Last Friday night was Electric! Having received an invite from Electric Cork to come and dine in their restaurant upstairs over looking the South Mall & River Lee, I persuaded hubster to join me on a date night!
Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife…..for richer, for poorer, in sickness & in health, in good times & bad, in Pj’s with baby sick on her shoulder & leggings with stains of unknown origin that look distinctly like child poo (but she assure’s you aren’t), for late nights with teething babies & early mornings cursing that last glass of wine, for school runs in her Uggs & sidelines in her parka that’s she’s had since her last Oasis concert?
Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband…… richer, poorer, good times, bad times, Man Flu, Guinness Flu, selected deafness ALL night long, for eating all the meat left in the slow cooker for tomorrow nights dinner, snoring on the sofa at 8:45pm?
I’m not feeling up to a divorce this week…..hence the banner placement – he loves it really though! But it’s easy become a faceless name in this family raising business. Take some time….Make some time!!
Let’s face it ….. it’s easy to forget who we really are. It’s easy get lost in the madness & this is exactly why Hubster & I agreed to a date night.
Having wrestled all of the childers under the ages of 4 into bed by 7pm, I set about doing the important prep…..by pouring the vino and doggedly drinking a large glass of it before 1st or 2nd born could interrupt me by looking to be fed for the 6th or 7th time since 5:30pm. The obligatory Friday night movie dinner that consists solely of beige coloured food highlighted with stripes of sugary red sauce that actually tastes nothing like a tomato, was long devoured and MotherFool was officially OFF DUTY.
Image courtesy of Electric – check out their site here.
Off Duty MotherFool was hitting the town with the hubster. It may as-well have been 2004 again!! A table was booked at Electric for 8:30pm and there was no backing down now.
The good thing about being in a permanent state of exhaustion is that you really are delusional. It doesn’t take much wine on top of that to convince you that breaking out the foundation & concealer, all hastily applied alongside copious amounts of bronzer takes a good 8 years off that barely recognisable version of yourself. What has happened to bright eye’d me? Oh yea…..kids…. that’s what. But tonight is date night and I am undeterred!!!
“Now I’ll just get the one and only pic of you in the WHOLE night there MotherFool – oh do you know this is a magic camera and it sees what I see……I’ve had a pint after 7 years of no sleep…..this is just how I see nowdays….general fogginess & blur.”
“Don’t worry about it Hubster…..tis Mother Nature’s way of looking after me”
And so we were off.
We arrived:
Late – tick
Slightly drunk – tick
Barely talking – tick (there was an episode with a chocolate pop, a 2 year old & a deft but rather sly hand off by MotherFool – she was wearing her leather leggings after all – that resulted in white shirt carnage & general cursing & swearing by hubster whilst the taxi was waiting in the drive)
With slightly bewildered looks on our faces – tick (Is this real? Or am I dreaming? Are. WE. ACTUALLY. OUT. TOGETHER. IN. THE. ONE. SPOT. ALONE???????)
And so a glass of prosecco was raised in celebration – it was fairly hard to decide which from their amazing selection of cocktails to go for but I’m a simple gal at heart (ahem) & so the old classic it was.
The vibe in Electric is really cool – 3rd born & I had visited the bar for coffee & a scone a few days earlier. The giant white deer head did not go unnoticed by young Sherlock – he was at pains to point out the horse with the tree growing out of his head to me. Clearly he is not going to be a vet. Nor was the floor to ceiling window looking directly out on the river Lee lost on him – at this point he did ask if we were on the Ferry to France again! Genius! Hhhhhmmmm.
Dinner was booked in the main restaurant upstairs – which has a birds eye view of the South Mall and is perfect for any adults like us – (i.e. deprived of any social interaction & therefore felt like we were 1st row in a movie theatre watching what it is that the other half of the world normally get to do on a Friday night in the city centre).
The eclectic Art Deco decor had me drooling (or actually was that the wine?) & it felt great to be somewhere that wasn’t full to the brim of the youth of today all scantily clad. Electric is a classy joint – in the best way possible – not enough to make your feel out of place but neither was there any young one’s gyrating on bars stools or whatever it is they do these days. We felt like we belonged!
Like 2 people on day release, we settled into life outside the confines of our house at breakneck speed. And it wasn’t hard to do with the friendly & efficient service we received. And the food we were fuelled with was top notch & worth leaving the house for without a shadow of doubt. You know it’s good when you are still thinking about it 5 days later!
I even got a crash course on their wines and who actually knew that some vineyards add sugar to their grapes when producing their wine…….and this also equates to a more severe hangover! So there’s a tip for you! But it is good to learn a little about what you are drinking & Pavel, our wine waiter, was very knowledgable & helpful.
Steak with peppercorn sauce – check! Monkfish with sweet potato cake – check. No prizes for guessing who chose what!!!!
And there we were – 4 hours of general chit chat over wine, great food & get this……..salted caramel creme bruleé. Words failed me……I will return. And that is for sure. Be it for a date night, lunch date, in a group or whatever occasion I can dream up…..it’ll suit for sure.
I’m fussy in my old age…. I have to be! There simply is no time for wasting on a bad night out. I’ll definitely be heading back to Electric with hubster in tow. He’s got his eye’s firmly set on the oysters in the walk-in Fish bar upstairs. Whoah there solider!!!!
Yours, still thinking about the creme bruleé,
Cli xx
Electric Main Restaurant is open:
Brunch/Lunch Sat & Sun 12 midday – 3pm
Lunch Mon – Fri 12 midday to 3pm
Dinner Sun – Tues 5pm (last orders 9pm)
Wed – Sat 5pm (last orders 10pm)
Earlybird: 3 courses €25. Mon – Sun from 5pm last orders 6:30pm
Fish Bar Deadliest Catch: Daily 5 – 6:30pm (2 fish bar specials & 2 sides €30)
