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 are regulars here since it opened and have never had a bad experience! We even got takeaway during both lockdowns and food quality was always top notch ! So... read more 
Dublin122
12/14/2020 Had a flawless lunch here yesterday. Service, coffee and food was fantastic. The menu is super and a beautiful view. It was a busy day but we weren’t waiting long... read more 
Caitrionaeves
9/28/2020
My Girlfriend and I went for breakfast on a Sunday Morning, it was a busy morning and we had to wait 20 minutes to get in which we expected anyways.... read more 
judev572
9/13/2020 - So so good! Well worth a visit. Quirky decor, great service, a fun menu and great coffee. We had the beef brisket and it was delicious. I’ll be back.
ByrneA34
9/08/2020 Ive been a few times now as its my local area. My favourite is the chicken stuffing sandwich its amazing. Such a compliment of ingredients.
The coffee is the... read more 
ciarong
8/08/2020 We had lunch in rocksalt midweek, waited for about 5 minutes outside before being shown to freshly sanitised table and chairs.
The menu is great and it took us a... read more 
BK70
8/06/2020 - Stopped here en route home from a football match to have a bite to eat followed by a dip in the sea. The staff at Rocksalt were so prompt in... read more
Arromanch
7/26/2020 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
Awards
A testament to the friendly service and quality food here at Rocksalt is our awards.
