N1804 Travelodge Dublin Airport

Prepare for a journey through space and time! You're going to be whisked to Somewhere in England, and somewhere in the early 1990s. And while this may accidentally sound like some era-appropriate Scooter lyrics; there's a reason for it.

This pub was a Little Chef. As in the semi-recently defunct brand of roadside restaurants that you're more likely to remember from family holidays in England than from Ireland. And if you know what their standard architecture is, this jumps out immediately as one

To those of us who are or were roadwarriors at some stage, this is blatantly a Little Chef. It's now a little chef with a liquor licence (I wish that was more perfectly alliterative); and that's why I came here on the bus. pic.twitter.com/dY3PTWajWV

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) March 30, 2024

The Little Chef brand entered Ireland for a decade or so in the early 1990s; all co-sited with Travelodge hotels, which were in shared ownership at the time. I believe there were 5 Little Chef locations in Ireland at peak, at hotels on major roads. In 2005, these closed and those outside Dublin became Eddie Rockets; with the two in Dublin remaining with the hotels as their restaurant - these hotels were both in relatively isolated locations, this one on the by then bypassed N1; and the other near the M50/N3 interchange in Castleknock.

With the knowledge that there was a licence here, I knew I'd have to drop by at some point; but when driving past I noticed that the former Little Chef was now branded as a Smokin Bones - you'll have seen the photo already. And Smokin Bones website mentioned a full bar. Its also rather better food than I was expecting to get at a Travelodge.

When you go in to Smokin Bones, you don't get much indication that this was ever a Little Chef - no decor remains, and the menu is very different. A burger with pulled pork topping and a pint of Hope isn't quite what I'd eaten in Welsh Little Chef's out of dire need ten minutes before closing time when racing back to Holyhead at night anyway.

However, if you go to the toilets, you'll walk straight back in to that 1993 Little Chef; with fixtures and fittings the same as installed over 30 years ago, from giant pastel plastic door handles to hand dryers with 6 digit 01 phone numbers on them.

There's always a period between something becoming dated before it becomes retro chic, or indeed worthy of preservation - as possibly the only 90s Little Chef interior left in Ireland, this could end up reaching the final category in time!