The Sea Hare café in Clifden is to close. Based originaly in Joyce’s pub, and then in The Pier Bar around the corner from Joyce’s, The Sea Hare operated a 100-restaurant in what was formerly the function room of the Alcock & Brown hotel in Clifden.
Philippa Duff and Sinead Foyle developed confidence in their food and focused on locally sourcing ingredients in 2020 and 2021.
They launched a tamarind sauce as a condiment during a lockdown, which is now stocked in specialty food stores across the country.
The Sea Hare initially operated with just Philippa and Sinead in the kitchen, but expanded with additional kitchen staff in the following year, allowing for more creativity.
Collaborations were held with chef Martin Ruffley and Karen O’Donoghue of The Happy Tummy during the winter.
The duo plans to offer a menu centered around locally sourced ingredients, including items like crispy chickpea fritters, fish of the day with lemon mayo, and aged dairy cow rib roast.
They are gearing up to open their new premises, sticking to their theme of local sourcing and simple, delicious food, and partnering with various local businesses for linens, aprons, and dinner plates.
In a post on Twitter X the owners Philippa Duff and Sinead Foyle said: Like the rest of our industry we have found it impossible knock after knock there is only so much we can take. We are in hospitality, so we are hospitable, kind, hardworking, fair, generous, etc fighting government is just too much now. Thanks you all.
On Facebook they said: It is with great sadness and regret we have to inform you that our wonderful foodie paradise at the Sea Hare is no more. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Sea Hare is now homeless. Having survived Covid, it was with great excitement last year and high hopes for the future, we set about transforming a new space into our dream. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
We want to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful staff, our loyal customers, those who went out of their way to visit us and all our social media followers. When we commenced this adventure, we wanted to showcase the extraordinary produce in this part of Connemara. Thank you to the fishermen, the farmers, the vegetable, flower and food growers, all of whom made our food so delicious.
A big shout out to the numerous food writers who reviewed us so positively, in particular Katy McGuinness who, despite us serving her smoked pollock on her first visit to the Sea Hare, remained a great supporter. Ben Olsen from National Geographic dropped by last year and gave us a big thumbs up, as did the internationally renowned Forbes magazine, describing the Sea Hare as their ‘favourite restaurant in Connemara’.
From the dream of running a restaurant four years ago, we were honoured to be awarded Best Café in Connaught in the Irish Restaurant Awards 2022 and also secured a commendation in Best Casual Dining, Sunday Business Post Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year Awards 2022
At the moment the future is very uncertain for the Sea Hare but we will continue to champion the food from our beautiful part of the world in any way we can.
We would dearly love to find a new home for the Sea Hare and we will continue the search.
Sinead & Phillipa
