Arrivederci Ventuno
An important part of Cavan Town’s gastronomic landscape has disappeared with the closure of the Ventuno restaurant in Bridge Street. I regret that I will not be able to taste Mo’s Pollo Cacciatore any more, for he truly had a way with sauces and combining them with chicken and pasta. The Ventuno’s Bailey’s Irish Cream cheese cake, as well as its Nata con Nueces, were truly dishes to be beheld.
The Ventuno was able to combine good food with great value for money. It was a wonderful place to go for an informal meal. It is I think a sad reflection on Cavan town that such a place was not allowed to prosper.
There is one other reason why I lament the passing of the Ventuno. It was one of the few restaurants in Cavan which was accessible to people in wheel-chairs. Wheel-chair users seem to be a sub-human life form, not worthy of consideration, by many of those providing food in Cavan town. Now I must exclude from these comments people who rent a first-floor space in which they operate a restaurant. It is not their fault if there is no lift. They don’t own the building and they generally lack the resources to provide one. Yet there are those developers who build from the ground up, or who totally redevelop a building and who don’t bother to put in a lift, or for whom access for the disabled is a low priority. In Cavan town I know of at least two places whose owners / developers have strong links with the County Council. Now this may be a coincidence but in my book coincidences only happen once; two coincidences are called a pattern.
But maybe I’m being delusional. In spite of the absence of lifts from these premises they may still be accessible. It is not, after all, up to me, a person who has a disability to denounce anywhere as inaccessible. That belongs to the access consultants employed by Cavan County Council. I believe that these people are not disabled themselves and have no real knowledge of disability issues, as I was asked to “shadow” them during a recent accessibility audit in Cavan town and inform them of particular accessibility issues, something I was not able to do through illness. So, if they say that a place is accessible, who am I to argue!
