January 18, 2011

Vegan Eating at Anti-Capitalist prices - Seomra Spraoi


Every Wednesday evening from 7:30pm to 8:30pm (open until 10pm) you can get a filling quality vegan meal for a donation of €5.00 (more/less according to what you can afford) in Dublin's Seomra Spraoi. That of course means dairy free, egg free and meat free all in an anti-capitalist, non-hierarchical, not-for-profit venue! Seomra Spraoi is an 'autonomous social centre' and offers a wide variety of services and social interaction including Spanish classes, bike workshops, political meetings, gigs, film screenings and of course, the wednesday night café. They even have a 'free shop' on the upper level and a room to store your bike in safely while you are there!
The set up is this: The entire centre is run by volunteers with no 'boss' as such. Once you find the location down a side street off Upper Gardiner St (or under an arch off Belevedere Pl) in Dublin 1 you can put your bike away, head in towards the back of the building, make your €5.00 donation & line up for whatever vegan delight is awaiting you. There's not really much room for picking and choosing as you sort of get what's on offer that day. Last week I got a plate piled high of couscous, a tofu & lentil gravy, fresh salad with olives and salad dressing. It tasted great and was perfectly rich and hearty for a winters evening. Then take a seat wherever you can find one, give it a moment and you will soon be chatting away with your neighbours about anything at all.
The value is obviously brilliant, especially for a vegan meal which is obviously guaranteed to be dairy free, egg free and meat free at the least. The special charm about Seomra Spraoi is that you can settle right in and feel like you are in a student living room in an instant and if you're traveling to dublin for the first time or are on your own then its a fabulous place to go for a bit of conversation and a chance to experience one of the many alternative sides to the city. In my stay five different people struck up conversations ranging from travel to evil Fascists :)

Location: 10 Belvedere Court, Dublin 1
Phone: 01 872 8670
Opening Times: Mon - Thurs 18:00-22:00 (note: the cafe is only open on
Wednesday evening 19:30-22:00 but only serving food from 19:30-20:30)
web: www.seomraspraoi.org

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazing space :)