S1519 Bird Flanagan

This wasn't the original target of my trip to Rialto, but as S1493 Anchor Bar was closed. I'm not sure if its fully closed or not; but there's no Facebook updates since June, and the last one referred to it being temporarily closed so its hard to tell. But I'd have to go here at some point anyway - so rather than waste the trip I popped in.

This is one of the relatively few Dublin pubs named after a person who is not a current or former owner the pub - and one of the less obvious ones at that (Publin's put together a list of these). The escapades of The Bird Flanagan are gone in to over at Come Here To Me!, and to much disappointment I didn't see anyone acting even vaguely similarly in the pub.

This is an average mid-sized suburban pub, doing all the things normal suburban pubs do - the regular pub scene music acts, the regular lunch menu, the regular conservatory tacked on the back... wait, that's something the average mid-sized suburban house has surely? There's one here, though; and its a nice place to sit if the sun manages to get through the clouds as it briefly did when I was there.

My usual search for anything interesting on Google about a pub and its history shows that the conservatory was a non-smoking area of the pub some half a decade before the pub smoking ban came in. It also turned up this, the less said of the better I suspect - and really quite a long time ago now!

S0207 Lower Deck

An odd combo of a traditional Dub-pub on the ground floor and a live music venue in the basement, this is only the second place I've seen an in-pub bookie in Dublin. The other was S1437 Leonards Corner and it may actually have been the same bookie, set up with a laptop and a lock box for cash on a table beside the bar.

I only visited the upstairs, mainly because it was the daytime and nothing was on downstairs. It's all as you'd expect, albeit maybe a little more like a pub in the Liberties than one specifically located where it is.

The nautical name here reflects that the pub looks out over Portobello Harbour, or what was. The harbour was filled in in the 1940s and is now a neat public square. The area is going to have quite a significant change soon, as the graffittied remains of the former Portobello College (merged and moved to the Dublin Business School sites some years ago) and the Ever Ready battery factory that make up the eastern side of the square are to be replaced with a hotel - the standard outcome for any site left empty for long enough!

S0210 Portobello Hotel

I really liked this place - to the point that I was seriously considering a vaguely Hobbit like 'second lunch' (it works better as a reference when it's breakfast) to lengthen the time spent there, but I'd already had a large lunch in S4500 Brickyard not particularly long beforehand and had promised to be home for a normal dinner time for once.

This is the large bar of a small hotel on the corner of Charlemont Mall and South Richmond Street. South Richmond Street has three good pubs in a row more or less, each with their own qualities and own reasons for why you might want to be there - although there are some similarities to S0209 O'Connells here.

A wood-heavy traditional bar fitout contributes heavily to the atmosphere here; although some of the reason for finding it quite so cosy was the weather outside - occasional blasts of sideways rain and severe gusts really making it feel like another season entirely.

Drink prices here are bordering on cheap for the location, although the range wasn't fantastic. Acquiring a table looking over the canal and under the shelves of books that I presume aren't solely for decoration is probably your target here if its busier; but it is a fairly expansive space with multiple areas.

Reopenings, Replacements and Renovations

When is a pub a new pub, and when is it just a reopening or a renovation? This is something that's come up a bit recently with people asking me if I've visited N0192 Bonobo - formerly N0192 The Richmond which I popped in to in October 2017, back when I wrote slightly shorter posts for each pub.

I'll inevitably go there at some stage - craft bar in an accessible location - but it raises the wider question. Recently The Well opened on Stephens Green West, in the location of S3908 Dandelion, which I visited before starting the blog (as it was already closed when I started the blog it'd have been hard to have done it since!). This hasn't reappeared on the register yet, but even turning up with a new number does not mean it is actually a new licence, because renumberings happen all the time.

The same question has arisen when 1014760 The Richmond Gastropub in Inchicore - I visited this when it was N1113 The Village Inn many, many years ago - 2007 or 2008. Its the same building, with quite a different pub inside it now. Maybe not as different as the change from the (other) Richmond to Bonobo, or converting a nightclub to a cafebar as with Dandelion -> The Well, but I'm not sure where to draw the line. Bonobo is really just a renovation as the pub wasn't closed for long, but The Well and The Richmond Gastropub reopened long-closed premises.

Currently I'm deeming anything that reopens in the same premises as being the "same pub"; but there will soon be cases of hotel bars appearing on former pub/theatre licence sites. Amongst those I visited as pubs or clubs were S0039 The Long Stone, N0018 The Big Tree, S2957 Tivoli Theatre (may times from 2005 until December 2018) and 1009202 Hangar/Andrews Lane Theatre. Do these visits count, whether the licence number changes or not?

