Prominently situated on busy Pearse Street, Bread 41 is the first café from Eoin Cluskey, a graduate of Ballymaloe Cookery School and owner of the excellent Bread Nation - a bakery that's earned a following in both the retail and wholesale markets.
He specialises in long-fermented breads, a technique that he perfected in San Francisco before coming home to Dublin to establish Bread Nation - and its success soon led to the opening of Bread 41, an organic café where he could sell direct.
Cluskey has built a reputation for high quality 'real bread' (made with just three ingredients: flour, water and salt) and delectable pastries, both sweet and savoury. The café is dominated by the main counter, which is piled high with a selection of pastries and snacks. Sourdough and rye loaves beg to be purchased and taken home for later consumption, while morning buns dusted with sugar and cinnamon sit next to gloriously laminated croissants and cronuts.
The café is often busy with commuters who pop in for a morning treat and a coffee to go. For those who want to linger a little longer, there’s plenty of space spread across the industrial style high benches and communal tables - and the open space is especially stroller or wheelchair friendly.
All dishes and drinks are ordered at the counter and then delivered to the table by the friendly staff. Choose from breakfast dishes such as avocado toast or porridge with honey & pear, or a lunchtime sandwich made with the freshest of bread and filled with chicken, ham or black pudding.
Weekend brunch options include shakshuka, chorizo hash or classic beans on toast, while favourites such as the three cheese toastie are permanently on offer. Cluskey is also a fan of other forms of fermentation and home-made pickles are a feature, used to liven up his more-ish dishes.
At Bread 41 there is a tangible sense of pride in the craft of baking, and this extends to the use of high quality, Irish ingredients, including coffee from local Dublin roaster 3fe. McCluskey even goes so far as to grind his own flour in an on-site flour mill. Now that’s real dedication.
