Dublin 2 is Ireland’s cultural capital, home to galleries, theatres, museums and a range of music venues.
It has gorgeous Georgian streets, Victorian pubs and five-star hotels, as well as leafy parks in St Stephen’s Green, Merrion Square and the Iveagh Gardens.
It also has Grafton Street, the country’s favourite shopping spot. Yet some of Dublin 2’s best stores lie just around its pedestrianised corners.
Take, for example, The Sweater Shop, the family knitwear business on Nassau Street established by Breege Ward and her brother Dom Byrne 40 years ago this year.
RM Block
Today Laura and Paul Byrne, Dom’s daughter and son, run the shop, which is now one of six in the overall group, including two in Galway and one in Kilkenny.
While, as its locations attest, tourists are an important market for the business, so too are its loyal customers in the domestic market, a cohort that continues to grow.
That’s not just because global superstars such as Taylor Swift famously don Aran sweaters but because of an increasing desire to buy less but buy better. “We are the opposite of fast fashion,” says Paul.
It is why some of the store’s best sellers today are the same styles that were its best sellers when it first opened 40 years ago. But as well as selling traditional sweaters, the business continuously introduces more contemporary styles too.
“Right now, we have a wonderful new range of sweaters in cropped styles and vibrant colours,” says Laura.
A key element in the business’s success is what we might call its foundation garment – customer service.
“Both Laura and I are obsessed with customer service. We’re a family business, and want people to feel that when they walk into the store,” says Paul.
That goes whether it is tourists alighting from the coaches that stop right outside, or students from Trinity College just across the road.
Not only is The Sweater Shop a family business but so many of its suppliers are too. That includes IrelandsEye Knitwear, started by the O’Sullivan family in 1988.
Thanks to it and other valued suppliers, The Sweater Shop stocks beautiful styles to suit both summer and winter, made from natural yarns including cashmere, lambswool and merino blends. “And they don’t itch,” laughs Paul, a reference to how Aran sweaters used to feel in the old days.
Two doors up on Nassau Street, the group recently opened a second shop, The Black Sheep, which has a range of gifts and accessories. On their time off, both Paul and Laura love nothing more than browsing the other independent stores in the neighbourhood.
“We just love the vibrancy of it all, and the fact that Nassau Street is such a heritage street, with a lot of family-run stores around us, including Kevin & Howlin, purveyors of the finest tweed, next door, and Kilkenny Design, just a few doors up,” he says. “It’s a really nice, close-knit community.”
While “the high street is the high street, and there’s no getting around that, when you go off the main streets in and around Dublin 2, that’s where all the gems are,” says Paul.
Although he and Laura are obviously sorted for knitwear, one of their favourite shops for the rest of their wardrobe is Fresh Cuts Clothing, in nearby Castle Market.
Founded by Steven and Lorna Murphy, a fashion designer, it specialises in sustainable and ethical clothing, using fabrics such as organic cotton, and recently opened a second branch in Galway.
“For me Dublin 2 is the city’s creative quarter. It also has great bars and restaurants and, on Castle Street and Drury Street, its predominantly independent Irish stores,” says Steven.
“We’re friends with all the other business owners and we all work together in a way that helps draw in locals and tourists alike.”
In the market for more
Dublin 2 also has some of the best restaurants and cafes in the city, with gourmands’ paradise Fallon & Byrne right at the top of the menu.
This year Fallon & Byrne celebrates its 20th anniversary. Whether it’s locals gathering goods for supper, workers grabbing a tasty bite for lunch, or local chefs popping in for artisan ingredients, it broke the mould for grocery shopping when it opened two decades ago.
As a restaurant venue, located in its beautiful heritage building, Fallon & Byrne has long been a landmark in food service too, with its elegant diningroom, atmospheric wine cellar, and beautiful events space, The Exchange.
It also has the largest cheese counter in Ireland, reason alone to visit. As the business’s head of cheese and wine – a job title to dine for – Donal Flynn knows exactly what keeps cheese lovers coming back time and again.
“Where Ireland has the advantage over other countries is in having such a wide range of international styles, compared to, say France or Italy or Spain, places where cheese is very strong but where they tend to only have cheeses from their country,” he explains.
“We’re not tied to tradition in that way and instead have the best cheese from everywhere.”
That includes Comté at four different ages, including up to 36 months. “These are vanishingly small [batches] in terms of Comté production. We’re talking about just less than 1 per cent,” says Donal, which makes them of particular interest for cheese lovers.
The store routinely makes space for up-and-coming food producers to sell directly to consumers too, giving many their start in business. “It’s their chance to get their brand out there and see if it works,” says Donal.
It also stocks well-established artisans, such as Bon Chocolatiers in Offaly and Hazel Mountain Chocolate in Clare, which specialises in bean-to-bar production.
Food lovers are increasingly keen to champion local artisans, says Aisling Fox, head of marketing at Fallon & Byrne.
The shop also stocks beautiful wines you won’t find in your local supermarkets. That’s because they often come from small, specialist wineries that don’t have the volumes supermarket chains require.
Indeed, 20 per cent of its wines can’t be found anywhere else in Ireland, because Fallon & Byrne buys it directly.
Donal’s wine-buying role covers not just Fallon & Byrne’s Wine Cellar, but its retail store, its first-floor diningroom and its ballroom venue. “We also do hampers,” he adds. “So in total we stock maybe 800 different wines, a huge range.”
Fallon & Byrne is also a hugely popular wedding venue, hosting 75 weddings last year alone. “There is a huge trend towards city weddings,” says Aisling, who believes they are less homogeneous than those in hotels. Indeed, many of its food-loving happy couples insist on taking wedding photos in the store’s well-stocked aisles.
Part of the business’s secret sauce is a willingness to innovate. Most recently that includes the introduction of ready-to-go meals from its Wine Cellar. Now available in the food hall, it’s a perfect way to avoid disappointment if the popular venue is booked out, as so often happens.
“The pizzas are cooked in our pizza oven in the Wine Cellar, so they have that lovely dappled-leopard print on the base, and are sensational,” Donal confirms.
The store’s bakery is another hugely popular feature, with all bread fresh baked on site daily. “It has become a destination in itself,” says Aisling. Just like Dublin 2, in other words.
