1021439 Old Fashioned Sams

A huge and slightly rambling new bar and restaurant complex on an awkward site, running from a Harcourt Street basement out to a large, effectively new build structure on Montague Street and Montague Lane. The facades of the old buildings were retained, but the structure inside is new.

Ownership seems a bit confusing here too - the licence suggests a connection to 'Ohana, which is next door on the Harcourt Street side; but it is widely reported as being a Chris Kelly Group premises.

On the evening I attended, Dublin was particularly dead - something that continued for most of my visits in January and February - and the huge premises had a small enough number of staff, concentrating on the corner bar at the main entrance. There were still, however, enough staff to have a barman per customer - and presumably some in the kitchens too!

This is an interesting setup, well designed and well implemented - and should be busier by now than it was on a January afternoon.