Another edition of our FREE monthly digest, exclusively for our entire Substack readership, which spotlights some of the best things we’ve eaten, cooked, listened to, explored, watched/streamed or read recently. There are hundreds more of you since last month, so consider this a monthly highlights reel, packed full of suggestions, which we hope will inspire you in your own exploits!
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Eating: Great Tastes Lingering This Past Month
Slow cooked, BBQ-spiced, pulled beef brisket from a family party
New spot Achara (on Aston Quay, in what was formerly Happys) offering Thai dishes served family-style, cooked over charcoal grill
Another new addition to Dublin dining will be Comet., a supper club at the Fumbally Stables from Kevin O’Donnell and Laura Chabal. It kicks off in late July.
So many delicious things upcoming this weekend on a long-awaited return to London, including bookings at Rochelle Canteen and Pearly Queen…
Eating: Sunday Times Ireland Restaurant Reviews + Dublin Delish
For our Sunday Times Ireland reviews, we’ve gone from Kerry to Tallaght, Cashel to Castle Market: we covered Tango Street Food in Killarney, Cluck Chicken in Dublin 24, Mikey Ryan’s in Tipp and La Maison in Dublin 2. [Note: Really sad to see Myrtle, a neighbourhood restaurant in Louth we reviewed exactly a year ago shortly after opening, has announced its closure.]
Over at 98FM in his weekly Dublin Delish radio slot, Russell took listeners to Pitt Bros for BBQ food, Roots for Açai bowls and Hawksmoor for its steak lunch special.
Reading: Lots!
👨🏻🍳 After finishing reading Edward Chisholm’s A Waiter in Paris (Affiliate link; very much recommend!) where much of the grit and vigour of the story is less about restaurant floor and more based at the pass or outside having a smoke, this was a great read from Tim Hayward in the FT about the best bit of restaurants being ‘back out by the bins’
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Pride Month & Protest
Pride Month has been and gone and during June we wrote a long-read about the misnomers of ‘Gay Food’ and why a rainbow cupcake is the most performative, straight-aligned action of all, paying little heed to LGBTQ+ people in reality. Plus, we delve into how having ‘gay’ in the brand name we’ve built over a decade has most definitely impacted our success, continues to resign our inclusions in certain spaces as tokenistic box-ticking and why every single day for us is about Pride (and, underpinning that, protest).
We often tilt the lens from where we stand and wonder what non-LGBTQ+ people secretly think about Pride Month. Do they relish the unique opportunity to celebrate the visibility, inclusion and rights of the LGBTQ+ people in their lives or just relish the colourful parade on a sunny Saturday, the excuse to dress up and the community-organised block partie…
We’re now in the last few weeks of living in the house we’ve made a home for the past six years… We wrote about the move, the things we will miss and the song that has seemed to soundtracked packing up our lives together thus far…
“We had good times, can’t deny it, and even though I feel excited, I’m kind of sad to leave it now that autumn’s movin’ in… … and we’re movin’ out…” Kacey Musgraves croons in her sweet Texas lilt backed by a simple guitar strum and drum riff soundtracking us packing boxes, our lives laid out in inanimate objects before us.
Thanks for reading! Chip Paper is brought to you by Patrick Hanlon and Russell Alford, also known collectively under our brand name: GastroGays. Irish food and travel writers, Sunday Times Ireland restaurant critics, broadcasters and content creators, this is our home of food long-reads, deep-dives and guides. You can find us elsewhere on Instagram, TikTok and our website GastroGays.com
I hope the moving isn’t too stressful!