When our son was negotiating the lease of what was to become the restaurant 64 Goodge Street, he reached an impasse: contractually, the lease stipulated that it be open six days a week, but the area was unsuitable for Sunday trading. He and his partner bravely decided to open on a Monday at lunch and dinner, something that continues to be highly unusual in the restaurant business.
The move has paid off. Although business on a Monday is 20% lower than on any other day of the week, the restaurant has established a market of Monday diners (admittedly helped by a Michelin star). More recently, because of its popularity, they have also opened The Quality Chop House on a Monday evening.
Monday openings may be rare but they are particularly treasured by hospitality professionals whose own places of work are closed on a Monday and who want to go out to enjoy themselves with good food and drink. This is a clear message to the restaurateurs of Dublin, where we spent Monday and Tuesday last week and where we found the vast majority of exciting restaurants firmly closed. Patrick Guilbaud: closed. The Ely Wine Bar: closed. Forest Avenue: closed. Only one reasonably well known restaurant, Etto, seemed to break this rule. Wine merchant William Tindal, whose prime sales are to restaurants, told us, ‘I’m struggling to suggest anywhere for Monday evening or even Tuesday lunch’. (Wine and restaurant writer Tom Doorley suggested we meet him at Ka Shing, a long-established dim sum restaurant on Wicklow Street, for Tuesday lunch).
I know all the reasons why this should be: a shortage of staff; too many prospective customers still working from home on a Monday; as well as the need to have some time to carry out minor repairs. But does every single restaurant in this charming city have to close on the same day?
We found one exception that should appeal to readers of this column. If you are in Dublin on a Monday or a Tuesday, head for Montys of Kathmandu, which is open every day apart from bank holidays.
At the bottom of an email from Shiva Gautam, Montys owner – whom I would describe as highly enthusiastic about wine but I also heard him described as ‘wine-obsessed’ – is a list of recent awards which include Star Wine List Awards for Best Austrian and Californian wine lists, Sparkling Wine list and Best Long List of the Year Ireland. All of which conveys some of this man’s enthusiasm. But not quite everything.
Almost as soon as our party had been seated on the ground floor in a room whose shelves are covered in bottles and glasses, we were served a delicious first course of deep-fried baby spinach leaves dribbled with yogurt and tamarind sauces and topped with pomegranate seeds, accompanied by a magnum of 2008 House of Arras sparkling wine from Tasmania.
Gautam’s pride and joy is his wine cellar and he loves to show it off. We walked past the kitchen, turned right downstairs where there was a large table of sommeliers enjoying themselves, and entered a room through a locked door. ‘This space’, Gautam said, pointing backwards, ‘will be turned into a wine bar quite soon.’
And then, finding a narrow space between cases of wine piled high, he continued, cases of Bouchard and Grande Druida Portuguese white wine providing a convenient resting place for his elbow. ‘I was brought over from Nepal and lived and worked in Kingston upon Thames as a civil engineer but I hated the nine-to-five monotony of the job. I thought about life as a restaurateur as an alternative and a friend from Dublin mentioned that this was just the type of restaurant the city needed. So I came over here and with my wife Lina, who inspired the menu, we opened Montys in 1997 and have been here ever since.’
Making the selection for his enormous, 81-page wine list has become quite difficult because, as he pointed out, ‘everywhere produces good to great wine these days. My role here is just to buy what excites me and to make the wines as drinkable as possible. So the cellar is kept at a constant 16–17 °C (61–63 °F). And here are a few special bottles like this bottle of Chateau Kefraya, Comte de M which is, in my opinion, the best bottle of Lebanese wine you are ever likely to taste.’ His tastes are catholic. He has been a regular visitor to the annual Toques et Clochers wine tasting in Limoux, France, for example, and continues to be impressed by the quality of the sparkling and still wines there.
It was time to head back upstairs to the restaurant. Gautam closed the cellar door. Firmly. (Thanks to his understandable security, there was apparently no loss of wine or cash when the restaurant was broken into a few hours after our visit.)
With the next course, Gautam turned commentator as well as wine provider. On the table was a magnificent-looking magnum of German dry Riesling, a Georg Breuer, Terra Montosa 2018, whose sharp, defined profile was beginning to fade, revealing luscious fruit underneath. With this we were served two large prawns that had been quietly marinated. This was a wonderful combination helped by Gautam’s admonition not to be afraid, ‘just eat them with your fingers’.
Our next wine, according to Gautam, was a tribute to one of the small but growing band of Irish vignerons currently working overseas (with one, Simon Tyrrell from Les Deux Cols in the southern Rhône, actually present). This was bottle number 1,089 of 1,500 of Diga 2022 from Priorat produced by Tom Gallagher, who had moved to Catalonia with his parents aged 10. From old vines purchased during COVID, this wine is a fine balance of Cabernet and Grenache.
There then followed three excellent, if not obvious, pairings. Firstly, four momos – Nepalese dumplings with a tomato, chili, garlic and coriander sauce, shown above – and a spicy 2017 Zinfandel from Chateau Montelena in Napa, California. Then a single tandoori lamb cutlet marinated in spices but devoid of black pepper (‘the enemy of wine’ according to Gautam), with Chateau Montelena 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon (the dinner guests included Bo Barrett and Heidi Peterson Barrett of Montelena). And finally, to our great surprise with the goat curry, a bottle of Cornas chosen by Tyrrell. The 2007 Billes Noires produced at Domaine du Coulet by Matthieu Barret was silky, harmonious, and proved to be a real pleasure to drink.
By this stage, the large sommelier party downstairs had finished and were making their way past our table. They were the judges and Anke Hartmann, winner of the Best Sommelier in Ireland competition for the third year in a row. The party included the wine lecturer Liam Campbell, with whose description of Gautam I have to agree wholeheartedly. ‘You can tell when a restaurateur is a wine lover. The enthusiasm shows in the diversity of the wines listed as they want to spread the love.’
On a practical note, I finished by asking Gautam whether trade on a Monday night in Dublin was at the same level as in London. ‘I think it is possibly even worse, down by as much as 25%. But I don’t really mind. If I weren’t open I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet such fascinating customers.’
Montys of Kathmandu 28 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, DO2 WP30 Ireland; tel: +353 1 670 4911
Note that Lena’s Nepalese Cookbook, by Lina Gautam, can be purchased via the ‘order online’ menu on Montys website.
Every Sunday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
