How many times in life have we heard the phrase, ‘the simple ideas are best?’
So there must be a fair few restaurateurs that are kicking themselves that they didn’t have the insight and vision of Niall Sabongi when it comes to seafood restaurants.
Forget the airs and graces, forget the fancy cutlery and white tablecloths. Be gone lobster fish tanks and silver crab crackers. No, instead, Klaw is one of the most informal restaurants in Dublin.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
There’s no booking or even menus. Whatever is on the blackboard is what’s on today and because it only seats about 15 people, its cosy. So cosy in fact that you’re high fiving the kitchen staff on the way to the toilet. And you know what, it’s just what Dublin needed.
All part of the masterplan
“I can’t claim any masterplan here,” says Niall. Given that we’re in his second restaurant, Klaw Poke with a third sitting across Dublin, Klaw Seafood Café, we raise our eyebrow.
Laughing, he says, “Seriously, the idea came from a very simple conversation with friends.
We were in Temple Bar trying to get some oysters and we couldn’t get any, unless we were opting for a very formal restaurant. So I said, there must be more than that, there is a real opportunity here.
“So I got researching and found this tiny little box of a building in Temple Bar where I said, sure we could bang out a few orders of oysters and chowder there.
"We had it open literally within 10 days. I got onto a builder friend of mine, went to a salvage yard, got reclaimed wood for the tables.
"All the tiles on the wall, the floor, all reclaimed and we thought let’s give it a shot. Within days, we were jammed out the door.”
Time to rewind
If this article was a movie, it’s at this point we would pause and rewind because this idea might have rolled out in 10 days but there was a lifetime love of fish at play here.
“So my father George Sabongi was a restaurateur, most famously known for George’s Bistro, and growing up we were just surrounded by a passion for food.”
“He’s right there,” interjects Niall’s brother Adam who, dressed in chef’s whites, is behind the counter pouring some steaming chowder into a bowl, placing crunchy prawn rolls on the side.
“One of my earliest memories was coming down stairs one morning when I was about six years old and the whole kitchen was filled with sausages.
"Back then you couldn’t buy a decent Italian salami in Dublin so he decided to make them himself. "He would stay up all night mincing the meat and drying the sausages with an air dryer, the kitchen would be just dripping in red oil, which was delicious and then he would go off and sell them in restaurants.”
Cockles and mussels
The love of fish also came from an early age, having grown up in Clontarf. “Foraging is very trendy now but growing up, we would be up walking the beaches, picking cockles and mussels and eating them raw.
"We also had this story as kids, of my dad coming home in the evening with a big bag of brown crabs that he probably got for free as they were just used for bait back then.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
"We would boil them up and my mother would be giving out about the mess. So she would go out onto the porch, cover the place in newspaper and with big domestic hammers, we would start smashing the crabs.
"It was brilliant but the neighbours would be passing saying, ah sure the poor divils, they haven’t got a bite to eat, they’re feeding them crabs from the beach. Now sure, it would be fierce posh.”
Fine dining
Not surprisingly, this love of food took legs, and wings even. “My father didn’t want me to go into the industry, I mean it’s demanding and all-consuming but he said, if I did want my own restaurant, I should know the cooking side of things.
"So after working in bars and restaurants from an early age, I took a year off from school and went to Paris to work in a private members’ club restaurant for the CEOs of Peugeot.
It was a busy kitchen but I got to see the whole real French system. Then after I finished school I went to London and worked in fine dining.
When Niall says fine, he means fine. We’re talking the Dorchester and Scotts of Mayfair. Right throughout his career Niall says he worked everywhere from front of house to behind the cooker, he even did a stint as a butler in Buckingham Palace.
“To run a successful business, you need to know every part of the operation, and the guys here in Klaw all get that experience.”
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
So up to this point, you might be thinking, this guy has plenty of experience, he was hardly going to get it wrong with a restaurant in Dublin.
