S0170 The Wellington

Wellington. Waterloo. Baggot Street could be any High Street in England with these pub names. This one at least comes with less risk of Abba outbreaks amongst patrons who think they can sing.

This is an actually tiny - it looks bigger from outside, which is not a common occurrence -  traditional city pub just a little bit outside the centre, sited as it is just outside the canals.

Live music is apparently offered here - I'm not sure where they fit it. Drink options are not good, but the atmosphere should make up for that.

S0172 The Waterloo

This most English named of pubs is a long and narrow premises on Baggot Street with a busy bar downstairs and a quieter (at time of my visit) craft-specific upstairs bar. Which I wasn't aware of, and ordered something far less interesting off the downstairs taps as a result before ending up upstairs anyway.

The major defining feature of this pub is a huge painting of a times past Baggot Street along the wall opposite the bar downstairs - my poor low-light photo does not give it justice. This painting does unfortunately show how much more interesting the building that the nearby Searsons pub is in is, but it does show that they didn't censor the artist at all.

Apparently there is an upstairs outdoor area, which may have been nice considering the utterly abnormal warmth on the evening (mid November - in Ireland) I visited on; but I didn't notice it as I don't generally look for the smoking area in pubs.

S0183 Ryans Beggars Bush

My quest for dinner, as mentioned in the previous post, continued. I should probably have either gone back to The Old Spot or across the road to knock Chophouse off the list but for some reason I went down Haddington Road, and ended up in Ryans.

Ryans doesn't do food in the evenings. Eventually, Tolteca on Baggot Street sorted that out for me, but I only found out after I had ordered a pint that this is a lunchtime (or pre-booked party) food venue

Like most pubs in this area, Ryans is set up to cope with match day crowds with a substantial outdoor seating area to the front. It was an abnormally warm night for mid-November so I decided to sit outside - and was joined by some other non-smokers in doing so.

On non-match days the pub seems to mostly draw on the tech industry nearby for its patronage - at least based on one visit, which can be extremely unrepresentative.

I think it was a mostly macro lineup here, but I was hungry and grumpy and had basically ordered a pint on false pretenses caused by Google Maps so I can't actually remember what I had.

S0177 The Bath

Sometimes you end up taking an opinion of a pub from a first impression which was mistaken - when I entered and ordered here I was presented with a macro-only tap lineup. There's craft options on a second set of taps to the rear of the bar.

However, the second impression here also created an instant negative - there was an overwhelming smell of creosote from some of the furniture which I assume is set up to be brought outside on match days - free up standing room inside and give perching space outside.

I was looking for somewhere to get dinner at the time - the smell of likely carcinogens in the air alone did not kill my appetite, but no wait staff coming over to me for 20 minutes ensured I went elsewhere.

Should be fine for a pint on a match day but I wouldn't bother otherwise.

1003568 The Old Spot

Lucinda O'Sullivan described this as a restaurant with a bar. It is.

Outside of major sporting events, where more space is turned over to drinking and less to eating; this is a high end restaurant with a very small bar on the way in. The bar itself is fine, with a decent range of beers, but it was difficult to find a seat early on a mid-month Friday evening - although had I wanted to eat, there were seats aplenty available.

If you want to drink in the area, there are other pubs nearby. If you want to grab a pint before eating here, they've got a more than acceptable selection.

S0302 Purty Kitchen

This is the Dun Laoghaire/Monkstown premises, not the now renamed Temple Bar superpub. I really should investigate the link, if any, between them (and possibly S1486 Purty Central in Clondalkin)!

This pub claims to be established in 1728 and, unlike when a city venue makes a claim to antiquity, I'd have reason to believe this one. Located on a street with a name prone to cause certain Irish language activists to have kittens - Old Dunleary Road, this would have been a roadhouse of sorts prior to the dawn of the railways and now, some centuries later, has a reputation as a music venue and also targets food customers.

From the perspective of pub-bagging, its quite similar to most larger suburban pubs with nothing jumping out to make it a must-visit, but the gigs upstairs have a wide appeal and are likely to draw people in from far enough away.