I set my own "rules" here, as there's no actual challenge as such, seeing as at least two people are known to have already visited every pub in Dublin (Mac Moloney and Yuya Abe); so I'm going to wait to decide on the hotel front. I suspect the replacement for the Long Stone is going to be completely unrecognisable from the original and require a re-visit; but the hotel on the Big Tree site is retaining the older corner buildings and the plan is for the bar to be in the same area and still called the Big Tree - not providing much justification at all to require a re-visit.

1015110 Clayton Hotel Charlemont

A new 4* hotel built on the site of the Charlemont Clinic and hence the important St Ultan's Hospital which was there prior to it. This is a bit odd for me as I had many customers in the Clinic in a previous job and spent many hours/days working here.

The main building of St Ultans has been restored to a high standard; and there is a glass-covered entranceway from Charlemont Street in to the hotel, bringing you in to the side of the large lobby area.

The bar offering here is a very conventional hotel lobby setup inside the main doors on Charlemont Mall; however non-residents are definitely welcomed. Compared to how busy some nearby pubs can get (see previous post), this should be an oasis of calm in contrast

Everything is executed to a very high standard here from renovation of the old building through the interior fitout to the waiter service to the tables. With the number of small hotels and aparthotels going up it is useful to see that there are some larger conventional hotels going in on infill sites that weren't either originally planned to be apartments or require demolishing an entertainment venue.

S0202 The Barge

People flock here on warm workday evenings, with cases of vast quantities of people covering any available space outside being well known. The pub however request that patrons do not go beyond the footpath seating area outside, with multiple signs up - but when that many people want a pint its probably hard to say no!

So when did I decide to visit? On a damp, windy Saturday when there were many sporting events on in the city to draw crowds away from the area of course. The full pub was open but without any outdoor drinkers; and a wide choice of seats on the many levels inside.

The first thing I noticed here was the range of JW Sweetman offerings on draught - these are not seen that widely outside of S0005 JW Sweetman's itself; but there is or was shared ownership here; as with N0146 Cat & Cage where I've previously enjoyed them. However, the one I wanted was actually out so a pint of Chieftain was obtained instead.

I chose to sit in the upstairs corner seating area, which was mostly marked as reserved - a decent choice of a place for a group, as it is a little secluded yet still close to a bar and has the view of the canal. There is a large screen here though, so don't expect it to remain quiet when there's a more important match on TV.

A previous (Northside) employer always picked Southside venues for work nights out, and one of the few I ever missed was a BBQ night here - however, it was during a heatwave and on a payday Friday evening so I'm not sure how close to the food it would have been possible to get. Its probably sensible to do a visit like this at a quieter time; but maybe a worknight of moderate heat could have got more of the normal atmosphere.

S3576 Citi Hotel / Trinity Bar & Venue

Don't eat anywhere with pictures of the food on a menu outside the door - advice I give to anyone visiting European tourist centres - Amsterdam in particular. Its not something I'd seen too much in Ireland, until here.

However, it was dinner time and I needed to eat, so I ignored my own advice. The food is fine and the service isn't the oppressive pushy type that usually comes with the picture-book menus abroad. The surroundings are really not my type of pub, so its fairly obvious why this was the last place on Dame Street to get visited.

This premises has changed quite substantially over the past few years. It was heavily promoted as an after-work venue and had a basement nightclub (where the 2014-2016 world record for longest continuous DJ set was achieved); however it now a more traditional hotel bar and seems to be going for the tourist market. The basement is restaurant seating now, with trad and pub rock appearing to be the only live music now offered.

The days of the expensive late bar with pop/commercial dance DJ do seem to have died out; but I'd be of the opinion that there are too many identikit trad-and-stew pubs in the city now. However that does seem to be what tourists are willingly coming here to spend huge amounts of money to experience

1000743 Castle Hotel / Waltons Hotel

The bar here is buried deep inside, and under, the hotel; in the actual vaulted structures holding the hotel up. A previous attempt to actually find it had been hampered by the hotel being full of Communion parties and screeching children - although I'm sure I would still have been served, it would have been an entirely suboptimal time to visit and review!

This is definitely one of the more interesting looking places to get a pint in Dublin - despite the hotel branding it as a restaurant, you can definitely pop in for drinks. There's also no phone signal of any description, so if you want to go for a pint where you are forced to talk to other humans - this is your place.

