S0243 Bottlers Bank

It is very hard to find out if this pub is open - it is, you can trust the Google Maps opening hours - as all their social media accounts are still in the early lockdown closure days. 

An early 2000s extension to the larger Comans next door, the Bottlers Bank has generally been open throughout the long years that the main pub has stayed shut. There is currently an auction sign on the main Comans, but any reference to it online cannot be found - and searching for it only finds that the car park was up for auction last year, with a different auction house.

The pub is nicely set up, albeit with a fully macro lineup - the previous iteration pre-lockdown had some craft taps; and a manager who was good for a chat about the recent history of the place.

Somewhere the size of Rathgar should be able to keep two pubs going, even if the big one never reopens

Revisited Pubs, May-July 2023

I keep forgetting to post these despite them getting perversely good reading figures, and checking my tags it seems April was the last one. That was probably because I didn't actually revisit anywhere in May, and then forgot I even did this as a result, but here goes for a busier June and July:

N0006 Brew Dock - dinner before a concert at...

N0033 3Arena

1011234 Hogs & Heifers, Liffey Valley - last visited when it was TGI Fridays

S1493 The Circular, Rialto - after attending the Dublin Record & Tape Fair

S1519 Bird Flanagan, Rialto - because there was comfier seating available

N0097 Underdog, Capel Street - first visit of the third incarnation. Last visited when it was Beerhouse, many years before

N0063 Cumiskeys, Dominick Street - convenient for the Luas

N0082 McGraths, Drumcondra - and this one is convenient for the train

S0242 The 108

Another case of completing a list that isn't my list (my previous was getting to the last Victorian Pub from Kevin Kearns list) - this is the final Galway Bay / Brú Hospitality pub in Dublin that I had yet to visit; and I had also been to a handful more when they ran them (or before, in the case of N0097 Beerhouse which became Paddle & Peel / Taco Libre).

Like their other, now all former, suburban GBB pubs; there are a few more concessions to being a locals pub here - a few macro taps - well, a few more than the other pubs as they appear to all sell Guinness now - and TVs. There's also no direct food offering, with a local pizza place offering to-table service that I'd hazard a guess started in the €9 Substantial Meal days if it wasn't there before.

There's still plenty of craft on offer, and there's still boardgames; so you won't feel too out of place if you've just jumped off the bus from another GBB pub. I'd be quite happy to have this as a local, maybe a bit more if it had the normal GBB burgers too.

S1578 McEvoys / The Hatch

This pub has now adopted the name The Hatch, but until about ten years ago, this was the name of the former pub across the road; with this one possibly occasionally using the name The Workman - McEvoys would have been the more common name then, and is still used now.

Many people assume the canal is the county boundary; but despite some county boundaries being late Victorian inventions, this one doesn't follow the semi-logical path of the canal and instead leaves a small portion of land between it and the railway line in Dublin. 

This was the closest un-visited pub to my house - I live relatively close to Hazelhatch, but it remained rather complicated to get to until the latest stage of BusConnects provided the W61 route. It has been replaced in that role S1575 Annie Mays in Newcastle; which should have been served by the same BusConnects expansion, but this is delayed to allow the bridge at Hazelhatch to get modified.

I dropped in on only the second day of service of the W61, and it turned out I was not the first first-time customer that that route had dropped nearby, with the publican telling me that he had had a few others come in on the first day, as well as someone who had dropped in for soft drinks when driving a few weeks earlier and decided to return for pints.

It's the kind of pub that might well make you want to return, sitting as it does beside the Grand Canal and with substantial outdoor seating that would be very enjoyable on a nice day. Inside the pub is very traditional, including amongst the greebling in the bar an over-60-years-old Rings board branded for Cairnes Ale - defunct since 1959.

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I would warn those of a taller build to watch out for the doorways in the gents, which are on the low side - there may be loftier facilities in the lounge! 

1012945 Travelodge Plus

This new, higher end Travelodge property opened in 2022 on a site which included the corner that formerly housed the noted early house pub, S0041 Neds of Townsend Street / Ned Scanlans. I assume the licence for the hotel is a conversion of that licence.

The bar here is just more towards being a proper bar rather than a lobby bar; but it is right in the lobby. There's a surprisingly good range of beers here for a hotel including multiple Irish craft taps (Hope and White Hag I think). I'd still recommend going down the road to O'Neills or Moss Lane if you were out for drinks, but this isn't a bad backup option.

August 2023 Register Update

Some items of note for the first time in a while:

Additions:

1019890 Pawn Shop, Dame Street - full pub licnece replacing the stripped theatre licence of 1010288 Berlin D2. I guess this answers the "what is a pub?" question that was raised when the LVA tried to distance themselves from it!

1020285 The Voyager, Dame Street - not yet opened Louis Fitzgerald premises in development for some years.

Returns:

1003456 The Shipwright, Ringsend - closed and then put up for sale after the owner died. Now has a Ltd company listed as owner, so may have sold

S0214 Arbour House, Windy Arbour - now recorded as having the same owners as S0249 Dundrum House so presumably going to reopen.

1019163 Twin Oaks

I've written before on the problem of deciding what a pub is, and how this may be more of an issue in the future if/when the proposed licencing reforms are passed. Currently pub licences are quite expensive, so not many restaurants have them - but the number that do is increasing year on year, as there are some good reasons to do so. You can serve punters who don't want to eat, can serve beer and spirits more easily, and the licence (currently) holds its resale value fairly well.

In the case of Twin Oaks, I believe the unit was actually originally a pub (The Barbican) rather than a restaurant bringing a pub licence in - but there have been restaurants-with-pub-licences here for a while now.

But, if we were to assume I was visiting in a post-reform world, would I consider this a pub? I think I'd have to. There were three strong indications that would be amongst what I imagine I'll have to decide on in future.

First impressions would not make you think so - I walked in to be greeted by a staff member who was assigning seats. All the tables that I could see were set up for dining and there was nobody else there that was just drinking.

I was assigned to sit at the bar - not uncommon in these pub-sturants; and the first indication that I would consider this a pub appeared here. The bar had a normal pub level of taps, including multiple Irish craft options. Most restaurant bars have two to four taps at most.

The second indications appeared while I was there - two regulars who walked in, past the staff member at the door, and sat at the bar. If the place has regulars who are not dining regulars.

The third indication I noticed when heading to the gents. There is a small area to the side of the bar that appeared to be seating for drinkers; but there is also a vast, seated, covered smoking area - of a type a restaurant would never have. This appeared to be there since the pub days and not an outdoor dining era addition, and would let a reasonable pub crowd in without needing to divert any of the dining room seats. The relative scale of the bar suggests to me that this is probably what happens.

The beer was a little toward restaurant prices, but this is a fancier pub in a fancy area, so what do you expect really.