Isabelle's, the latest addition to Press Up's Entertainment bar and restaurant portfolio opens on South Anne Street, just off Grafton Street, at 5pm today.
Like the rest of their venues (Sophie's, Roberta's, The Grayson), the fit out is high end, with oak clad walls, marble floors and handmade wall tiles. There's an open kitchen, and seating at banquettes, the bar or the copper-covered pizza counter, where you can watch the pizzas being made (if your dinner guest has no chat).
Press Up have been known to get some flack over the food in their venues, with menus of the "everything to everyone" variety, and it might be for that reason that they're really pushing the food with this one. Head chef Barra Hurley worked in Shanahan's on the Green for 9 years, and spent the last year as head chef in Tomahawk, Press Up's Temple Bar Steakhouse. They say that he and fellow chef Stephen Ryan (most recently head chef at Lucky Duck), travelled to London several times for inspiration for the food, which they say is "simple but packed full of flavour, centered on seasonality". The proof will be in the Po'boy.
There's not much of a theme to the menu, with everything from bolognese pizza, to glazed beef shortrib to that blackened shrimp Po'boy (pictured), and desserts like Valrhona broken chocolate fudge cake with warm salted caramel and Black Forest Alaska (below).
Cocktails all have twists on the classics, they have a large selection of wines on tap and in bottle, and refreshingly (no pun intended) there's a focus on low alcohol drinks, including a selection of spritzers. Definitely sounds like a good one for the 12 pubs.
Isabelle's opens at 5pm today and will be open 7 days a week for lunch, dinner and brunch on weekends.
Isabelle's
13-14 South Anne Street, Dublin 2
Mon - Fri 12pm - late
Sat - Sun 10am - late
