Davys Diner - Market Lane, Ballina

Still 5 star all the way. Not only is Dave open, he tells me he hasn't really shut shop all through Wu Flu; now politicians note there's real public service for you. I arrived at Dave's to find a queue and once again the customers were admirably well versed in the source of and style of the coffee they preferred and they were talking to an expert. When it came my turn, I simply asked Dave for what he considered to be his tastiest coffee after all he knows much more about it than I do do. All I can say is that what I got was superb, darn great value and simultaneously he also proved that he did know much more than I did. Ballina is a beautiful town and the area is stunningly beautiful. It promotes itself as a fair trade town a place with a conscience and a sense of fairness .and Dave does his bit here. He deserves at least 3 green stars. His coffee is shade grown and bird friendly, all his food is fresh made to order, and importantly, is locally sourced, he uses paper bags and his cups are corrugated paper. He has plastic cup lids but it's up to customers to decide to take a lid. I didn't. We all need to be more astute to ethical issues and strive to become ethical consumers, after all the earth is our only home and it ain't recyclable so we do need to start to think green star values as much as we do when deciding stars to award in our reviews. There's a green star project to google (if that's the term) that offers helpful advice and information. It also dawned on me that realistically we only drop by Ballina to get coffee from Dave if he shuts shop we likely won't stop by again. Sadly it's take away only: Ireland won't open up to sitting in cafes and restaurants until this July, the exception being hotels where you must be a resident

I've been to Dave's a few times and I always call when we pass by this beautiful town, as he serves some of the very best coffee I've ever had the joy to drink. I had two flat whites over an hour at €3.30 each and they were delicious. I observed a difference in the clientele ordering here that I hadn't noticed before. Customers weren't asking just for coffee, instead they were asking for Columbian, Ethiopian and so on so asking by origin. That's how sophisticated it is here. The town itself which claims to be Ireland's salmon capital has a delightful charm about it, and the charm rubs off on the locals, or maybe it's the other way round. I do notice some decline in businesses with more and more shops closing so the Irish economy might be in growth but it's not evenly spread and it's health system is as grim a structure as is conceivable to create. I didn't discuss it with Dave but the last Irish budget added another tax on small businesses like his, as insatiably greedy politicians wanted to cash in on the daylight and midnight robbery that is hotel stays in Dublin, so good folk like Dave trying to hew a living get caught up in greed. I could stay for a week in an Orlando hotel for one hotel night in Dublin and I know where I'd prefer to spend my hard earned.

The coffees here are superb and the prices match the mega buck global companies like Starbucks Costa. The independent owner most likely pays all of his taxes as well. I discussed my preferences and left it to the owner to rustle me up a kick ass double espresso coffee. He did so and it was just what I wanted. Perfect. My wife had a very fine cappuccino. We noticed that there's savoury and sweet food on offer here too, but we had already eaten so it was coffees only this time. We will remedy this when next in the area. This café is situated up an alleyway and it's just off one of the main streets. I was crossing the road from a salmon smoke house having bought very fine wild smoked salmon at 85 euro a kilo and was walking by and I just about noticed the sign on the street advertising it so it's easy to miss. Glad I found it though.