This prominent pub has a Northside licence number - and so does the current closed N1119 Long Mile Inn across the road. I have no idea why, as nothing else nearby does - and its far from the most out of place N series pub, that being in Tallaght. Some day I'll find the person in Revenue - or a Revenue retiree - that knows why.
On my visit here, I popped in to the bar only - the pub itself is quite large and I presume does a decent food trade given that it has a sizeable carpark, a rare occurrence this close to the city centre. The carpark itself is actually across the road, something more often seen in rural roadside pubs like the Strawberry Hall or the Blue Light than in suburbia.
My visit here was made rather more humorous by overhearing what I presume to be the local Walter Mitty, regaling tales of military nonsense to a mate; not one bit of it vaguely accurate - but it is possible there are actually Defence Forces recruits that badly informed of their own employer, of course. There appeared to be an in-pub bookie in a corner, that relatively rarely sighted thing that may now not survive the lack of things to bet upon in the next few weeks.
Surburban pubs make recommendations difficult - I won't be passing here again realistically - but I'd see no reason not to drop in here.
Thursday 19 March 2020
Tuesday 17 March 2020
S1448 Liberty Belle
I had intended to drop in here first of my pubs on the evening I did the last few visits - but as I've mentioned before, I have a mental block on going in to a pub where the doorway is blocked by people. They can be security, like is normally the case at Cafe 1920 on Westmoreland Street, an aggressive menu-foister like The Celt or just punters like put me off before my eventual trips to the Windjammer and the Chancery.
And the Liberty Belle had the same issue. Pubs that didn't invest in a smoking area post 2004 generally expected you to go on the street; and as the overall number of smokers dwindles those that remain crowd doorways. And I won't push through a blocked doorway. So on my first pass I skipped the pub - again - but on the way back it wasn't blocked so I ventured in
What you get is the last remaining traditional D8 pub on the street, with a mostly local, mainly male audience watching sports and consuming relatively cheap pints. If I was to channel Pub Spy I'd need to comment on the quite well equipped toilets for a pub of its type; but I didn't drink Guinness so I can't give you the Pub Spy experience with any honesty.
The operators are clearly trying to attract some tourist trade, with their own certificate for pulling a pint scheme advertised outside; and a couple who had booked an AirBnB on the street turned up while I was there - finding a Liberties boozer to be rather confusing when I imagine they wanted Temple Bar tack. They did, however, buy some drinks and didn't just run away!
And the Liberty Belle had the same issue. Pubs that didn't invest in a smoking area post 2004 generally expected you to go on the street; and as the overall number of smokers dwindles those that remain crowd doorways. And I won't push through a blocked doorway. So on my first pass I skipped the pub - again - but on the way back it wasn't blocked so I ventured in
What you get is the last remaining traditional D8 pub on the street, with a mostly local, mainly male audience watching sports and consuming relatively cheap pints. If I was to channel Pub Spy I'd need to comment on the quite well equipped toilets for a pub of its type; but I didn't drink Guinness so I can't give you the Pub Spy experience with any honesty.
The operators are clearly trying to attract some tourist trade, with their own certificate for pulling a pint scheme advertised outside; and a couple who had booked an AirBnB on the street turned up while I was there - finding a Liberties boozer to be rather confusing when I imagine they wanted Temple Bar tack. They did, however, buy some drinks and didn't just run away!
Monday 16 March 2020
1015221 Aloft Hotel
Built in, around and *on top of* The Tenters pub, the new licence number here suggests that The Tenters licence had either lapsed fully or was sold off during its long term closure, but Aloft (a Marriot sub-brand) have returned the function of a bar to the form of the old pub at last. Its not what it was by any means, but at least its something.
The Tenters has remained as the name of the ground floor bar here (there is another on the roof, apparently; which I did not visit) and takes its name from the area - not the other way around as is often the case. The name from the use of tenterhooks (yes, those are a real thing) to stretch drying cloth produced by workers in the area in the now relatively distant past.
