My Lunches With Elvis #22: Belmont Demesne

One happy King…

s we finished our short and winding drive down through the red, orange and yellow-leafed trees into Belmont Demesne, it was clear that The King had finally found his Wicklow Gracelands.

“This place is feckin’ amazing,” were his exact words, bouyed ever-so-slightly, perhaps, by the fact that Elvis was about to get some free pizza.

And what pizza. Before that though, a quick smoke break outside the large, left-over and freshly-converted barn from the King Arthur shoot of 2004. Kids are running around this vast, walled garden, two of them suddenly stopping to try and figure out who or what this rockin’ and rotund rhinestone cowboy chatting with their mum might be. Within minutes, Elvis had two more young fans.

The sun was beaming, but there was a November nip in the air too, so, The Artist Formerly Known As Alan Adamson welcomed the warmth once we stepped inside Bak’ At Arthur’s Barn. Is it any wonder the man was cold? Having decided not to wear a jacket, or any kind of covering for his hairy chest, Elvis looked like he might be trying to smuggle a pig across the border.

We quickly ordered two coffees, and their 10″, €10.95 Meat & Heat pizza, consisting of tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, fresh chilli and honey. “You had me at pepperoni,” says Elvis, as he takes a swig of that life-saving coffee.

What isn’t listed in the ingredients is a dough base to kill and maim for. The house chef, David, explains that he spent years perfecting that base, and, well, we believe him. The fact that it was all clearly very healthy too didn’t, thankfully, put Elvis off.

We’ve been aiming to have these local lunches with a €20 budget, which isn’t always easy to stick to, but at Bak’d, hey, we were able to leave a darn handsome tip too.

As to the pizza itself, hey, all that really matters on these grand days out is, of course, did Belmont Demesne serve up a lunch fit for The King…?

Now, go explore Belmont Demesne here, and here. And if you need to figure out where the place is, hey, follow us.