S0264 O'Loughlins

Sometimes a pubs reputation precedes, often negatively, sometimes positively. In the case of O'Loughlins, there are huge amounts of vaguely accurate references to it whenever old fashioned/traditional pubs get discussed, with claims of various levels of truth being made.

Two recurrent ones come up about O'Loughlins, amongst huge amounts of one-off claims. One can be dismissed as impossible - that it hasn't got water. The HSE would have it closed down years ago if this was the case. The second one is that is has no till. This is factually incorrect, but as the till is a Victorian ornament and its always open cash drawer is used only occasionally used, the result is much the same.

The pub is nearly invisible online - beyond the aforementioned semi-factual posts and entries on a few pub listing sites there is basically nothing else . The bulk of the results are actually for McLoughlins, a completely different pub nearby. But it very much exists and has a regular customer base, greeted by name by the barman. I was all but instructed to take the seat at the bar of a departing customer (by said customer) when I walked in, and had two of the cheaper pints - and a bag of crisps - that you're likely to find. There's a proper sense of community with the regulars and the staff; and notices up for various events including a charity BBQ night (In December. In Ireland!)

The pub has 7 taps, all Diageo except Heineken. There is a small selection of spirits and liquers, many of them with dust coating the bottles from how rarely they are used. There are a few under-counter fridges of mixers and bottled cider and beers including, amazingly, a small amount of Irish craft. Cash is left strewn around the shelves in a manner which clearly has some logic to the barman, but none to the observer. The overall feel is of a small town pub in the West, not one on the main street of a busy suburb.

S0276 McKennas

The second of my Dun Laoghaire pubs, this one is still registered with Revenue as "The Yacht Tavern", leading to some slight confusion when doing my customary Google to make sure I'd got the right pub.

I decided to go to this one specifically as it is *not* on a major street in Dun Laoghaire. Down a side street, this premises has a small bar and a large lounge, all very recently refitted to a very high standard; so much so that the daytime horse racing on the TVs felt rather out of place. If you weren't aware it was here there is a chance that you'd completely miss it.

Pub seems decent, however only the bar was open when I visited and I expect the crowd to be very different when busier - for starters, there wasn't a single woman present!

S0265 Dunphys

Dun Laoghaire has a particularly high density of pubs along Georges Street, even with some closures over the past decade, both permanent (the shopping centre redevelopment) and potentially temporary. It w

There are multiple reasons for this, including the former mailboat and later car ferry traffic; being a commuter town from the early Victorian era onwards and the extra commercial status as a township it held from about the same time until the early-90s split-up of Dublin County Council.

Dunphy's is a fine example of a pub from this era, with a Victorian or at least Victorianesque interior (I have little knowledge on how to tell the age of woodwork!) that rivals the famed list of Victorian pubs in Dublin.

I was drawn in here by the food menu inside the door, but it turned out that the chef works split shifts on a Monday at least and I had missed the end of the lunch service. However, soup and a toasted special were still available to be prepared by the barman and these were bought.

I had ventured out to Dun Laoghaire with a dual purpose - visit some of its many pubs, and to visit the Local Studies department of the vast DLR Lexicon library. I expected this to be similar to the reading room in the Dublin City Library & Archives on Pearse Street, with the most commonly requested items on open shelving, and a decent number of computer terminals for accessing online resources. Instead you get a huge hall with the bulk of the collection shelved - and locked behind glass; and no staff available without appointment; although single item requests can be facilitated by the main desk.

There was one book here which is unique to DLR across all public libraries in Ireland, namely a 1949 tour guide entitled "Where To Drink" by Tom Merry of the still-extant Licensing World trade magazine. This book covers all 32 counties to some extent, but Dublin particularly and has a mix of reviews and placed advertising from many pubs. The print and photographic quality is incredible for a book of that era, particularly printed so soon after the end of WWII and the limited resources that resulted. There is also a copy in the National Library, but zero copies are showing for sale on Alibris or AbeBooks.

S2738 TGI Fridays Stephens Green

See Previous Reviews.

Nearly done, and actually as the Dundrum licence is shared with Dante Pizza I don't even need to endure this again.

S0012 The Duke

This historic premises sees very significant tourist traffic and is the starting point of the popular Literary Pub Crawl, however a quiet, wet Tuesday night in November is not one where there are many tourists around to fill it.

