Snaffles

Snaffles, the early 20th century equestrian artist, unwittingly lent his name to a restaurant in a basement in Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, that opened in 1968. Four friends jointly owned it; a wine merchant called Fitzgerald, a flâneur called Cobby Knight and Rose and Nicholas Tinne. In those days small restaurants were unusual – people dined in hotels. Snaffles was a game-changer.

Middle-aged waiters in white jackets served Anglo-French dishes (with an emphasis on game, such as woodcock, plover, snipe and partridge) in a small room with hunting prints on hessian-clad walls. The kitchen was miniscule, as the picture shows. It was a huge success. It sat about forty at polished wooden tables. A menu from 1979 lists classics such as smoked salmon, £2.50, fillet steak with béarnaise sauce, £6.50, and chicken veronique, £2.95. There was a 25p cover charge. The wines, supplied by Fitzgerald’s family firm, were significantly better than was usual in those days. Also the menu had a few unusual dishes such as ratatouille  and the signature Snaffles mousse. This is essentially a mixture of tinned beef consommé and Philadelphia cream cheese with a pinch of curry powder, a squeeze of lemon and garnished with a prawn or two.

Fitzgerald and Knight sold their share to the Tinnes early on and Cobby started his own restaurant in the basement of his house, Mullaghfin, in Co. Meath. He engaged me as a waiter in my university holidays. Sir Richard Musgrave helped with the cooking. I told him one evening that there was a table of Texans. Mishearing this as “taxmen” he made a quick escape through the kitchen window. The Tinnes ran Snaffles until it closed in 1985.