N0021 Seabank House

This pub, a 2001 replacement building for the old Wharf Tavern which stood as East Wall's only proper pub (they had plenty of spirit grocer type premises though), was badly damaged by fire in late 2018. 

The pub reopened in 2021, as much as any pub could with the restrictions still in place at the time; after a refit to incredibly high standards. Lots of quality finishes, stone, wood, brass etc with nicely coloured textiles and so on, providing something that feels (very) nice and cosy rather than sterile or over the top. Whoever designed this did a very good job, and whoever agreed to pay for the presumably very high costs of doing it right needs to be commended. You could easily aim for this and miss, badly. Many pubs have.

I was there early enough in the evening, so the pub wasn't particularly busy, but with a full schedule of sports and live music, I presume it gets a lot busier. There's a pretty large tap range here, albeit all from the big macros - so there's IPAs, but they're Cute Hoor and Open Gate Citra for instance.

This pub is a bit out of the way for most people; but with huge apartment developments on East Road and Sheriff Street under construction there is a large potential customer base here. Definitely seems to be worth a visit.

N0277 The Top Shop

We start the ninth calendar year of this 'project' with a writeup from six weeks ago; but this backlog can only get shorter now that I've all but exhausted the well of "pubs I visited before 2016"...

The last pub in Rush was rammed; the lounge area of the first pub in Lusk *sounded* rammed (I was in a bar area) and this pub was rammed; both in the bar and the lounge. 

Which don't appear to be connected to each other internally, for customers at least - something I've rarely seen.

And in terms of connections (I'm really straining this segue), I also don't know if this pub shares ownership with Murrays - as the owners of The Top Shop are also called Murray; but are not the same as the name on the licence for Murrays. It isn't that odd for an owner or a family of owners to have pubs very near to each other - directly across the road in Balbriggan for The Milestone and The Harvest for instance - but owning the only two pubs in a town isn't common.

I initially sat outside, but drizzle began and I found some space inside in the lounge as someone else was leaving - which was useful, as due to the relatively poor bus service here, I had quite some time to hang around.

I believe the GAA club bar takes quite a lot of trade in Lusk, which may explain there only being two pubs - there was once a third, Murtaghs, significantly outside the town on the old N1, which closed at least in party due to the loss of the passing food trade when the M1 opened. This was sold, minus licence, a few years ago - the ad is still up as of time of writing.