I was seeking dinner and was mulling over going to the TGI Fridays on Stephens Green to knock it off the list (which I did do a few days later), but particularly poor weather meant I wanted to get in to somewhere quickly and The Duke was nearer to my previous visit. Extremely rapid service meant I had a meal ordered quickly and already on my table when I returned from washing my hands.

This isn't an area of the city I would ever have much reason to drink in, and have found pubs in the area often unenterable due to the volume of tourists, but this is a nice enough pub.

S0010 The Dawson Lounge

Any time a pub has a superlative claim, due caution must be applied. In this case, "The Smallest Pub In Dublin" is the claim, and with about 40% of the potential claimaints visited, I haven't seen anything smaller. The claim of "smallest bar" is also made elsewhere but refers to a subsection of a not particularly small premises. (Note the use of the former name for this premises on that post, confusingly Ron Blacks was also a former name of 37 Dawson Street)

This pub really is tiny. There is seating for about 20 and maybe standing space for the same again, at a push. Its also completely underground, with wood panelling on the walls and ceilings and as a result gives an overwhelming impression of drinking on an ancient boat, rather than in a land-based pub.

Some English tourists appeared to have succumbed to the confusing atmosphere, seeing as they were asking the barman whether an IPA (Franciscan Well Chieftain) was "actually an ale", as "Irish ales are lagers, aren't they?" They moved on to confuse bar staff elsewhere luckily!

S0145 The Square Ball

I've had a more productive period of pub visiting recently than any time since the start of the blog, so while this was still in November, it is so far down my list of missing writeups it may as well have been last year!

This is a sister sports bar to N0210 The Back Page in Phibsboro and bears an obvious familial resemblence in terms of the interior and the drinks offerings. It is significantly smaller, though; and offers a food menu based around charcoal-cooked rotisserie chicken, when The Back Page has a pizza joint.

The location of the bar means that it could get a sizeable office crowd in and this may be why they have a decent and varied no- and low-alcohol drinks menu, something I've never seen being emphasised elsewhere. 0.5% beers and mocktails are listed alongside session-strength beers and half-measure or UK measure based cocktails. I would assume this menu, or similar, is available in the other Bodytonic venues also though.

November 2018 Licence Update

The first Revenue licence file of the new licencing year has arrived, which is always the longest and most complicated to process. Because the 'removals' are mostly just premises which are waiting renewal, they can't be evaluated until next October, so this leaves very little else this month

Renumbered
1014762 Hilton Garden Inn, Custom House Quay - formerly N1900

Reappeared after 1+ year
N0197 The Tap/Taproom 47, North King Street. This has been under refurbishment since early summer.
N0229 Dolly Heffernans, Mulhuddart. This is still long-term closed.

Booze2Go, a pub chain that wasn't

Most of the time, a pub is a pub. Sometimes they're actually a theatre, or a hotel bar, that doesn't easily serve members of the public but does still retain the licence to do so. An

Very occasionally, they're an off-licence, using a pub licence which provides them with the rights to sell off-sales until 10pm. There are a limited number of premises doing this in Dublin to this day, S1349 Spar Baggot Street being probably the most notable - this was the well known Henry Grattan pub and has retained the licence.

There are also some very high end winebars and cafes which were pubs and allow drinking on premises with corkage paid - S0014 Probus Wines and S0395 Whelehans Wine Bar are notable here.

However, prior to the reduction of off-sale hours in 2008, there was a chain which made good use of pub licences abilities to sell til closing time . Every single branch of Booze2Go was a former pub, using the pub licence and its inherent ability to sell alcohol for sale off the premises. They had at least 7 branches that I have managed to trace so far.

The last year of the full chain appears to have been about 2009 - presumably the recovery in the pub market made premises more valuable as pubs after this. Handily for historical purposes, 2009 is also the year of the first Streetview pass of Dublin, and the Irn Bru colour scheme (orange and royal blue) is quite easily identifiable

Currently operating pubs that were Booze2Go branches in 2009:

N0097 Paddle & Peel, Bolton Street
S1472 Pifko, Ushers Quay
N0008 Mullets, Amiens Street
N0068 Glynns, Dorset Street
S1470 Agnes Brownes, Thomas Street

Two are still off-licences - well, one is a previously mentioned high end wine retailer.

