Farewell Eager Beaver, Temple Bar

ongarboy

Fast food giant Leon to open first Irish branch on site of former Temple Bar landmark https://jrnl.ie/4550558

Sad to hear another Temple Bar institution closing down to be replaced by a U.K. restaurant chain. Not familiar with this chain but independents are becoming rarer and rarer in this once allegedly creative quarter!

Eager Beaver was one of the few remaining authentic Temple Bar shops I remember from my youth. I bought some great jackets there over the years and even purchased leather trousers there back in the 90s!! 😀 I wonder can I still fit into them, lol!!

Gavin "shels"

ongarboy wrote: »

Sad to hear another Temple Bar institution closing down to be replaced by a U.K. restaurant chain.

They retired hence the business closed down, so probably by their own accord.

recipesforme

I would have much rather seen an independently owned shop/café go in there. Soon every city will be the same Starbucks/Costa/McDonalds/Boots etc. and every commerce that makes Ireland such a unique and lovely place will be gone

theteal

As fast food chains go, Leon do try to keep it a bit. . .beardy I suppose. A lot of the food is veggie, seedie, humus, grilled chicken kind of stuff - menu here. It's actually quite nice but a bit expensive, from memory it was £6-7 for a lunch that has any chance of filling you. Translate that into Dublin prices and I suppose it'll be a tenner.

Birneybau

Gavin shels wrote: »

They retired hence the business closed down, so probably by their own accord.

Family from Dublin 8 as far as I remember, think I went to school with the son.

imme

I want to throw up.

Just what temple bar needs, another greasy take away!

As for eager beaver I might miss it's presence but not it's pokey style of building, even though it's a full rebuild effectively.

VonLuck

imme wrote: »

I want to throw up.

Just what temple bar needs, another greasy take away!

As for eager beaver I might miss it's presence but not it's pokey style of building, even though it's a full rebuild effectively.

Greasy? It's a health food restaurant. Maybe take the time to read the article before jumping to outrage.

pauliebdub

Seriously though, the city centre must be saturated with restaurants right now. Every shop that closes is replaced by one, it's surely not sustainable.

Birneybau

Hate to be that dude but I always found Eager Beaver madly overrpriced. An army jacket I got in Camden Market cost me a third less than Eager Beaver were charging.

JohnnyFlash

Those British chain restaurants like Leon, Jamie’s Italian, Byron etc are always overpriced kips that serve really average food - the type that arrives in in vacuum packed bags and is reheated for serving.

Marcusm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Those British chain restaurants like Leon, Jamie’s Italian, Byron etc are always overpriced kips that serve really average food - the type that arrives in in vacuum packed bags and is reheated for serving.

I think that’s Wetherspoon’s you’re thinking of. It’s hard to see how Byron can pretend a vac packed pre cooked burger is a raw one - they cook it in open view ffs. Much of Leon’s food is raw. Have you ever really been to the places you’ve cited?

imme

VonLuck wrote: »

Greasy? It's a health food restaurant. Maybe take the time to read the article before jumping to outrage.

It's The Journal, so it's an advertorial effectively.
No information there other than, aren't we lucky a chain has smiled on Dublin!

I looked for pictures of Leon as well, it looks greasy to me. :cool:

No heart or soul or even individuality or difference just chains.

We should be grateful?

imme

Birneybau wrote: »

Hate to be that dude but I always found Eager Beaver madly overrpriced. An army jacket I got in Camden Market cost me a third less than Eager Beaver were charging.

They were overpriced.

Lux23

I never liked it. Always thought it an eyesore.

The Enbalmer

Marcusm wrote: »

. Much of Leon’s food is raw. Have you ever

Is this some new crusty trend to go with gluten free and avocado on toast?

Birneybau

Lux23 wrote: »

I never liked it. Always thought it an eyesore.

Ah, it was one of the last remnants of the Old, creative, Temple Bar

Marcusm

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Is this some new crusty trend to go with gluten free and avocado on toast?

They predated all that but it was set up to provide healthy alternatives to fast food. Had some fairly well credentialed food types behind it (Henry Dimbleby, Allegra McEvaddy.

I might be eulogising it a bit because I spent 2 decades in London. Leon opened around 2006 or so and was definitely tastier (grilled chicken with rice and slaw, meatballs, mezze type things, baked not fried fries) for lunch than many of the other offerings. It's not some gastronomic enterprise but frankly if 5 of the Starbucks around town were changed to Leons the world would be a better place. IT's s different type of offering. I agree that we do not need lots of chains but a lot of our unbranded lunch spots (and this is mostly a take and eat elsewhere style) offer substantially similar choices of sandwiches.

JupiterKid

I will miss Eager Beaver in my own little way. Brings back memories of my college years.

When you consider that back in 1991 Temple Bar was designated Dublin’s new Cultural Quarter and had a really bohemian and arty vibe...

...and to see it today, full of overpriced fast food joints, paddywhack shops, rip off pubs and drunken tourists, stag and hen parties , it saddens me.:(

mfceiling

imme wrote: »

I looked for pictures of Leon as well, it looks greasy to me. :cool:

Yeah all those greasy salads.

You didn't really look now did you?

The Enbalmer

JupiterKid wrote:

When you consider that back in 1991 Temple Bar was designated Dublin’s new Cultural Quarter and had a really bohemian and arty vibe...

JupiterKid wrote:

...and to see it today, full of overpriced fast food joints, paddywhack shops, rip off pubs and drunken tourists, stag and hen parties , it saddens me.