There's an abnormally high density of hotels and an absence of regular pubs in this area of the city. I've now been to most of them, and while the bar of the next to be written up was more sociable and accessible; this was more interesting.

N2698 Maldron Hotel Parnell Square

This building replaced the original Wax Museum, with its crawl tunnels through the back of the horror zone, and other things unlikely to get replicated in Dublin. I quite liked that era of the Wax Museum...

The old building was actually an 1830s church, which had been first converted to a cinema (and re-skinned) before becoming the museum. The presence of parts of the original church inside what seemed to be an ugly 60s structure did slightly delay the redevelopment plans; but the Comfort Inn as-was opened in the mid-late 00s

The bar/cafe in the lobby is really there to serve guests; but they have a public licence and do not prevent outsiders from coming in. It may be a quieter place to get a pint after a Croke Park match; but I suspect they wouldn't be too happy with fans in colours coming in.

1003271 Long Island Bar

Don't judge a book by its cover - or a pub by its incredibly run down facade.

This was the second of the pubs in this area I'd been sort-of avoiding; but after no problems in the first (The Auld Triangle), I decided to go to the second.

This is quite an old pub; and part of the poor public presentation of it comes from the building it is in having been truncated quite significantly, presumably due to past structural issues. As you can see from the photo, it has also had its New York related name for some time - although it has had other names in the intervening period. So the name is not part of the recent drive to name absolutely everything after NY!

There is actually quite a well presented traditional pub behind that facade, and quite large too - it goes back a fair distance from the street, including a large glass roofed section. There was a security guard sitting at the bar (rather than blocking the door); which may be down to some past incidents, but this didn't detract from the experience.

On the same side of the road as this, there are two quite nicely decorated pubs. One of them was so amazingly interesting it got a two-line writeup. This was vastly more worth going to

N0017 Auld Triangle

This pub has a bit of a reputation; and I'd sort-of avoided it for some time due to that (you'll see that again in the next review, with similar enough results). Sure, there are idolatry murals outside, and pictures inside of hunger strikers on the wall - but I even stayed for a second drink. To see the end of a match, admittedly; but if somewhere is very dodgy the pint is necked and I'm out.

Its a traditional city centre locals pub inside, with nothing you wouldn't expect to see - beyond that already mentioned - and everything you'd expect to.

There are pubs I vastly prefer in the area, so there is effectively no chance I'll go back here - but I wouldn't refuse to.

N0025 James Gill / Corner House

This pub only opens on weekends - something that N0018 The Big Tree did in its later years, before going to matchday-only prior to its redevelopment. I'm not predicting the same trajectory here; mainly because this is not on such a large prime site.

I visited on a match day - and I presume (and hope) that this is the reason the pub basically had no furniture. A one-way system is in operation in the main bar, which featured about 5 seats along one wall; and a "lounge" of sorts to the rear featured absolutely none. Maximising standing space and providing a pint-ledge around the walls was the name of the game here.

The pub is extensively decorated with GAA memorabilia; primarily match programmes but also photographs. I did look to see if there was anything from the IRFU and FAI tenancy era - which certainly delivered good business at the time, including mid week evenings, but didn't see any - however, there is such an expanse of content on the walls there is no way to say with confidence that they are ignoring it

With some furniture, this would probably be quite a cosy local - without it; it is a hyper-efficient beer shed. It was also relatively competitively priced for drink - I saw a sandwich board promoting live music and apparent offer prices in 1012782 The Hideout nearby which were actually dearer!

The Pub Spy Chronicles

I've accumulated the historical info for the map from a vast range of sources. The initial base map of current pubs came from the Revenue lists; and Revenue kindly provided me on request with lists back to the 2010/11 licencing year, the first to be covered by Brendan Howlin's open data initiative and hence easily obtainable.

I've added hundreds of closed pubs and old names from sounds like old tour guides, trade directories and newspaper articles - the latter giving huge amounts of info, usually backed up against the trade directories to be certain of names and locations. The City Libraries photo archives was also a huge source; but the newspapers have come out on top.

