1016228 The Mayson

Known to most Dubliners as "Vallence & McGrath", this historic pub - documented extensively on East Wall For All - lay derelict for about a decade and was the scene of a horrific murder when being used as a squat, so I had assumed it had a very limited chance of reopening.

But it has,as the main bar of The Mayson Hotel, constructed inside the shell of a warehouse next door.

A faux-Victorian interior has been presented here; with some distressed elements that may be from the original pub; or are more likely from a pub interiors firm. But the look works. There's also a real open fire, so it definitely gives the feel of a "traditional Victorian pub" and I theorise that plenty of people will suddenly decide that its Guinness is good for reasons they can't quantify!

They've done a good job with the fitout here; so those unaware of its recent history may actually think its been like this forever. They need to improve the soft offerings, however. I actually got a Guinness - by mistake, as the barman misheard me - and it's not bad. I can't say the same for the service (mistake made, poor floor service) or the food (they stopped serving at 6 rather than the advertised 7, so I never got to order!) however. And there's an extremely limited range of taps, all Heineken Ireland except for the solitary Guinness.

N1102 The Celt

I've previously mentioned I don't like going in to pubs where the door is blocked by people - be they bouncers, smokers or whatever. Its a very odd thing with no obvious explanation but I just don't like it and have occasionally pounced on a pub when it was randomly un-blocked.

The Celt was always blocked, with a woman holding food menus, every time I went past. And I always assumed it was going to be entirely full of tourists and/or blasting out awful cod-trad and/or a bit Republican based on some of the little bits of decor visible from outside.

But the menu-foister was briefly off the door when I was passing, so in I jumped. And it wasn't full of tourists, or blasting cod-trad, or anything else bad really. It is a hotel bar; so don't expect much - but there's some interesting beers on tap (I had a Larkins) and plenty of seating.

In something slightly odd, the receipts here were printed with the name of the hotels highly rated Le Bon Crubeen restaurant - which might make me more willing to try the food in case they also share the kitchen!

1015968 Moxy Hotel

In recent years, old office buildings - that have become redundant for reasons such as having too low a floor height for modern suspended floors and ceilings - are increasingly being converted to hotels. Stripped back to the concrete shell it allows the insertion of rooms (sometimes even partially prefabricated) while saving the cost and CO2 emissions required in recreating all that concrete.

The former Eircom offices on O'Connell Street became 1012141 Holiday Inn Express, former ESB offices on Fleet Street became 1012867 Temple Bar Inn, and this hideously ugly former Dublin Corporation offices and retail development has now become The Moxy - albeit with some extra floors thrown on the top too. 

Nearly the entire ground floor here is an open plan bar/cafe/restaurant and cocktails are the main offering - there are only four beer taps as far as I could see.

There's nothing wrong with it, but with The Sackville and N1084 Pipers Corner across the road one way and Briodys down the road the other... there's no reason for non-residents to come in here.

S0084 The Norseman

This is the last pub in Temple Bar for me today (there are still pubs further beyond, but I've been to them all); and it wins the Least Worst Pub In Temple Bar Award. However, I feel that's actually being quite unfair on it - its better than Least Worst, or at least was today. There was nothing wrong with it.

It wasn't full of tourists in orange wigs, it wasn't playing terrible music. It doesn't charge absolutely insane prices. Comfortable seating was available. The toilets had a functioning hand dryer. Its a small hotel these days and you would need to keep the place sane for guests, which might be part of it.

The pub is part of The Smith Group, who also run S0064 Auld Dubliner further back in the Temple Bar madness, and this visit completes that small chain for me. Having recently finished the Bodytonic chain, I feel a post coming on about the various current chains in Dublin - I wrote up the two big defunct ones some time ago.

1009287 The Temple Bar

The lowest quality 'trad' (borderline Country & Irish with different instruments), ads for their branded whiskey everywhere, a layout that would confuse nearly anyone and even vending machines for branded products in the basement. 

This probably gets the most tourists of the lot due to the name. It is, however, still not as awful as the Oliver St John Gogarty is; and its actually cheaper than it too.

1008141 Bad Ass Cafe

This really isn't a pub; but its licenced as one. So it doesn't get to try grab the Least Worst Pub In Temple Bar trophy; although it would have if I let it.

This is a restaurant with more drinks options than normal, basically. Its also relatively cheap, and I decided to have my mid-trip meal here. It was relatively quiet at the time so there was plenty of space to eat leisurely and also finish reading the newspaper I'd started on the train on the way in.

There is a rare indoor plaque on the now quite obsolete "Rock'n'Stroll" music tour that used to be promoted by Dublin Tourism, as Sinead O'Connor used to work as a waitress here. That should give you some idea of how long this has been here - it was one of the first new premises to open when Temple Bar had its initial period as an arts/culture centre, well before it became a place for Welsh stag parties to vomit in the streets. I'm not sure if it held a pub licence that entire time, as it has a current generation licence number - but these are often issued for older premises when something changes anyway.

S3230 The Quays

So this took the title of  Least Worst Pub In Temple Bar quite quickly. A relatively standard Louis Fitzgerald pub, this is one of the actually new (new since the tourism boom) premises in Temple Bar - and it isn't the bar of a hotel like most of the others.

The licence was the most expensive ever bought, in the era when getting one transferred from outside the area required two licences and significant legal effort, from "The Crane", a small pub on Crane Lane which was a regular haunt of one of my regular readers as it happens.

Its quite a normal Louis Fitzgerald pub otherwise, but it does get its fair share of tourists in. There's a food focused offering here, but then again nearly all of the Temple Bar pubs try to shift huge volumes of it. I couldn't get a seat here either, but there was plenty of perching space