"We had restaurants that didn’t work. My first restaurant in Ireland was Romanza and then we opened another one in Drogheda, right around the time that the recession hit.
"Now I’ll tell you that didn’t go so well, we closed. So business is going good for us now, but it’s often been bad.
"I am positive, I wouldn’t be a nervous person and I will say there is no point in being fearful, life is short. However, when I am up at 5.30am in the morning to get to work, well I guess that is probably coming from a place of fear, a fear of failing.
Klaw journey
Such a concept doesn’t look likely in the near future though as the Klaw journey continues. “A lot has happened in the last 12 months.
"Klaw Poke on Capel Street is open a year now and Klaw Seafood Café opened earlier this year. So 2018 is all about getting them firmly on their feet, improving them, making them sustainable.
"We’re also trying to reduce our carbon footprint massively. That’s the main focus this year.”
He also says he is looking at doing something with recipes, hinting a Klaw cookbook might be a Christmas present for seafood lovers.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
“Next year, it’s going to be all about the Urban Monger, a series of fishmongers with a difference right across Dublin as well as a cookery school.
"We’ll get all types of fish and people can come in and learn. It’s all about getting people more comfortable cooking and eating fish. In the future, I’d love to have a Klaw in Cork and Sligo, shacks right across the country.”
This ambition is certainly benefitting the oyster farmers of Ireland. While 90% of Irish oysters are exported to France and Asia, Klaw is keeping more and more on our shores, now selling half a tonne every week.
When Niall isn’t in Klaw or shucking oysters at food festivals across the country, he is hanging out with his wife Natalie who he met while working in Luigi Malones 20 years ago, a restaurant that you can actually see from the front door of Klaw. They also have two sons, Callum (12) and Max (seven).
“The boys love food, they love cooking and, just like me when I was kid, they love walking the beaches, foraging for cockles and mussels. God, I hope they don’t go into the business.” And just like that, the future of Klaw becomes even more certain.
Read more
Any fin is possible with Pat O'Connell
20 years of the Tannery
How many times in life have we heard the phrase, ‘the simple ideas are best?’
So there must be a fair few restaurateurs that are kicking themselves that they didn’t have the insight and vision of Niall Sabongi when it comes to seafood restaurants.
Forget the airs and graces, forget the fancy cutlery and white tablecloths. Be gone lobster fish tanks and silver crab crackers. No, instead, Klaw is one of the most informal restaurants in Dublin.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
There’s no booking or even menus. Whatever is on the blackboard is what’s on today and because it only seats about 15 people, its cosy. So cosy in fact that you’re high fiving the kitchen staff on the way to the toilet. And you know what, it’s just what Dublin needed.
All part of the masterplan
“I can’t claim any masterplan here,” says Niall. Given that we’re in his second restaurant, Klaw Poke with a third sitting across Dublin, Klaw Seafood Café, we raise our eyebrow.
Laughing, he says, “Seriously, the idea came from a very simple conversation with friends.
We were in Temple Bar trying to get some oysters and we couldn’t get any, unless we were opting for a very formal restaurant. So I said, there must be more than that, there is a real opportunity here.
“So I got researching and found this tiny little box of a building in Temple Bar where I said, sure we could bang out a few orders of oysters and chowder there.
"We had it open literally within 10 days. I got onto a builder friend of mine, went to a salvage yard, got reclaimed wood for the tables.
"All the tiles on the wall, the floor, all reclaimed and we thought let’s give it a shot. Within days, we were jammed out the door.”
Time to rewind
If this article was a movie, it’s at this point we would pause and rewind because this idea might have rolled out in 10 days but there was a lifetime love of fish at play here.
“So my father George Sabongi was a restaurateur, most famously known for George’s Bistro, and growing up we were just surrounded by a passion for food.”
“He’s right there,” interjects Niall’s brother Adam who, dressed in chef’s whites, is behind the counter pouring some steaming chowder into a bowl, placing crunchy prawn rolls on the side.
