Guinness, Oyster and Whisky Festival Recap
“Many a Guinness were consumed, many an oyster shucked, many a whisky sipped and many a friend made. A magic day was had by all.”
The Day
We began the day with some spirited hurling. To have three pucs at the ball guests were invited to make a donation to the Irish Support Agency and the target was Thierry Henry’s famous left hand. Read more about the famous handball incident and why Henry was our target here…
The live music began right from 12pm and fuelled by Guinness, the musicians grew and grew throughout the day. Beginning with just 4 or 5 players, as word spread other session musicians turned up and by the end of the day our musicians were going 12 strong, with a stunning melancholy of singers, guitarists, drum players, fiddle players, flute players, a banjo player and a keyboard player. If you closed your eyes you could have been in Dublin.
Our premium oyster supplier East33 setup a beautiful oyster bar on the terrace and were accompanied by Wexford man Neil Nolan from Pony Dining and Roger from County Shanghai, dishing out their deliciously creamy Guinness, crème fraîche and fresh shaved horseradish dressing for the oysters. They also had small pipette bottles of Laphroaig Whisky and Starward Whisky to drop onto the oysters - explaining how the unique properties of each whisky paired beautifully with the freshly shucked, Sydney rock oysters from Merimbula, NSW.
Our pop up Guinness bar was busy right from when we opened and played host to our Guinness pouring competition at 3.30pm, judged by the Insta famous ‘Guinness of Sydney’ boys. Hilariously, the only Australian to enter the competition took out the win!
We had a beautiful Waterford Whisky stall on the terrace hosted by Scott from The Whisky List. He was kept busy all day selling nips of the delicious, premium Irish drop paired with the oysters.
In the main dining area we had a pop up sparkling wine bar from award winning Howard Park Wines and another smaller pop up oyster bar from East33, manned by oyster farmer Ben who came up from the beautiful South Coast specially for the day. We also had a face painter keeping the kids happy up on the stage - she might have been the busiest of all our stalls at one point!
Dave, our head chef from The Treehouse was dishing our hot, pork rolls from a whole roasted pig served with fresh slaw and a variety of hot sauces.
From 1pm the first of our live performances started with the Sydney department of Irish set dancers taking the stage and giving the crowd a mesmerising dance performance.
We hosted an oyster shucking competition at 2pm with Sydney chefs Neil Nolan from Pony Dining, Roger Lachang from St Paul & Co and our very own Dan Moore from The Treehouse, judged by seasoned oyster farmer Ben from East33. Roger took out the win by shucking half a dozen oysters in under a minute! No injuries were incurred apart from a battered ego or two.
From 3pm we had the kids from Dweyer-Whelan Academy of Dance performing tradition Irish dancing and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the little ones got going.
The Night
During the evening we hosted a ‘Spectacular Irish Feast’ in aid of The Irish Support Agency. Guests started arriving from 5.30pm and were greeted by a freshly poured Guinness or Hop & Clover Pale Ale, a nip of Waterford Whisky or a glass of Howard Park sparkling wine.
Once seated, guests were treated to freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters with a variety of dressings, followed by their choice of prawn cocktail, grilled scallops with black pudding or chicken and mushroom vol-au-vents, all to stunning background music from Marcus Holden.
Our very own Colm got on the mic after the entrees to welcome guests and thank them for coming, followed shortly after by Paula from The Irish Support GAnecy,
Once speeches were out the way mains were served, either 18 hour Guinness braised beef cheeks with colcannon potato and Dutch carrots or Waterford Whisky glazed salmon with potato crostini and greens.
Rebecca Harkin from The Celtic Gra then joined Marcus Holden on stage for a stunning, live rendition of her new show and it didn't take long for guests to jump out of their seats and revel in the live music.
Guinness, Hop & Clover Pale Ale, Howard Park sparkling, white and red wines as well as Waterford Whisky were all included in the beverage package for the evening and not a soul in the venue was left with an empty glass.
Desserts were served next and included either baked apple with cinnamon anglaise, coconut crumble and vanilla ice cream or Guinness and dark chocolate cake. It didn’t take long after desserts for various dance floors to pop up around the venue and the rest of the evening was full of laughter, full bellies and dancing - just as it should be.