Temple Bar was never anything special even then.
I knocked around the area in the 90s and crown alley had the Bad Ass Cafe,The Wall St cafe and two or three second-hand clothes shops as well as DV8 to buy your docs.
The area round temple bar was much more bohemian in the 80s..you had anarchist collectives,hare Krishna restaurants,record shops aplenty and artists selling stuff out of old Georgian squats...meeting house square was the car park for an post and there were a couple of rough as feck old man pubs.
The temple bar "upgrade" actually got rid of the Nehemiah feel..the eager beaver being a case in point..it was easily the least bohemian of all the clothes shops in the area and by far the most expensive..you could always get better clothes on fownes st

brick tamland

I was in Eager Beaver about 2 months ago and Stock Levels were very low, obviously being wound down. I suppose it was very unlikely another independent retailer could afford the rent in such a prime location.

There are still a number of shops doing the same sort of stuff as eager beaver only a short walk away.

andekwarhola

To be fair, it hadn't been like the old EB (that I remember from my teens) for a long time: more like a teen clothes shop than an old musty emporium of ancient tweed coats and paisley shirts. Still very sad to see it go.

Being somebody that remembers the city centre wasteland of the 70s/80s, as much as I fully agree with commercial reivigoration of the city centre, I'd love to see some kind of scheme where you could see a good balance of big tenants but a nice - even if subsidized - proportion of smaller, niche shops.

Part of what made and makes Dublin so attractive in the past to us and tourists is that it's not just an identikit High Street.

Strumms

The Temple Bar area was formally an hive of activity for and of independent thinkers, independent fashion, music and eateries and so on. Due to its positive reputation, ample footfall it’s sadly by the looks of it becoming a victim of its own success. I hope I’m wrong but I’m starting to imagine now in years to come an identi-kit Matthew St. job which will be a pity.

I never liked the more boozy aspects of the place but I liked visiting there on chilled out Sundays...speakers corner, the music shops, Urban Outfitters and the more independent clothing gaffs etc. as well as a couple of the bars like The Norseman...

L1011

The bulk of the bars there were there on day 1 - it always had that density, they were just quieter.

The Quays licence moved from Crane Lane to the current location; Bad Ass Cafe is new; and then you had Fitzers where the McDonalds is now but its gone already.

AndrewJRenko

L1011 wrote: »

The bulk of the bars there were there on day 1 - it always had that density, they were just quieter.

The Quays licence moved from Crane Lane to the current location; Bad Ass Cafe is new; and then you had Fitzers where the McDonalds is now but its gone already.

Bad Ass has been going since the early 80s? It was the first place I ever had steak on a stone, which was a hazardous activity given the amount of alcohol on board at the time.

RasTa

Always surprised greggs never opened in Dublin. Would clean up

imme

mfceiling wrote: »

Yeah all those greasy salads.

You didn't really look now did you?

If I said I did then I did.
Why would you doubt me.

Enough of cul-de-sacs; another international chain fast food 'restaurant',

we're as good as Copenhagen or London or wherever else they have a branch, is this meant to be a good thing?

The Enbalmer

AndrewJRenko wrote:

Bad Ass has been going since the early 80s? It was the first place I ever had steak on a stone, which was a hazardous activity given the amount of alcohol on board at the time.

It was there in 1984 for sure..there were ads for it on Rick Dees!

ongarboy

Leon now open.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/leon-opens-first-irish-restaurant-1.3893024

The Enbalmer

ongarboy wrote: »

Leon now open.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/leon-opens-first-irish-restaurant-1.3893024

Leon’s menu includes dishes that predominantly draw on Mediterranean food culture, with Moroccan meatballs, grilled halloumi wraps and kefir smoothies on offer.

What a load of absolute ****!

L1011

Grilled halloumi is quite nice - try it.

Its also been available widely for years.

miamee

L1011 wrote: »

Grilled halloumi is quite nice - try it.

Its also been available widely for years.

I ad some today in Umi Falafel for lunch, tasty. If I'd known Leon was opening today I'd have gone to check it out.

jd

Went to Leon day it opened. Food fine, but, "Any allergies, sir"?

Birneybau

jd wrote: »

Went to Leon day it opened. Food fine, but, "Any allergies, sir"?

You point being?

jd

Birneybau wrote:

You point being?

Not something I have been asked before when ordering food.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

Grilled halloumi is quite nice - try it.

Its also been available widely for years.

Leon, or grilled halloumi? I thought this was the first (Leon) in Ireland?

I've just tried it, not knowing it was there. I had eaten from some of its London restaurants, and I'm delighted to see it's finally come to Ireland.

The allergies thing did throw me a bit, though. I was about to say "penicillin" but I decided to take the chance that they weren't about to put antibiotics in my falafel.

L1011

Grilled halloumi.

ongarboy

sounds a bit OTT asking if you have allergies? I'd have assumed adults with allergies will always proactively seek out what is in the ingredients without waiting for the server to ask them. It would be like McDonalds asking if you are a coeliac or gluten allergic every time you order a Big Mac....

wakka12

Maybe they ask in case you have an allergy to a substance which you wouldnt have thought woud be included in a meal youve chosen. I dont see the big deal, theyre just trying to be helpful

Marcusm

Allergies is a big issue in the U.K. following the death of the Laperouse girl having eaten a Pret A Manger sandwich. Freshly prepared on premises food may not carry all the warnings of prepacked food. Lots of nuts/seeds garnishes at Leon.