1011267 Zozimus

One of the limited number of pubs in Dublin named after someone who isn't the owner or a former owner - Publin did a feature on these that strangely missed this one out - this pub is Built For Instagram. Or at least the outside of it is - having covered the end of Annes Lane with umbrellas in a manner that should be easy for anyone to photograph well. I didn't - I was trying to catch the rear entrances to the Dawson Street pubs that are now all opening out here; and the weather was abysmal.

The bar is table service driven, which is an absolutely turn off for me. I imagine this is to try best allocate seating for food, which is a core part of the offering here - and has been given both abysmal and glowing reviews by different reviewers. I'd already eaten.

The drinks menu pushes cocktails above all else; and the draught taps are unlabelled - meaning you do have to resort to the menu or ask the staff just to find out what pints are available.

This just isn't my kind of pub, basically.

S3271 Marys

This is another Press Up premises, and features a branch of their burger chain Wowburger in what I imagine used to be the dancefloor - for this is one of Dublins "lost nightclubs", something it served the city as under multiple rapidly changing names - in the five years before it became Marys it was  Basebar, then AKA, then briefly a gay bar called Wilde and then even more briefly Madison. 

But its now branded as a "Bar and Hardware Store", styled on the similar setups that were once extremely common across rural Ireland. This has bene the name above the door for more than five years now, providing a stability that the premises probably hasn't seen since the days when there was the Wicklow Hotel on the site.

The "Hardware Store" part of the name is backed up by a small but baffling range of hardware on the shelves - with an emphasis that it is all for sale, and indeed they are all tagged with Topline Hardware price tags. Presumably these are from wherever they bought them originally as the pub is not listed as an outlet on the Topline website!

The bulk of the pub here is underground - there is a bar and some seating upstairs, but significantly more seating and the large Wowburger area downstairs. It isn't quite the case that "if you've seen one Press Up venue, you've seen them all" - there are a few disparate styles, but this is so similar to some others you will probably feel quite at home.

1014482 Maldron Hotel Kevin Street

This was actually so forgettable I, well, forgot I'd been here - it was visited before the previous entry.

The bar here is advertised from outside the hotel, but does feel VERY strange to use as a non-guest. You must be buzzed in to the toilets by the reception desk (N2007 Academy Plaza Hotel has the same requirement), as they are accessed from the guest lift lobby.

You're across the road from 1011790 The Fourth Corner and also near to 1008283 Fallons so there's really not much point for a non-guest to drink here.

1014121 Lucky Duck

The Press Up Group gets quite a bit of negative media coverage for just how many venues they have opened in Dublin; reaching out across the majority of the city centre - and now the southern suburbs - in a relatively short period of time; and tying it to the wider cultural loss issues in the city.

The most detailed piece of writing on it that I've seen was in the Sunday Business Post - which is paywalled online - so I can't link you to it; but it contained a short statement by a representative for Press Up pointing out that many of their new venues were derelict rather than replacing something else active. And this is the case with The Lucky Duck.

The Aungier House pub on this site operated for over a century; but closed in the late 1990s and rapidly fell in to significant dereliction. Press Up acquired the premises in the late 2010s and announced it was to reopen as "The Dutch Billy", a reference to a type of house construction which was once common on Aungier Street. There was one problem with that name however - this is a Victorian replacement building!

Many Dutch Billys had their distinctive roofs covered or replaced to give the then-fashionable squarer lines - an example of an actual Dutch Billy here shows that - so its an easy enough mistake to make; and one that was corrected before opening. But not before the interior fitout had begun; as a major element of the decoration are "KLM Houses", knick-knacks handed out to business class customers on KLM. These are supplied containing Bols Genever; and according to the barman I spoke to, the ones filling a display window and scattered around the bar are all full.

There is a surprising amount of Victoriana to the interior here; although what is original and what is repro or recovered from elsewhere I don't know. The gents toilets - situated under the street with a skylight in the pavement - are full of what must be original fittings restored to a functional level at least.

The drinks offerings are similar to other Press Up venues; but its both smaller and less forced "Instagram Ready" as their other ones, so even if you dislike those it may be worth a visit.

S1494 Morriseys

A very run-down locals pub on Cork Street - the only survivor of the significantly higher quantity of pubs this area of Dublin had before road widening and redevelopment destroyed buildings and moved some of the population away. At least five other pubs were on this end of the road, and many survived even until the early 2000s.

The most interesting event on this visit was seeing someone being told they'd had too many; shaking hands with the barman and promptly leaving! There's nowhere else that close by to head to other than here - I even got the bus to the next pub - so presumably they headed home.

N2581 The Brass Fox

I used to work in Tallaght and there were frequent attempts to organise "nights out" in the town - that usually ended up with everyone just going to (the now closed) S1593 The Cuckoos Nest nearer the office and leaving by about 8. The usual intended destinations were either S3176 The Abberley Court Hotel - or Blu Bar. Blu Bar closed down before we ever managed to actually get there, though; and remained closed for a while.

That premises is now The Brass Fox - or at least the bar area is, as they are not operating the nightclub that was the main attraction in the Blu Bar and later Madison eras of the premises.

The Brass Fox started off in Wicklow Town and this is their second premises. Its a food-centric offering, as is now becoming quite common in suburbia; and the food and drink lineup are quite similar to what you'll get elsewhere - 1012552 The Maple Tree in Saggart from a few weeks ago comes to mind.

With the offering being food-led in mind; I headed here for lunch. I actually went for two starters from the menu rather than any of the mains; one of which was voluminous enough to be a main course, if anyone would actually order a goats cheese and pastry concoction as main!

Despite being defeated by the sheer quantity of goats cheese in front of me, I enjoyed it, and the buttermilk chicken strips that were the other order. The tap lineup isn't the most thrilling, but there were Franciscan Well products at least.

S1588 The Dragon Inn

I wonder was there ever much confusion caused here during the years that S3871 Nolita was called The Dragon? People wondering why their taxi ride was taking them in to suburbia or why the bar appeared to have rather more bears and rather less house music than expected for instance.

A restaurant reviewer - which Google is completely failing in finding for me; so it was probably in the Sunday Business Post - has written about confusion between 1014544 The Ivy and N0147 Ivy House before, so I'm sure it must have happened... anyway, back to the still named Dragon.

There's two pubs in the old Tallaght village that predate it becoming the vast outer suburb it is now - the previously mentioned S1589 Molloys. Molloys has expanded to a superpub but The Dragon is still (comparatively) small and seems to have kept more of the community spirit of a village pub. Their Facebook page focuses less on promoting the pub and more on featuring life events of regulars and other community info - including a recent link to a blog entry on a long-gone (1913) pub in Tallaght I had not been aware of.

Molloys was actually marginally cheaper for a pint, which I found a bit odd as usually pubs like this are cheaper - but its still nothing compared to city centre prices.