S0014 Probus Wines, Fenian Street
N0104 - former Forum, Parnell Street - this may not have been the last name prior to Booze2Go. This is now branded as "Off Licence", without the garish paint scheme. Whether they sell Nigerian made Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, the product Forum specialised in, is not something I have yet checked!

Some additional info on two additional branches was provided on Twitter:

There was also one on Meath street now trading as Lucky’s, another that was formerly The Lantern in Harold’s cross now closed. All premises belong to Dominic Lydon and we’re leased to the one company who in turn ran up massive debts to suppliers & landlord before jumping ship

— graham mooney (@Graham_Mooney1) November 12, 2018

S0158 John Clarke & Sons

It's not a common event for a pub to move buildings - shops move, offices move, occasionally restaurants move - but pubs barely ever do so. There are a few historical examples, e.g. Barnstormers with Capel Street and Townsend Street incarnations, but I can't think of many recently.

This pub is the exception. John Clarke's operated in Ringsend in what is now S0160 Merry Cobbler for many years, but the pub was taken by receivers in 2012, according to the Irish Times. The family reopened in a nearby (550m walk) premises which had itself closed down shortly afterwards, effectively moving the pub - but within range of most previous local customers.

There's a nice traditional bar here which is either present from some of the previous operators on the premises, or is a very good reproduction. The rest of the pub wasn't open yet when I visited, presumably it would be later on or on Saturdays.

1003456 The Shipwright

I made a mistake on visiting this premises - don't be the first person of the day to have any Diageo product from a line. There wasn't a huge range on offer, so a pint of Hop House (which probably hadn't been bought since last night) was procured and then drunk with grimaces. I normally make a judgement call - or just ask the barman - but forgot to do either this time.

A large premises, this trades as a guesthouse but also has a still substantial bar and an off-licence on site also. It would appear to be the largest of the pubs in Ringsend Village but it was also the quietest at the time I visited - early evening on a Friday.

1013579 Luckys

This is a recent reopening of a relatively long-term closed pub and is one of a number of slightly similar premises demonstrating the creeping gentrification of The Liberties.

A mostly craft beer bar with pizza available - this could also describe 1011790 The Fourth Corner for instance, there is also more than a passing resemblance to S1449 The Jug on the roughly parallel Francis Street, including being relatively long and narrow. However, it doesn't have the seating layout issues of The Jug.

What differentiates these pubs is the atmosphere, that provided by the staffing and other customers - as the music choices are often somewhat similar and few have TVs. The atmosphere here is pretty good, although the slight drizzle outside and Kinnegar Rustbucket on tap may have encouraged me to stay long enough to experience a bit more of it than some smash-and-grab visits for stats let me to

S1497 Harkins (The Old Harbour)

Ah, a pub that promotes itself around one of its customers dying after drinking there! Sounds like a lovely place....

...which it is really. And actually the Behan link isn't played on as much as it used to be, although as there will be literary tourists visiting it is still mentioned.

A relatively small building, the bar downstairs serves a reasonable range of product but the restaurant upstairs is the main attraction. Fairly newly fitted out in a style that I can only describe as "very fancy greasy spoon", the menu of pub grub standards is done to an exceptional quality. This seems to be a new addition, indeed my menu had "pre launch menu 2018" printed on the top of it.

The pub puts up signage to lure tourists away from the Guinness Storehouse and indeed is the closest pub to it in walking distance terms, however there were only a few tourists there when I visited - the same tourists had even been in S1502 McCanns previously when I was there and clearly made the better choice by moving to Harkins.

S1502 McCanns

I've fallen horribly behind on writing up pubs in decent time after visiting them - my previous moan that my month by month stats would be off didn't even go far enough as the next few were in early October.

This is a very small pub adjacent to the Pearse Lyons Distillery on James Street and recently enough bought by the owners of said distillery, Alltech. It serves little other than Alltech-owned beers (Stationworks Newry products) at unjustifiably high prices for D8; although the spirit selection extends rather a lot further beyond the owners products.

The drinks expensive, the toilets were manky and someone nicked my seat while I was down there. There's far better pubs on the street.