{"id":413525,"date":"2026-04-23T13:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413525\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:52:11","slug":"duo-behind-michelin-starred-variety-jones-to-open-new-casual-restaurant-this-weekend-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413525\/","title":{"rendered":"Duo behind Michelin-starred Variety Jones to open new casual restaurant this weekend \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Higgs brothers behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/michelin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/michelin\/\">Michelin<\/a>-starred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/life-and-style\/food-and-drink\/variety-jones-review-already-one-of-my-meals-of-the-year-1.3754868\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/life-and-style\/food-and-drink\/variety-jones-review-already-one-of-my-meals-of-the-year-1.3754868\">Variety Jones<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-8\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-8\/\">Dublin 8<\/a> will open their second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/food\/restaurants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/food\/restaurants\/\">restaurant<\/a> \u2013 a casual, a la carte venture called Mongoose \u2013 on Sunday, April 26th. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Keelan Higgs, who heads the Variety Jones kitchen while his brother Aaron Higgs looks after front of house, said they hope to deliver \u201cgood vibes, good food, good wine, good times\u201d in Mongoose, which is located in the original Variety Jones premises at 78 Thomas Street. A 2023 fire in the building led to Variety Jones relocating next door, where it has remained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s a relief to a certain extent,\u201d said Keelan Higgs of the decision to reoccupy number 78, where the brothers have continued paying rent. The idea of a second restaurant was \u201calways in our mind\u201d, but the timing now feels particularly right, he added. \u201cThings that make sense tend to present themselves as you go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Seating a maximum of 28, Mongoose will offer a short and simple menu with starters such as ox tongue, pasta options and mains including a whole chicken to share. It will be open for lunch and dinner on Sundays and Mondays and dinner on Tuesdays, with all menus designed to minimise food waste.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Higgs said he will not \u201cfluff up\u201d dishes just to elevate prices, which he expects to range from \u20ac8 to \u20ac13 for starters; \u20ac15 to \u20ac18 for pasta; and \u20ac18 to \u20ac25 for mains. The Sunday lunch is expected to be a particular draw, with capacity for 100-plus guests, as is a quick Monday lunch, where two courses will be priced at \u20ac24 and three at \u20ac32. Dishes on offer this coming Monday will include a starter of braised artichoke, a main of bangers, mash and gravy, and dessert of orange cake with milk ice cream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">By contrast, Variety Jones, which has held a Michelin star since a year after opening in 2018, serves a chef\u2019s choice set menu priced at \u20ac110.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Keelan Higgs sees the overall Mongoose concept as responding to a gap in the Dublin market, where a casual restaurant with a \u20ac30 main course is almost the norm but is \u201cnot delivering what you need it to\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Just as the two restaurants are physically linked, so are their names. Variety Jones and Mongoose are both aliases for a man convicted in the US for his role in building the Silk Road, an online darknet platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Online booking for Mongoose is open now, with Higgs also hoping to accommodate walk-ins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Instagram: @mongoose\u00ad_ie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Higgs brothers behind Michelin-starred Variety Jones in Dublin 8 will open their second restaurant \u2013 a casual,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[63274,93,61,60,5861],"class_list":{"0":"post-413525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dublin-8","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-restaurant"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}