After a few recent fake-retro pubs - including one blogged further up South William Street, or a re-visit snapped on my Instagram (actually, as I write these posts after the fact, this was about a week before the photos was taken) - its nice to actually get to write about a properly traditional one.
Grogan's has an interior that's relatively untouched for 40 years or more - the dark wood and leatherette having been maintained but not torn out during this time period.
The fake-retro pub in Dublin annoys me greatly - they never emulate what they intend to well and instead give you a limited pastiche of what is still available elsewhere. The walls of many of the fakes are covered either with random tat bought from a pub interiors wholesaler or cheap prints; but Grogan's has artworks for sale instead. There are also more drink options in Grogan's available than in some of the fakes - where authenticity is aped by not offering much more than the Diageo/Heineken/C&C core.
The beer I consumed here was Persistence Brewing's P60 - and I will admit that it is only after looking at the website that I've realised that the PXX naming system includes the ABV% of the beer and isn't (necessarily anyway) a joke on Revenue forms - having only ever seen P45 and P60 before.
Their logo includes a Dublin address, and the beer name includes Dublin - but they are not currently made in Dublin, but in Kilmallock in Limerick. The macro brewers do this too, of course - "Roundstone", "Kilkenny", etc.
One oddity of this visit was one specific sticker that had been placed in the toilets. Stickers on vending machines, hand dryers and other suitable surfaces are relatively common in certain pubs; with some blogs, and football teams - both League of Ireland and European - being the most common ones I've noticed. This one, however, encouraged animal sacrifice to a 00's TV presenter... who at least appeared to find it funny.
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