Kildare fine-dining chef Jon Murphy brings new café to Newbridge

Jon Murphy is the man both in front of and behind the latest addition to Newbridge's dining options with the opening of Sam & Harry’s café just over eight weeks ago. The owner and chef is backed by 20 years of kitchen experience in fine-dining, the hotel trade, as well as his own catering company that bears the same name as his new daytime spot.

For the Kildare man at the helm, the sales pitch on his new café is simple, “It’s warm. That’s what it is,” he said. “We want to be creative but the idea is not to alienate anyone. Coming from the background I have, sometimes you get carried away with yourself, notions, so you just have to find the balance, make people feel welcome and not like they’re rushed. Good soups, good pastries, nice scones made every day. The feel of the place is not flash, it’s just warm. We do big and small meals, we have two soups on most days and all the pastries are bang on and homemade.

“If you’re coming in the morning, the french toast is absolutely filthy. The big breakfast…you won’t finish it. In the afternoon, the sandwiches are all on point and just fun. A couple of the guys who are regulars were asking if the sandwich was still the same size and then two girls came in and got two bowls of soup and split the sandwich between them. That’s the idea. Everything is so expensive now and expensive for us to get stuff in too, but you don’t want to make people feel like they are not getting value for money. They are all big dishes and you are not going to walk away hungry and it’s good stuff as well. Almost everything we use is Irish and we try to keep it as close to everything being Irish as possible. It’s good hearty food.”

Sam & Harry’s, Eircode W12 TP86, is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 4pm. It is a family affair at the new café too with the familial influence running beyond just the name of the business itself.

Murphy explained, “Samuel and Harrison are my two boys. We have a catering company as well that started five years ago, we began with small gigs and then we ran a bar and restaurant in Killeen Golf Club for five years, 2019 to 2024. We ended in September because we didn’t like the direction we were going and took a small hiatus. I worked as Head Chef in Fallon’s in Kilcullen for a while and then this opportunity came up and it all just fell into place. It was all done in a day.

“We are a small team, my sister Laura is involved, she is really good. She does the admin stuff and a lot of the decor. We are a team and we have a lot of ideas and we want to work with each other. Six weeks in we had a regular base already and we just want to expand it.”

The Curragh-born chef’s catering business continues to grow as the café’s journey kicks off with Sam & Harry Catering offering a lot more than your traditional goujons and cocktails sausages, although they are available too.

“We recently had a late booking coming in for a 21st (birthday party). The older people want the lasagna and goujons early in the day and then later on we have tacos and sliders for the young people. That is the idea for the catering, it is a little bit more niche and it's good fun,” Murphy said.

“We have done a lot with local soccer clubs, as well as the U21 rugby international team so we are able to cater for sports nutrition and diet too.”

The journey from Head Chef to being the solo presence in a café kitchen is a huge change of pace, but one that is being welcomed with open arms by the Sam & Harry’s owner and operator.

Murphy added, “You can’t really compare (the pace). The kitchen is really tiny here and in some places you may have a team of 20 chefs and a floor staff of 40. The pace here, because it is just me in the kitchen, is different and you have to find that balance of what you can produce without making people wait 15 to 20 minutes for an open sandwich. There is no point in that, people are on their lunch break.

“I have always wanted something like this and wanted a restaurant. We like to diversify what we do, you have seen our catering packages but I have always wanted a café like this and our own restaurants. I am loving the brunch stuff at the moment and we love doing niche things with our sandwiches. On the menu here at the moment we have a fish fingers sandwich and we like stupid stuff like that to have fun and knock out really good food.”

READ NEXT: GALLERY: Cheap Kildare home on market for €180,000