A tiny caff on Essex Street East — posters floor to ceiling, rashers on the pan from six in the morning, and the quickest wit in Temple Bar behind the counter. No bookings, no fuss: walk in, join the queue, and the reviews say it moves faster than it looks.
Because you’re on Dublin’s theatre street. Project Arts Centre is a few doors down Essex Street East, Smock Alley Theatre — first opened in 1662 — is around the corner, and the Olympia is up on Dame Street. The stage doors of Temple Bar have always needed somewhere for breakfast.
Inside, the walls are covered floor to ceiling in theatre and film memorabilia, most of it hunted out of charity shops — and the name over the door reads Al’s, because Alan works the room. He gets name-checked in your reviews nearly as often as the rashers.
That’s the story as your public listings and 1,700-odd reviews tell it. If we’ve got any of it wrong, it’s fixed in a minute.
There’s no booking a table here — it’s first come, first fed, and the queue is part of the show. But if you’re bringing a group in for breakfast, timing a visit before an early flight, or have any other question, send a note.
On the live site this lands straight in the café’s own inbox.
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