I have standing access to the Irish Times archive, and I've paid for a few months of Irish News Archives access to get the Independent and Press - leaving just one publication that could contribute something missing. The Sunday World

One of the newer newspapers, this mass-market tabloid was founded in 1973 and was for a time the most popular Sunday paper in the country. And it has a weekly "Pub Spy" column - running since '73 - reviewing pubs from across the country - but mostly Dublin. This should be gold-dust for me, and I waited for someone like the Irish News Archives to get the World uploaded. And waited, and waited, and eventually gave up on the idea

I found out this week that the British Newspaper Archive actually uploaded nearly 900 editions of the paper, from 1987-2006 with some gaps, in January 2019. This completely passed me by, as they were not a provider I expected to have access. One months subscription was paid for and I dived in. I have now read every entry found by the search engine from 1987-1998; with a list of missing weeks to go back and check manually.

Did I find a cache of pubs I had never known of before? No. If anything, it seems that the Pub Spy author(s) seemed to pick pubs of staying power - there are very few which are closed down at all, and as yet I haven't picked up a single 'new' premises from it.

Did I find a pile of gossipy content about pubs I already knew of? Yes - and of incredible depth. Topless barmaids (The Castle, Finglas in 1990); constant accusations of pubs being popular with Furstenberg-drinking yuppies - or even worse in the eyes of Pub Spy, students; suggestions of the best places to find women - or men, as one of the regular "commandos" as they were referred to was female; and so on

Pub Spy usually used a pint-rating system in place of a star-rating system; but like many reviewers rarely uses either end of the scale. So far, the only zero-pint rating I have found was given to N0583 Shamrock Lodge, Finglas for refusing to serve women in the bar in 1988; and the only five-pint rating given to John M Keatings on Mary Street in 1996 - shortly before it was obliterated for a McDonalds.

Pub Spy also rated the student bars in Trinity, the Dail visitors bar, the Enterprise train and the bar on the Irish Ferries St. Patrick II, none of which would count as pubs to me. He also travelled to review the occasional Irish bar abroad - frequently for the Guinness backed Irish Pub Company - which I am more than willing to do for suitable expenses! Christmas 1998 saw him review the Irish bar in Rovaniemi - the capital of Lapland and destination for most Santa flights; which would be one of the more obscure places to have a theme bar.

Because the archive only starts in 1987 at the moment, we only get treated to mentions of the era when Pub Spy was more of a campaign for quality than reviews. Reviews all the way to the current day frequently give a lot of time to the condition of the toilets - something Irish pubs were not known for for years; and there are frequent references to "Slopsmasters". This was a term used for bars which were accused of serving the contents of slops trays (and sometimes the dregs of unfinished pints!) as drinks to unsuspecting customers. There's plenty of discussion of this practice online; but the World made grand claims for their 25th birthday that Pub Spy effectively stopped it...

2021 Update

I've now signed up for another month of the archives and worked through a list of missing dates from 87-98; and also read every review from 1999 until the end of the current archive in 2006. 

There's much of the same - some old names of pubs, some interesting gossip and a few landmarks. Only a few months after the 1993 decriminalisation, Pub Spy visit S0092 The George and give it a positive three pint review. There is a particular focus on picking up new pubs when they open and on revisiting places after significant refurbishment - I do the former, but not the latter - and far more non-Dublin pubs, presumably as the well was becoming quite dry.

Reviews get significantly longer in 1997, and in 2002 turn in to a full page with generally one main review and three smaller ones, local to the main; plus some general commentary on the pub industry. 

Some of the old campaigning spirit returned in 2003, with a specific push for pubs to clean their toilets and people sending in pubs they wanted to receive scathing reviews for this purpose.

The frequency of five-pinters significantly increases - I've found them for S0242 The 108 in Rathgar, 1008645 Molloys on Talbot Street, S0165 Merrion Inn (although, reading the review text, I suspect this was meant to be four!), S1475 Brazen Head, N0089 The Temple and the original Tenters in Blackpitts. 

There was also another zero pinter, not in Dublin, but in Cavan. Its worth mentioning for it getting zero pints *twice* in two years for filth and dereliction. This is still a very limited number of 0 or 5 awards out of about 800 reviews, not counting some occasions where they did an area writeup and gave every pub five - in this case I know all the pubs well, and they're not all fives!

By the time I could do it, there were only six pubs left on Arranmore and even then I've not tried do the lot in one day. Mainly because the hills are awful to walk between them. But Pub Spy did all seven in '97 pic.twitter.com/q1Ga68Oi96

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) March 8, 2021

A particular objection during the early 00s time period is a dislike of CCTV in pubs - the reason why is not given; but it specifically reduces the score of a number of pubs. 

