Cork city's most exciting new restaurant in quite some time, The Glass Curtain hit the ground running when it opened in the old Thompsons Bakery building on MacCurtain Street in December 2019. Seasonal local produce 'cooked with love and a little fire' is the promise, and it’s one that Chef Brian Murray and his team have been delivering on to the delight of their growing fan base.
Until recently a street that most visitors only saw fleetingly when heading out to the motorway, or to Kent railway station just up road, the arrival of The Glass Curtain has confirmed the 'Victorian Quarter' - and especially MacCurtain Street - as the city's hottest food destination. Which seems very appropriate, as for generations Thompsons Bakery (est. 1826) was the place where the city’s bread, and much else besides, was baked. There was even a dedicated swiss roll factory within it, which reputedly turned out a mile of swiss roll every day. So lots of associations here, including the inspiration for the evocative name - which, so the story goes, was a 1960s nickname for the bakery due to its extensive use of glass in that modernist era.
Declaring that “flavour is our holy grail”, Brian Murray takes pride in showcasing the best of local produce, including some of the more unusual cuts, and enhancing their natural flavour by cooking over fire - and bringing into play his wide-ranging experience in leading restaurants in Ireland and abroad.
While it isn't a large restaurant, it packs quite a punch with its industrial chic - high ceilings with ducting, open kitchen, well-designed lighting, an evocative big photo of employees at work in the old bakery - and a good bar. The well chosen wine-list might well tempt you to linger here, but don't overlook the cocktail menu - the Low Fashioned (Kinsale “Wild Red” Mead, angostura, Demerara, orange) for example, is a delicious locally-focused aperitif, and there's an interesting choice of non-alcoholic drinks too.
Designed to encourage sharing, the menu offers about six choices on each course, starting with unusual Snacks (crispy beef tendons with salt and vinegar piri piri; salt fish croquettes with black garlic aoili...), and Small Plates (Beef bone marrow, grilled onions and parsley crust maybe, or Cuttlefiush ragu with white beans, fennel and milk bun toast). Large Plates / mains include a Grilled fish of the day (butterflied mackerel cooked on the bone perhaps) and hearty dishes like Dry aged ribeye, with roast onion and bone marrow jus, or a 36 day dry-aged Beef Chop (3 to 4” high, for sharing). If you have a view of the kitchen, you could take a peek as it is grilled, the smoke rising into the funnel.
And you don't have to be vegetarian to be tempted by meat-free dishes either - starters of Grilled flatbread, with smoked gouda and honey butter, or a Beetroot tartar, horseradish tofu cream and toasted nori for example - and who could resists a Large Plate of Jerusalem artichoke with barley risotto and grilled king oyster mushroom?
Sweets feature retro flavours like Toffee apple, with vanilla cream and caramelised walnuts, or ‘Bounty’ dark chocolate, lime and coconut - and, of course, what else but swiss roll baked Alaska, with lemon curd, frozen yoghurt and Grand Marnier? But if you don't have a sweet tooth, the excellent cheese options (Durrus, Young Buck and Mature Ballinrostig Gouda among them) are bound to find favour - and, to round it all off, one of those Osbourne ports should fit the bill nicely.
The ambience, cooking and informed, friendly service are terrific - and it's good value too, so what's not to love about The Glass Curtain.
