Jack and Theo Kirwan have built a loyal following for the Sprout & Co Kitchen chain with impressive speed and efficiency. The brand began life in 2013 as Sprout Food Company, a small juice concession in Avoca’s Rathcoole outlet where Jack had cheffed. Soon enough they were supplying various businesses across the city, and their signature juices cold-pressed at their Bray, Co Wicklow allotment remain a central draw for their health-conscious and largely millennial customer base. By 2015 they had opened the first of what soon became three Sprout & Co Kitchen outlets in Dublin’s city centre south.
Speed and efficiency define everything these entrepreneurial 20-something brothers put their hand to. The Sprout & Co Kitchen catch-phrase promises food that is ‘healthy, seasonal and local’ – elements that have not always been associated with fast food. You might add to that ‘cheerful’ for the service and ‘attractive’ for the clean and airy interiors and the colourful display of fresh food at the service counter.
Each of the three outlets offers a breakfast and lunchtime menu that can be pre-ordered online for collection, or in person in what are often long but always fast-moving queues. Due attention has been given to developing a service system that really works, resulting in a cheerful atmosphere for customers and staff alike.
Breakfast might be ‘free-from-everything’ granola and local Greek-style yoghurt or chia seed porridge, served with seasonal fruit, honey and cinnamon, or smashed avocado on toasted rosemary sourdough with pistachio and sweet chilli sauce.
Lunches consist of salad and grain bowls complemented by seasonal wraps and soup. You can build your own protein and grain lunch bowl or choose from an imaginative selection. Seasonal options might include the 3-Way Beets bowl, with pickled heritage beets, roast beetroot and beetroot tzaztiki served with Fivemiletown goats cheese, bulgur wheat, flaked almonds and lemon vinaigrette; or the popular Super Guacabowle featuring properly fresh greens brightened by grated carrot, sweet roasted squash, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese topped generously with a creamy guacamole, tart green apple slices, and sprinklings of sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and mustard seeds. Add a couple of falafel and you’ve a lunch to see you well into the evening – and there are wholesome treats for the sweet-toothed too, courtesy of Nutshed, and 3FE coffee.
Get there early of you want to eat in at lunchtime (the Dawson Street outlet has perhaps 20 high stools in total), these are pleasant spaces to spend a lunch break, thanks to clever use of natural materials including rough-hewn wooden benches and generous natural greenery.
The Kirwan brothers seem to love what they do, and have hit on a well-focussed formula that their growing base of fans clearly love too.