N0013 The Blind Ref

Unless I've managed to get the location entirely wrong, this is what was Collins in the 1990s; and was dramatically blown up in a failed (or far too successful!) arson attack. The pub was modernised to a hideous external design some time prior to 1980; but was restored to a traditional look after the explosion.

That bit of historical interest aside, the pub is part-owned by the 2018/19 Lord Mayor, Nial Ring; who became notable for going through two allocations of free beer from Diageo and then spending €28k on further beer after this ran out. This lead to both criticism and some borderline adulation from certain parts - news website comment sections provide both if you want to look it up!

The pub isn't that great. Its better than N0051 Lowrys; but not by much - and it's also dearer, by the same not much.

N0051 Lowrys

"CASH ONLY" scream the countless hand-written dayglo stars adorning the bar, like the signs used by regional supermarkets to announce offers until the 1990s. Because this pub is going to have a lot of outsiders today, who may not be aware of this restriction. Come to think of it, I didn't notice a card reader in any of the other pubs in the area, nor an equivalent sign - the staff may get exasperated quicker here.

This pub is fairly rough and really doens't have a lot going for it. I'll agree entirely with the viewpoint of The Other People Doing The Same Thing (Dublin By Pub) that The Bridge is entirely superior to this.

1000937 The Bridge Tavern

I visited a number of pubs that get incredibly busy on matchdays due to their proximity to Croke Park - the next few posts will cover the lot of them. This was the only one that felt like it probably had a solid locals trade to cover the rest of the year.

Its relatively big for a pub in the area - the low building its in may make it look tiny, but there's a normal enough bar and a decent sized lounge out the back. The entire external wall area of the pub has been used as a canvas for a Dublin GAA mural and makes it one of the more frequently photographed pubs in the area - my attempt to show that the mural had been updated to add the Ladies team only managed to catch the different script and not the different design to the players heads though!

The lounge in particularly is decorated with memorabilia of local sporting achievements - I noticed more boxing than anything else. This is in stark contrast to some of the barely decorated pubs that will be written up in the next few days. There's comfortable enough seating (again, the others don't have this) and it all adds up to a proper community feeling (again...)

They've Dyson dryers in the toilets. Which is a bit of an oddity for a relatively rough and ready pub, and probably not worth mentioning - but it did stand out.

N0009 Lloyds

Lloyds is almost triangular in shape, situated as it is on the junction of Amiens Street and Foley Street, where they meet at an acute angle. This proved very useful on the bakingly hot day I visited, as doors on both long sides, and the snubbed off "point" of the triangle, were opened to generate a crossdraught.

A traditional city centre local with all you'd expect from those. There's relatively cheap drink and friendly staff, and not much else in the way of facilities - or pretentions either.

I dropped in on a match day, when the pub was liable to be busy - but as its just that little bit further from Croke Park, people had started to filter away towards the stadium; leaving mainly locals and a few without tickets to watch the game in the stadium.

I don't write as much about the people I see or meet in the pubs as other pub bloggers do - I'm rarely as good a story teller as required to do so. But the sight to behold here was sufficiently memorable to recount.

Tyrone were playing an U20 match that afternoon. They lost - but that would likely be only the second worst thing to happen to the poor Tyroneman who was in Lloyds. A white GAA jersey and grey tracksuit bottoms do not provide much cover to the staining caused by someone having tipped a pint or a darker coloured beer over you (elsewhere, I must add!). It may only have been the third worst thing if he thought the match was on in Croke Park - it was in Tullamore.

August 2019 Licence Update

Few changes this month, notably two removals for a reason which is rare in Ireland but endemic in the UK

Additions

1015219 Dublin Liberties Distillery Visitor Centre, Mill Street

Removals

DG0496 Black Raven, Skerries - converted to housing
N0096 Hill Street Sports Bar (Stoneys), Hill Street - converted to housing

Renumbering

1015469 Urban Brewing, CHQ Building - renumbered from 1013149

1015550 The Hendrick

A small new hotel on a slim in-fill site (formerly a fish wholesaler and a printers, going on old Streetview) in Smithfield, with a public bar; providing a relatively limited range of drinks options - and no food options as far as I could see.

Its not really somewhere you're likely to be passing - but if you've been told there's a wait for tables in 1013114 Token, this is likely to be quieter than N0213 Frank Ryans or N0215 Dice Bar and a bit more modern than N0214 McGettigans

This is the first of the "Opening Summer '19" hotel builds for Dublin, and possibly the only one that actually did open on time. I'm going to do a post on the recent openings and the upcoming that I'm aware of next, as it was starting to get too messy for this one