August 2024 Licence Update

Revenue have removed the .csv format of the licence update, so this took a while to do and could actually miss some minor changes... but it'll do

New:

1021189 Ruby Molly Hotel, Arran Street East - new hotel opened earlier in 2024

RetroReview: S0336 Johnnie Foxes

This is not the highest pub in Ireland. It is probably the highest pub in Dublin; but it gets away with stating it is "reputed" to be the highest pub whenever the statement can be legally challenged.

The pub is an incredible tourist trap, but I'd still consider it worth a visit - the interior is greebled to a ridiculous extent with proper antiques; there's a lot of archival materials on the walls about celeb visits, and the food I had was pretty decent - although I was not there when it was busy by any means whatsoever. And it was a decade ago.

S3208 Boomers

A decent pub with a terrible name - "boomer" isn't an insult for a generation here like it is in the US, mainly because we didn't have a baby boom at the same time; but we're all aware of it.

I visited the pub on the first day proper - the day after the opening ceremony basically - of the 2024 Olympics; which is apt as the bar has piles of memorabilia relating to their local Olympian, Kenny Egan, who won Silver in 2008. There's photos, gloves, and something that at first glance looks like a medal; but is not - its bronze-coloured, for starters. 

I should probably have asked the barman if he knew what it was, and if the gloves were from the actual Olympics fights come to think of it.

This is a big pub, with a large outdoor area and also a large lounge; neither of which I headed in to. I'm never a fan of betting machines in pubs, but I can easily ignore them in somewhere with a decent atmosphere and good staff like there were here.

Something interesting to me is that the pubs extremely neglected Twitter page has a header photo featuring some of the great artwork on old Trouble Brewing bottles - I like their current can artwork too; but miss the old designs - and the naming scheme that implied various types of trouble too.

Revisited pubs July 2024

(note: I did not revisit any pubs in June, or more accurately, did not drink in any - I ate in 1003309 Hogs & Heifers though)

S0115 The Bankers - a rapid reoccurance here - I had to pick a (sonically) quiet-ish, city centre pub to meet someone in

S0106 Tapped - for the first time since its rebrand, albeit I was actually in Hartys, for the first time since its own rebrand. The roof leaked.

N0097 Underdog - days late for its 7th birthday

(I also revisited a pub in The Rosses, but I'm not going to make that summer series take over every regular feature)

RetroReview: S0237 Kodiak

This is going to be the most useless RetroReview ever; as not only was it a different operator and name - Copan - when I visited, I had a single pint early in the evening; in what was then very much a night venue.

Like a few other of the pre-2016 premises that are quite different to my usuals; I visited this one while doing the tech operations for an outside broadcast here, in late 2013. This was from 7-9, so I arrived at about 5:30 and had dinner and a pint before setup; and barely left the area around the front door of the pub the entire time

I really need to revisit, but as yet, haven't

1006700 Decies County Bar

The shutters were mostly down of this pub - the one over the door opened to head height and the rest still down. Not the most inviting; and the warning about bans for use of drugs on the premises also suggests foreboding; however the pubs actually quite nice inside.

Unlike the previous pub being very clear about what they did and didn't serve; the Decies had a Beamish tap head which was not on and indeed had not been on for some time - but they did have bottled Macardles; which more than suffices.

The "County" in the name here may seem slightly odd; as this is very much in an urban area, within the Dublin City Council area; but this is because the Colgan family chain of premises all had "County" in their names - N1194 West County Hotel, N1133 Lucan County Bar and some former premises making up another chain of similarly named pubs like JG Mooney's set.

RetroReview: S0323 Stillorgan Park Hotel

In a weird coincidence, the previous two RetroReviews were places I visited for family parties; and so is this

(Actually, its only a weird coincidence if you don't realise that the old S/N series licences were issued in a vague geographic order; and none of them have yet changed licence so they're all relatively nearby... but anyway)

This was the scene of, as far as I remember, a family reunion of some kind a few years *after* the 80th Birthday mentioned in another post. There's another southside hotel I ticked off for my grandmothers 90th, as it happens.

I don't remember much about it; and while I've been here and indeed eaten here more recently it was for work - they were a customer of a previous employer.