Jack and Theo Kirwan have built a loyal following for the Sprout & Co Kitchen chain with impressive speed and efficiency. The brand began life in 2013 as Sprout Food Company, a small juice concession in Avoca’s Rathcoole outlet where Jack had cheffed. Soon enough they were supplying various businesses across the city, and their signature juices cold-pressed at their Bray, Co Wicklow allotment remain a central draw for their health-conscious and largely millennial customer base. By 2015 they had opened the first of what soon became six Sprout & Co Kitchen outlets in Dublin’s city centre and Dunboyne. In keeping with their ‘local' premise, they subsequently bought a farm in Rathcoffey, Co Kildare, where leaves and other ingredients are grown for the restaurants.
Speed and efficiency define everything these entrepreneurial 20-something brothers put their hand to. The Sprout & Co Kitchen catch-phrase promises food that is ‘healthy, seasonal and local’ – elements that have not always been associated with fast food. You might add to that ‘cheerful’ for the service and ‘attractive’ for the clean and airy interiors and the colourful display of fresh food at the service counter.
Each of the outlets offers a breakfast and lunchtime menu that can be pre-ordered online for collection, or in person in what are often long but always fast-moving queues. Due attention has been given to developing a service system that really works, resulting in a cheerful atmosphere for customers and staff alike.
Breakfast might be ‘free-from-everything’ granola with Compsey yoghurt, fruit, honey and cinnamon or coconut milk chia seed porridge, served with granola, seasonal fruit and honey, or smashed avocado on toasted rosemary sourdough with pumpkin seeds and sweet chilli sauce.
Lunches consist of salad and grain bowls complemented by seasonal wraps and soup. You can build your own protein and grain lunch bowl or choose from an imaginative selection. A seasonal salad might be spicy Indian chicken with roasted squash, red cabbage, pickled red onion, toasted pumpkin seeds, cury kale with a curry mint yogurt dressing.
Signature salads include the popular Super Guacabowle featuring properly fresh greens brightened by grated carrot, sweet roasted squash, red cabbage, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese topped generously with a creamy guacamole, tart green apple slices and French dressing; or the vegan Hoisin Shrooms with Hoisin mushrooms, brown rice, pickled beansprout and carrot, red cabbage, spring onions, red chilli, curly kale, tamara spiced seeds with a ginger spiced dressing. Add a couple of falafel and you’ve a lunch to see you well into the evening – and there are wholesome treats for the sweet-toothed too – beetroot brownie perhaps or peanut caramel square - and 3FE coffee.
Get there early if you want to eat in at lunchtime, these are pleasant spaces to spend a lunch break, thanks to clever use of natural materials including rough-hewn wooden benches and generous natural greenery.
The Kirwan brothers seem to love what they do, and have hit on a well-focused formula that their growing base of fans clearly love too.
