The Home of Good Food
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Our Story:
Rocksalt was created in summer 2018 by our founder Daniel. Dan always wanted to open his own business in hospitality however he knew that he needed to gain extensive experience to do so successfully. Studying International Business in Hotel Management in Shannon College of Hotel Management; spending a year in Luxembourg working with the NH hotel group as a stagier gaining operational experience and securing a management trainee position with Sofitel Luxury hotels in London laid the foundation for the customer focused business that is Rocksalt today.
He went on to spend 6 years in the UK working 3 years with Sofitel, 2 years with Exclusive hotels as Restaurant manager with a further year as a General Manager for Ego Restaurants before returning to Ireland to project manage the opening of the successful Shoda Market Café in Maynooth. Striking out on his own, his first call following finding the perfect location in his home village of Blackrock was to Conor Prendergast, a former football team mate in Rock Celtic who was Sous Chef in the double Rosette awarded Tankardstown House. Conor was on board straight away as Head Chef and RockSalt was created.
Opening in August 2018, we focused on three our core values; 1) to create a unique delicious food menu with a healthy twist, 2) create our own Speciality coffee blend that you can’t get anywhere else, 3) finally we wanted to create a warm relaxing and welcome space with great customer focused service in a casual environment.
Following a successful whirlwind of a first year and half at RockSalt in Blackrock, expansion followed. We started off with 7 in our team which has grown to a 14 strong team in Blackrock alone. This led us to begin broadening our horizons and at the end of 2019, we took on ownership of former Riva Restaurant in Dundalk at no. 3 Earl Street, a building formerly used as a newspaper printhouse, steeped in history and ideally situated in the centre of town. In February 2020, following 3 months of building up a team and ensuring consistency in our menus, coffee and service, we launched RockSalt Dundalk. We are at our starting point in Dundalk with lots of exciting things to come.
In March 2020 with the unforeseen disaster that struck with the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to close our premises along with all other restaurants and cafes under government advice to ensure safety of our teams and customers. However we’ve used this time to our advantage, expanding our original premises in Blackrock and installing a new top of the range coffee bar. With this we are experimenting with and working on introducing a new range of artisan roasts, single origins, brewing methods and new flavours for our customers which we feel will be a welcome treat once the current situation is over.
This brings our story up to today when we are just shy of our second full year in business, we have had many great moments and want to thank all our team for making it possible and especially our customers who have been amazingly supportive. This is only the start of our journey and with Dan striving to always be better than yesterday and his team just as hungry and motivated it is certainly a journey to follow closely.
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2018
In 2018 we created the brand Rocksalt and set up in the seaside village of Blackrock
2019
We grew our team as well as that we grew our coffee and food offering.
2020
We extended our Blackrock premises to offer more seating for our customers. We also acquired a new premises in the heart of Dundalk, where we hope to offer a wide selection of lunch and evening food options.
Rocksalt Cafe
Blackrock & Dundalk
“’Hello and welcome to Café Rocksalt. We are a small café specialising in tasty brunches and lunches and speciality roast coffee. We have two locations, Blackrock & Dundalk. Unfortunately we don’t take bookings for our Blackrock Cafe as it is small and busy, but usually there’s not long to wait. For our Dundalk cafe you can book here.Hope to see you soon, The Rocksalt Team”
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We went here for a late lunch, what an awesome experience, excellent customer service.
Fantastic menu, the chicken and stuffing sandwich is amazing, the owner came over and engaged... read more
mcevoyscott
4/10/2020 We have come to rocksalt almost every weekend since it opened. Great to see they are finally on TA to spread the word further about how great this spot is.... read more 
Dublin122
3/21/2020 Had a lovely Sunday lunch here. Had the burger special and a coffee while passing through.Food was lovely for both of us! Nice interior, nice people and i'd stop again... read more 
Daydream229495
3/09/2020 - This along with the townhouse in Dundalk is one of the best food places in Ireland. The sausages, sourdough bread & the cheese & even the tea is the nicest... read more
Roving229735
2/16/2020 Great fresh food, reasonably priced, lovely atmosphere, friendly helpful staff, nice menu - well done to all concerned - we'll be back again! 
Bonniepippa
1/17/2020
Good selection of coffees & lovely blends, best black pudding sambo this side of Clonakilty. Beautifully redesigned interior with a view of Dundalk Bay and the Cooley mountains. Love the... read more 
K2C
1/12/2020 - Fabulous food. Wonderful service. Blankets supplied to tables out the front. Highly recommend for brunch.
caeva0
1/10/2020 Rocksalt has become almost a second home for us since moving to the area from Dublin. It’s always delicious and you leave feeling fuller and happier. The staff are very... read more 
emma f
1/05/2020 Cosy atmosphere and very tasty food. We both loved the food we ordered. We ordered the salmon and the chicken and stuffing sandwich. They were both very tasty. Staff were... read more 
irish_adventurers1
11/29/2019
Awards
A testament to the friendly service and quality food here at Rocksalt is our awards.