This is another hotel built where residential was proposed - Mill Court Apartments went to construction in 2007 when the writing was on the wall, and construction stopped - with the hotel construction starting in 2016/7 and the rotting remains of The Tenters stripped back to its facade
You can enter the bar from the street rather than from the hotel lobby; and it is fully self contained - but it cannot get away from being a hotel bar in how it now operates. I never visited The Tenters before its closure (which I think was in 2005/6 but I have no certainty on that - it was closed by 2009 anyway) but I presume it was a traditional Liberties boozer and not a fairly sanitised hotel bar.
They've tried their best really, with old photos of the area - and the pub itself - but unless locals start drinking here out of preference it'll never even start to become what it was.
The Tenters has remained as the name of the ground floor bar here (there is another on the roof, apparently; which I did not visit) and takes its name from the area - not the other way around as is often the case. The name from the use of tenterhooks (yes, those are a real thing) to stretch drying cloth produced by workers in the area in the now relatively distant past.
This is another hotel built where residential was proposed - Mill Court Apartments went to construction in 2007 when the writing was on the wall, and construction stopped - with the hotel construction starting in 2016/7 and the rotting remains of The Tenters stripped back to its facade
You can enter the bar from the street rather than from the hotel lobby; and it is fully self contained - but it cannot get away from being a hotel bar in how it now operates. I never visited The Tenters before its closure (which I think was in 2005/6 but I have no certainty on that - it was closed by 2009 anyway) but I presume it was a traditional Liberties boozer and not a fairly sanitised hotel bar.
They've tried their best really, with old photos of the area - and the pub itself - but unless locals start drinking here out of preference it'll never even start to become what it was.
Saturday 14 March 2020
1015887 Hyatt Centric
(this, and the next 6 write-ups, happened a few weeks ago and well before the need for "social distancing" became apparent - I'm unsure if I'll visit anywhere new for a while now but at least I have a post backlog to work through!)
This hotel, the first branded Hyatt in Ireland, opened last year and was built on a long derelict site beside 1008283 Fallons in the Coombe. One of things that was on that site in the recent past was a pub interior bric-a-brac firm, so its possible that I've seen trinkets flogged from here across the city already. The site was originally to be an apartment block, Cathedral View, for which I tried to find the estate agents blurb but couldn't - so this is actually a valid case of a hotel replacing potential housing, when most of the new ones are replacing commercial - but other reasons still exist why you may be against hotel construction in general of course.
Construction was slightly delayed due to the vast quantity of archaeological finds on the site, dating back to the 11th century in layers and adding to the knowledge of late Viking Dublin in particular. As is the norm with these type of remains, a record and remove basis was applied.
The bar here is really targetted at those eating, although you can just come in for a drink and it is directly street accessible unlike some other hotel bars. Food on offer is absolutely standard food pub grub - there's an idea for a lockdown time-burner Twitter thing about what you expect pub grub to be - with burgers, fish and chips and a Thai curry appearing as they do nearly everywhere these days.
The burger is massive, and not bad for its price; but the drinks selection is a very normal hotel bar one.
If you want pints and atmosphere, pop in to Fallons - but if you want a bite to eat during that visit, you may as well come back here.
This hotel, the first branded Hyatt in Ireland, opened last year and was built on a long derelict site beside 1008283 Fallons in the Coombe. One of things that was on that site in the recent past was a pub interior bric-a-brac firm, so its possible that I've seen trinkets flogged from here across the city already. The site was originally to be an apartment block, Cathedral View, for which I tried to find the estate agents blurb but couldn't - so this is actually a valid case of a hotel replacing potential housing, when most of the new ones are replacing commercial - but other reasons still exist why you may be against hotel construction in general of course.
Construction was slightly delayed due to the vast quantity of archaeological finds on the site, dating back to the 11th century in layers and adding to the knowledge of late Viking Dublin in particular. As is the norm with these type of remains, a record and remove basis was applied.
The bar here is really targetted at those eating, although you can just come in for a drink and it is directly street accessible unlike some other hotel bars. Food on offer is absolutely standard food pub grub - there's an idea for a lockdown time-burner Twitter thing about what you expect pub grub to be - with burgers, fish and chips and a Thai curry appearing as they do nearly everywhere these days.