“One of my earliest memories was coming down stairs one morning when I was about six years old and the whole kitchen was filled with sausages.
"Back then you couldn’t buy a decent Italian salami in Dublin so he decided to make them himself. "He would stay up all night mincing the meat and drying the sausages with an air dryer, the kitchen would be just dripping in red oil, which was delicious and then he would go off and sell them in restaurants.”
Cockles and mussels
The love of fish also came from an early age, having grown up in Clontarf. “Foraging is very trendy now but growing up, we would be up walking the beaches, picking cockles and mussels and eating them raw.
"We also had this story as kids, of my dad coming home in the evening with a big bag of brown crabs that he probably got for free as they were just used for bait back then.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
"We would boil them up and my mother would be giving out about the mess. So she would go out onto the porch, cover the place in newspaper and with big domestic hammers, we would start smashing the crabs.
"It was brilliant but the neighbours would be passing saying, ah sure the poor divils, they haven’t got a bite to eat, they’re feeding them crabs from the beach. Now sure, it would be fierce posh.”
Fine dining
Not surprisingly, this love of food took legs, and wings even. “My father didn’t want me to go into the industry, I mean it’s demanding and all-consuming but he said, if I did want my own restaurant, I should know the cooking side of things.
"So after working in bars and restaurants from an early age, I took a year off from school and went to Paris to work in a private members’ club restaurant for the CEOs of Peugeot.
It was a busy kitchen but I got to see the whole real French system. Then after I finished school I went to London and worked in fine dining.
When Niall says fine, he means fine. We’re talking the Dorchester and Scotts of Mayfair. Right throughout his career Niall says he worked everywhere from front of house to behind the cooker, he even did a stint as a butler in Buckingham Palace.
“To run a successful business, you need to know every part of the operation, and the guys here in Klaw all get that experience.”
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
So up to this point, you might be thinking, this guy has plenty of experience, he was hardly going to get it wrong with a restaurant in Dublin.
"We had restaurants that didn’t work. My first restaurant in Ireland was Romanza and then we opened another one in Drogheda, right around the time that the recession hit.
"Now I’ll tell you that didn’t go so well, we closed. So business is going good for us now, but it’s often been bad.
"I am positive, I wouldn’t be a nervous person and I will say there is no point in being fearful, life is short. However, when I am up at 5.30am in the morning to get to work, well I guess that is probably coming from a place of fear, a fear of failing.
Klaw journey
Such a concept doesn’t look likely in the near future though as the Klaw journey continues. “A lot has happened in the last 12 months.
"Klaw Poke on Capel Street is open a year now and Klaw Seafood Café opened earlier this year. So 2018 is all about getting them firmly on their feet, improving them, making them sustainable.
"We’re also trying to reduce our carbon footprint massively. That’s the main focus this year.”
He also says he is looking at doing something with recipes, hinting a Klaw cookbook might be a Christmas present for seafood lovers.
Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant. / Claire-Jeanne Nash.
“Next year, it’s going to be all about the Urban Monger, a series of fishmongers with a difference right across Dublin as well as a cookery school.
"We’ll get all types of fish and people can come in and learn. It’s all about getting people more comfortable cooking and eating fish. In the future, I’d love to have a Klaw in Cork and Sligo, shacks right across the country.”
This ambition is certainly benefitting the oyster farmers of Ireland. While 90% of Irish oysters are exported to France and Asia, Klaw is keeping more and more on our shores, now selling half a tonne every week.
When Niall isn’t in Klaw or shucking oysters at food festivals across the country, he is hanging out with his wife Natalie who he met while working in Luigi Malones 20 years ago, a restaurant that you can actually see from the front door of Klaw. They also have two sons, Callum (12) and Max (seven).
“The boys love food, they love cooking and, just like me when I was kid, they love walking the beaches, foraging for cockles and mussels. God, I hope they don’t go into the business.” And just like that, the future of Klaw becomes even more certain.
Read more
Any fin is possible with Pat O'Connell
20 years of the Tannery
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