Tom Crean Fish & Wine
On Kenmare's Main Street, this seafood restaurant carries the name of Tom Crean, the Kerry-born Antarctic explorer - and it's still run by his descendants. Local Kenmare Bay fish and shellfish share the room with expedition memorabilia and a house brewery, making it as much a family tribute as a place to dine. Now trading as Tom Crean Base Camp.
Near the top of Kenmare's Main Street, this is a restaurant with a remarkable back-story. It is named for Tom Crean, born in 1877 in Annascaul in west Kerry, one of the toughest of all the heroic-age Antarctic explorers. Crean sailed south three times - with Scott on the Discovery and the fatal Terra Nova, and with Shackleton on the Endurance - and once walked thirty-five miles alone across the ice to fetch help and save a stricken comrade, a feat that earned him the Albert Medal. On his return to Kerry he ran a pub, and it is his descendants who keep this place going still.
That family connection is the heart of it. The walls are hung with expedition photographs and memorabilia, and the kitchen looks to the water on the doorstep: Kenmare Bay is generous with lobster, oysters, scallops and the makings of a fine seafood chowder, with meat and vegetarian dishes for those who want them. In recent years a small brewery has been added, and the whole has been rebranded as Tom Crean Base Camp - though it remains the same family enterprise in the same spot.
It's an evening sort of place, popular and not large, so booking ahead is wise, and like much of Kenmare it tends to close for a stretch in the depths of winter. It's worth a quick check of current days and hours before you plan a meal around it.
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