About Us
Our philosophy at the Garden Café is to offer fresh, local, quality food at an affordable price in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. We also strive to get involved in the life of the wider community and work to reduce the impact of the café on the environment.
We always go out of our way to support local food producers and suppliers. The local food suppliers we use include:
- Meat from Kennedy's Butchers, Orchard Lane, Dingle
- Speciality breads from Courtney's Bakery, Dick Macks Lane, Dingle
- Free Range Eggs from Lispole Eggs, Lispole
- Scones from Cístí Ceann Trá, Ventry
- Smoked fish from Ted Browne, Ballinaboula, Dingle
- Fruit & Vegetables from Kingdom Fresh, The Tracks, Dingle
- Salad and vegetables from local growers in season
- Locally produced Elderflower Cordia in season
At the Garden Café, we have a strong committment to the environment and do our bit by growing our own herbs in the garden; composting all our vegetable waste; using a green energy electricity supplier; minimising the use of electricity in the café and recycling all our paper and plastic products. By using local suppliers as much as we can, we have reduced the carbon footprint of the supply chain to the café. Most of the furniture in the cafe was 'rescued' and restored/re-uphostered to bring it back into use.
Herbs in the Garden
We also have a strong committment to supporting local arts and crafts and have hosted a number of art exhibitions including paintings by Anne Stack, a photography retrospective by Michaela Connolly and paintings by local artists of the resident Dingle dolphin (Fungi) to celebrate his 25 years in the town. The Café has also been used as the venue for a local song-writing workshop.
The Garden Café is an active supporter of the Dingle Film Festival. The Café has hosted a number of events for the Film Festival as well as operating as the box office. You can find out more at www.dinglefilmfestival.com
This year the Café hosted an event for the Féile na Bealtaine Festival which runs every year at the beginning of May. The Iranain born author, Marsha Mehran, held a reading from her book Pomegranate Soup and talked about the inspiration for her work.
We are also involved in the annual Dingle Food Festival which is held on the first weekend in October and take part in the Taste Trail for the festival - our theme this year was 'Dingle Dog Tasters' - samples of our special hot dog made solely from local produce.
We sell products for local artisans, including hand knitted tea cosies by Pia, home made jam by Bob, photographic compilations of the Dingle Peninsula by Annette and fibre glass wall hangings by Nobby. We make hampers of locally produced goods, specialising in Christmas hampers.
At the Garden Café, we enjoy celebrating the various festivals (Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas) and the seasons, We decorate the café accordingly and change our window displays to suit. Our Christmas Tree is a sight to behold. We also hold various evenings throughout the year - Nollaig na mBan meal, Halloween Party and we have also hosted the Green Street Traders' Christmas Party.
Window Displays - Halloween & Summer
Location:The Garden Café is located in the beautiful town of Dingle - opposite the church on Green Street.
Christmas Window
Winter Opening Hours:
Weds to Sat: 10AM - 4.30PM
Sun: 12AM - 4.00PM
CLOSED MONDAY & TUESDAY
