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Published: July 11th 2010
The Forge B&B
Charming & quaint little B&B in Galway City. I recommend it.We departed Cooraclare and headed north to Galway. It is about an hour and a half drive north. We arrived and checked in to our B&B The Forge. It is on a quiet street and only about a five minute walk to the center of Galway. Delores the landlord is a lovely person. The house is straight out of the 18th century. It just oozes personality and charm. It is just as one would imagine a house of that era. It is however very comfy and our room for two was just right. I would definitely stay here again.
We went to get lunch and discovered culinary heaven. It is the Italian restaurant Tratorria Magnette.
It is the real thing! We started off with two appetizers, a salmon carpaccio and bruschetta with an anchovy and pomodoro topping. I ate freshly made scozzapreta pasta and Beth had a pizza with speck and rocket. What is rocket; it is arugula but rocket is what the Italians call it. And what is speck? Why speck is speck. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...ok this is an inside joke and besides us only two other people will think it is funny.
Our waitress was a young Italian. I had a
Modern Use
of the old forge...there is an artist that does metalwork in the old shop. chance to speak Italian...in Ireland...no less. She and her family hail from the north around Venice. The food was fabulous!!! The owners are from Rome and have not modified any of their food and have kept it just as you would get in Italy. We couldn't believe our good fortune.
We ate and had only a glass of Valpolicella because we had to hit the road for Knock. That trip however is a separate entry as you will see and merits its own story.
We left and vowed to eat our supper there. Which we did. We weren't willing to take any chance now that we had discovered such a superb dining spot. I super highly recommend this restaurant. Trattoria Magnette is the real thing!! Dennis and Moyda are excellent waitstaff. I asked Dennis where we could go listen to trad music that evening. He advised not to go to the places in the centre of town as that was mostly for tourists; if we wanted the real thing we needed to go away from the crowd. Dennis directed us to Crane's.
This pub is away from the touristy center and is mostly locals and according to Dennis only the
Old Wooden Lock
There was a canal system that used in bygone times. best musicians are invited to play and/or sit in on sessions. While we were there 3 or 4 individuals that came in were invited to sit in to play and sing. It was grand. The music was rousing and it was definitely the best of the trad music sessions we have listened to while we were Ireland.
The pub has an upstairs and downstairs. The upstairs featured more contemporary tunes and the smell of ganja was in the air. Periodically it would waft downstairs. By the way, the previous weekend, Crane's featured a session upstairs with The Chieftains, Alison Kraus, Lyle Lovett, and Vince Gill; it was only 10 euro to get in! Gahhhh...missed it by that much. Nonetheless, the musicians we listened were very good. A couple of pints accompanied our toe tapping. It was late by the time we departed.
On the way back to the B&B we ran into a couple of young girls that sat next to us at Crane's. When they first came into the bar we thought they were underage because they looked 14 or 16, but no, they were of age...18. They were from Belgium and were hitchhiking across Ireland for the week.
River Corrib
flows through the city...there is a nice river walk. (I wished that I had had those kind of adventures when I was there age.) We chatted with them for a bit and then headed back to the B&B.
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Judy Liedtke
non-member comment
Speck
We use the "speck is speck" phrase frequently - good memories. What else would speck be???