The burger is massive, and not bad for its price; but the drinks selection is a very normal hotel bar one.
If you want pints and atmosphere, pop in to Fallons - but if you want a bite to eat during that visit, you may as well come back here.
Monday 9 March 2020
S1451 Anti Social
This is a decent sized pub, in a modern building - but a pub existed in the previous building on the site. This is relatively common across Dublin, with quite a lot of buildings replaced in the 1990s and 2000s - and I suspect we're going to see a number of new premises retaining the old format licence numbers of the old pub they replaced in the current building boom. Mostly hotels, probably.
Most recently, this was "The Bayno", a quite modern pub named after a much older thing - the Iveagh Play Centre, founded in 1909 and which received this nickname as a corruption of the archaic term bean-fest. The Beano comic - which still exists - that anyone of my age will probably have bought as a kid - is most likely named after this term also. A book on the history of the Iveagh Play Centre came out in 2009 but appears to be out of stock everywhere, including second hand sites.
However, a nice local history reference name doesn't keep a pub going, and there were some problems along the way, and the pub closed in about 2014. And it sat there, closed but licenced, until 2019 when work started on the premises and rumours abounded that the people involved in Bingo Loco were to reopen the premises. And in February 2020, they did.
I visited on a weekend evening, and the pub was busy. Very busy. To the point that the lack of air conditioning made it quite uncomfortable, so I left after a pint.
I suspect that much of the crowd is made up of BIMM and NCAD students, and student crowds can be quite fickle in where they attend - S1449 The Jug across the road is currently closed but if it reopens it could whip the audience away - but it at least provides a base audience for them.
If there was some form of cooling, it'd probably be quite nice to stay here for a while - there is even food available in the form of toasties - but it's just too clammy to countenance currently.
Most recently, this was "The Bayno", a quite modern pub named after a much older thing - the Iveagh Play Centre, founded in 1909 and which received this nickname as a corruption of the archaic term bean-fest. The Beano comic - which still exists - that anyone of my age will probably have bought as a kid - is most likely named after this term also. A book on the history of the Iveagh Play Centre came out in 2009 but appears to be out of stock everywhere, including second hand sites.
However, a nice local history reference name doesn't keep a pub going, and there were some problems along the way, and the pub closed in about 2014. And it sat there, closed but licenced, until 2019 when work started on the premises and rumours abounded that the people involved in Bingo Loco were to reopen the premises. And in February 2020, they did.
I visited on a weekend evening, and the pub was busy. Very busy. To the point that the lack of air conditioning made it quite uncomfortable, so I left after a pint.
I suspect that much of the crowd is made up of BIMM and NCAD students, and student crowds can be quite fickle in where they attend - S1449 The Jug across the road is currently closed but if it reopens it could whip the audience away - but it at least provides a base audience for them.
If there was some form of cooling, it'd probably be quite nice to stay here for a while - there is even food available in the form of toasties - but it's just too clammy to countenance currently.
Thursday 5 March 2020
March 2020 licence update
Only one change this month - somewhere open for nearly 9 months!
New:
1015767 Silver Penny, Abbey Street Already visited
New:
1015767 Silver Penny, Abbey Street Already visited
Wednesday 4 March 2020
Revisited Pubs - February 2020
People are still more interested in this than most individual pub posts, so I'm going to keep doing it... I might eventually be able to buy a pint with the ad revenue four years if it stays "popular"
No Number Yet - The Mayson - got food this time
1008963 - Porterhouse Central - closest pub with tables and food to Tower Records after attending an instore gig there.
I crocked myself in work in the middle of the month and didn't get quite as much of anything done as I expected to, hence a much reduced total of both new and revisited pubs
No Number Yet - The Mayson - got food this time
1008963 - Porterhouse Central - closest pub with tables and food to Tower Records after attending an instore gig there.
I crocked myself in work in the middle of the month and didn't get quite as much of anything done as I expected to, hence a much reduced total of both new and revisited pubs
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