N0300 The Lord Mayors

A absolutely huge pile of a premises on Swords Main Street, of which I saw relatively little. The basement / ground floor if approached from the carpark has a more cafe-like area, albeit with a full set of taps, which is where I ate lunch

And quite a bland lunch it was too, with a very disinterested barman taking my order.

I used to work in Swords, and while the pubs have changed a bit (primarily the Slaughtered Lamb -> Empire -> "The Betsy") in the over a decade since, I'm sure there's still better food available elsewhere. In fact I know there is from my visit to N0303 The Cock Tavern, roughly the same time last year and for exactly the same reason.

There's a number of other areas to the pub, and a large off-licence, so its probably a bad idea to make a final judgement off the one section - but its unlikely I'll be back anytime soon.

S0194 The Hill

The history of this pub has already been covered at Publin, and the rather more chequered history of the adjacent Mountpleasant area which gave the pub its name at Come Here To Me, so neither really needs to be written again by me.

This is a nice pub with a traditional layout and furnishings, but a modern range of drinks on offer - primarily Irish craft taps and Irish spirits.

This was a quick visit upon realising that I wasn't going to make a train and had 55mins to use until the next one - even the improvements in frequency last year haven't made it to late evenings yet. As it was that late in the evening, the food service had finished for the day here so I didn't get to see what was on offer; but it appears to be standard modern pub grub and the reputation is that it is decent.

I'd quite like somewhere like this as my local, but I can't possible afford to live in Ranelagh!

S4289 PMacs

This was the same weekend as my visit to S0235 Blackbird (yes, it can take that long to get around to posting!), which is part of the same mini-chain of primarly craft beer bars.

This one is possible their oddest location. being a huge two story unit in a boomtime shopping centre. Previously operating as Winters bar and Parker Browns nightclub on the individual floors, it has undergone a transformation to basically look like Blackbird. There is less of a resemblance to the city centre PMacs than there is to Blackbird in my opinion, but all the pubs share a basic design language - as well as a similar tap list and food options.

Drinks obtained were possibly identical to Blackbird the previous day; but we didn't partake in pizza this time, as the entire visit to Dundrum had been for an ulterior motive

The much vaunted Ananda Indian Restaurant is in the same building, with reservations not always easy to obtain; and I chanced my arm that there might be a table available, going to the internal shopping centre door to ask. Later during the meal I saw multiple people in the plusher waiting area accessible from the external door - but its not like the shopping centre entrance isn't signed as being a way in. Its worth the visit, as is Pickle on Camden Street; which was founded by a former head chef from here. But these are brief pub reviews, not unconnected restaurant reviews anyway.

They've done a good job in PMacs, converting a boomtime, South County bar (and 90s flashback nightclub) in to something really much the same as their other premises, and they don't suffer for being almost cookie cutter clones either.

S0249 Dundrum House

A large pub in the centre of the original village of Dundrum, this is split between a very traditional side and a somewhat more modern side with food service. Nominally I think one is meant to be 'the bar' and the other 'the lounge', but the traditional side has more lounge like seating than the average bar, so I'm not really sure. 

Depsite the traditional feel, a G&T was supplied in a balloon glass - something I have noted before as creeping in to traditional pubs but still generally a modern trait. However, the presence of Beamish on the tap lineup brings it back down to earth and provided my cheapest pint of the day - all the pubs were in South Dublin though!

S0216 Uncle Tom's Cabin

Normally when it appears that a pub might be closing down, I don't go out of my way to visit it - as it won't be statistically important for completion once it's gone. And this pub *might* be closing. It is up for sale, and with a large carpark, is clearly going to be eyed for development.

But I was in the rough area anyway.

It's a large pub, which doesn't appear to have any way in when approached from the Dundrum side -he entrances face in to the carpark instead. A large lounge was doing carvery, so we went in to the smaller bar area which was relatively quiet. Bar staff were mostly working in the lounge but came in frequently enough to ensure decent service.

The pub is Victorian externally and to a certain extent internally - but with some elements of probably 80s interiors marring the full Victorian feel. The family who are now selling up have operated the premise since 1890, which is likely one of the longest tenures in Dublin - N0078 Kavanaghs/The Gravediggers does easily outstrip it though.

March 2019 licence update

Substantial enough number of changes for the shorter month since the last update:

Additions

1015067 Shelbourne Social, Shelbourne Road
1015110 Clayton Hotel, Charlemont Mall

Removals

1007885 The Wright Venue - this will reappear with the new owners, but has been explicitly removed this month for some reason
S0041 Neds, Townsend Street - hotel being built here will likely have a bar

Renumberings

1014887 Odeon Charlestown formerly 1010669
1014896 Odeon Point Village formerly 1012553
1014978 Sin, Sycamore Street formerly 1011153

1012553 Odeon Cinema (Point Village)

I made the decision not to exclude theatre licences from the idea of what is or isn't a pub for a few reasons.

The first one is that it would exclude a number of premises that effectively operate as pubs - 1011153 The Wild Duck and Crowbar in 1013315 Button Factory - which anyone making a list of pubs from a different data source would include.

The second one is the historical sidenote of many bars and nightclubs having obtained theatre licences prior to the 2008 licencing changes as a more flexible method for late opening - about thirty, mostly south city centre, premises held a theatre licence in addition to their publicans licence.

This decision is starting to cause me some problems, though. Not everywhere with a theatre licence actually sells alcohol on a regular basis (N2659 Vue Cinema), and some which do are not open frequently - N2198 Liberty Hall (note the inaccurate prediction in that review!). Excepting the few that trade as bars, you generally need to buy an event ticket to attend.

Luckily, this one just required me to go see a movie, very close to my office. All that's sold here is bottled Heineken and generic red and white wine, dispensed in to plastic cups so you can bring it in to the screens.

This was actually my second cinema of the day - I had watched another movie on the tiny 22-seat Screen 9 of the 1013276 Omniplex in Rathmines - but wasn't aware that their bar only opens at 19:30. There's a few more films I want to see either out or coming out soon, so I'll have to arrange a tour of the other licenced cinemas to see those!