Press & Awards

Lucinda O'Sullivans Ireland

Every time I visit the Olive Delicatessen and Café on Strand Street in the north Dublin seaside town of Skerries I think of how my mother would have enjoyed it. Like many Dubliners of my generation we always took a house in Skerries for a month during the summer, indeed on one or two occasions on Strand Street itself. There weren’t any such things as cafes – it was either pubs or the local fish and chip shop at the top of the north beach – and there wasn’t anywhere to buy groceries apart from the very basics of bread and butter.

Deirdre and Peter Dorrity have created the most delightful ambiance in their delicious shop and café. Here you can not only buy all the joys of continental foods which are now part of the Irish staple diet but you can sit down and enjoy them too. You walk through the door and are met with a waft of exotic foodie aromas that transport you all over the world. They have a tremendous range of Artisan produce including homemade soups, salads, cous-cous, hummus, dips, an abundance of the eponymous olives in bowls on a table just inside the door, Greek salad with Feta cheese, rice, beans, pasta salads, charcuterie from Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, a myriad of cheeses, and a wide selection of wines and wonderful olive oils. Their amazing range of cheeses are seasonal and come from small Irish, France, Spanish and Italian artisan suppliers - these are selected specially for them by Sheridan's the Cheesemongers. They also do lovely French style patisseries - yum. Deirdre encourages customers to try everything so don't be afraid to ask for a taste of this or that. There are jars and containers of exotic vegetables, sauces, conserves. They do really good coffee and scones, artisan breads, muffins, panini filled with Parma ham, fresh mozzarella, and sunblushed tomatoes served on a simple wooden board, and other delicious casual foods, in fact their range of unusual sandwiches and combinations of same, are legendary, so you can sit outside with a glass of lovely wine or a cup of Paolombini coffee direct from Italy and come to the conclusion that you are far better off enjoying yourself in Skerries rather than Sicily!

Last year, my friend Carmel and I went up to Skerries to visit a restaurant but we decided to go early in the day and have a good look around and indulge in a bit of nostalgia. I live in Monkstown on the other side of the Bay but with the tunnel and new motorway we found ourselves in Skerries in under an hour. Our first port of call was to Olive for a brace of Mochas and scones with jam. That consumed and feeling civilised again, we loaded up with Parma ham, a couple of salads, goats cheese, fruit juices, crusty breads, a bottle of Sancerre, which we thoroughly enjoyed later sitting out at a point overlooking Lambay Island and watching the amazing number of birds in flight.

Make Olive your first port of call in Skerries – it’s a great day out too.

Bridgstone "Best in Ireland" award 2008

Peter Doritty and Deirdre Fahy ran Café Irie in Temple Bar for a decade before heading northside to open up the acclaimed Olive at the end of 2005

It's a cult shop, spoken of in terms of great respect by the people who supply it, never mind the folk who come here for lovely bites and panini and other good things to enjoy in the café.

Good wines, good cheeses, lovely olives (of course!) and a one-stop-shop for good things in Skerries.

The Sunday Tribune - Good taste will Jillian Bulger 25th January 2008

Sambo heaven FOR 10 years, Café Irie made the most exciting and unusual sandwiches in Dublin. Then the couple behind Temple Bar's coolest hang-out sold up and shipped out to a quieter life in Skerries. Here they set up Olive, a gourmet food store and café that offers a great mix of homemade produce alongside interesting artisan treats.

Olives, farmhouse cheese and continental meats feature alongside fresh pasta, homemade condiments and chutneys and exquisite French pastries.

Appealing to the converted, and hoping to win over new palates, customers are encouraged to taste before buying. Staying through to their roots, owners Deirdre and Peter Doritty still do a roaring trade in signature sambos although there's a sophisticated range of homemade soups, salads and quiches too served with good Italian coffee and wines by the glass.

Olive opens seven days a week making it the perfect place to stop for lunch after a Sunday jaunt to Skerries.

Sunday Business Post - Tastings at Olive 18th November 2007

The owners of Olive deli in Skerries know that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so they regularly offer tastings.

There are samplings of cheeses, chutneys and chocolates, while morning visitors might be offered a croissant with jam or a piece of gourmet sausage. ‘‘If someone is considering our soup of the day, we will give them a small cup of it to try,” says co-owner Deirdre Fahy.

‘‘It shows them how happy we are with our product.” Olive is on Strand Street in Skerries

A Love of Olive:Food and Wine Magazine March 2006

Anyone else cherish fond memories of Café Irie in Temple Bar, which brought us imaginative, exciting sandwiches and soups long before the trend caught on? The savvy couple behind this charismatic spot have moved to Skerries, and taken their passion for food with them.

Their new enterprise, Olive, on Strand Street, offers North Dubliners access to quality artisan products otherwise hard to source locally: Sheridan’s cheese, Gubeen sausages, l’Artisan breads, Umbra organic smoked salmon, Chez Emily chocolates and Palombini Coffee, Their range of salads, soups and sarnies sound as good as ever, and they marinate their own olives, which you are welcome to taste. And although summer may seem far away, it’s a warming though that you can pick up an impromptu picnic, basket rug and all, to take down to the beach when the sun does decide to show.

The Sunday Business Post, February 19, 2006 - By Tina-Marie O’Neill

Peter Doritty and Deirdre Fahy are the husband-and-wife team behind Olive, a new delicatessen and food store on Strand Street in Skerries, Co Dublin.

Fahy is from Tyrone and Doritty comes from Bangor in Co Down. They met 13 years ago while studying at Trinity College Dublin and set up Cafe Irie, a coffee shop in Temple Bar in Dublin, after leaving Trinity.

Doritty found he loved working in the food industry, and delayed a planned return to college to run the cafe. ‘‘We sold Cafe Irie after ten years and moved to Skerries,” he said. ‘‘There’s no commute to work now and we love living here.”

The couple opened Olive three months ago. The shop is open seven days a week from 8.30am to 6pm. It will open later during the summer months, when customers can eat either outdoors or indoors at the bistro-style cafe.

‘‘We recognised a real gap in the market and have sourced the very best from artisan producers from Ireland and Europe,” said Fahy. ‘‘For the local community, Olive is a one-stop shop for quality food and drink. It offers an alternative to travelling to such places as farmers’ markets.”

Doritty concentrates on the day-to-day running of the store, while Fahy works on marketing and other business aspects of Olive. The store sells homemade foods including dips, chocolates, French breads, fresh pastas and organic foods, including salmon.

Its cheeses are exclusively supplied by Sheridan’s cheesemongers.

Cured meats are sourced from Italy, Spain, France and Ireland, and customers are encouraged to taste before they buy. Food hampers are also available in store.

Customers can also buy made-to-order sandwiches, homemade quiches, soups, seasonal salads and a range of antipasti, dips and desserts. A range of wines is also available, sourced from James Nicholson, a northern wine distributor.

Opening Hours

Monday - Saturday 8.30am to 6.00pm
Sunday 9am to 6.00pm