaniment of lime mash (a nice idea, but the lime was heavyhanded).

Unusually for us on a Chew & Chat night, we had just one drink afterwards, in a pub nearby. Mind you, it was getting on by then after our leisurely meal, and I had to get a taxi home. (On the wall of another pub beside the one we went in to, we saw this notice which reminded us of the impending centenary of the Easter Rising, which will hopefully be celebrated appropriately when the time comes.