Occasionally, even I forget that I can actually go back to the same pub as on a previous occasion. I actually live in Kildare so my local pub trips never count towards anything, but here's the pubs I revisited in December (that I can remember):
S3454 Odeon - the work Christmas Party
S0264 O'Loughlins - because I had to show someone the wonders of a bar without a till
N0006 Brew Dock - because its beside Connolly Station.
If I remember, I'll do this for future months. If a pub isn't linked its because my first visit was pre-blog; and I have yet to convince myself to write up about 150 pubs from increasingly old memories.
I won't mention 1015426 Rubys on these posts going forward, because I'm usually there at least once a week, and very rarely drink anything alcoholic during those visits.
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Saturday, 11 January 2020
1015988 Lenehans
I found out about this place via Food and Wine Magazine's new openings posts - as some pubs turn up there - and the "Bar & Grill" element of the name suggested it might have a pub licence. The website went even deeper here, emphasising that they "do pints". The premises is a former hardware store, not the only one in Dublin and the reverse of the two Press Up pubs that are fake hardware store.
However, when I walked past it on the way to my previous two pubs; it was very clear it was set up as a conventional restaurant. I could probably have gone and asked to sit at the bar, but it'd have seemed a bit odd.
Anyway, we did need to eat so we came back and got what was probably the last table. There is a larger draught list here than most restaurants would have, which included my personal favourite (Rustbucket by Kinnegar); which is what I had with a relatively fancy burger.
I was still unsure if this was actually a pub until the January licence register update came out - and as you can see from the post title having a number, it was there with a standard pub licence. Many restaurants have pub licences as it allows them to sell drinks before and after the meal without any risk of breaching the relatively strict restrictions that a Special Restaurant Licence carries.
The owners of Fallon & Byrne run this restaurant, which may have contributed to why they closed their cafe across the road in early January; as it retains them a sit down food outlet in Rathmines albeit outside the F&B structure.
However, when I walked past it on the way to my previous two pubs; it was very clear it was set up as a conventional restaurant. I could probably have gone and asked to sit at the bar, but it'd have seemed a bit odd.
Anyway, we did need to eat so we came back and got what was probably the last table. There is a larger draught list here than most restaurants would have, which included my personal favourite (Rustbucket by Kinnegar); which is what I had with a relatively fancy burger.
I was still unsure if this was actually a pub until the January licence register update came out - and as you can see from the post title having a number, it was there with a standard pub licence. Many restaurants have pub licences as it allows them to sell drinks before and after the meal without any risk of breaching the relatively strict restrictions that a Special Restaurant Licence carries.
The owners of Fallon & Byrne run this restaurant, which may have contributed to why they closed their cafe across the road in early January; as it retains them a sit down food outlet in Rathmines albeit outside the F&B structure.
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
S2288 Uppercross House Hotel
If you want to feel like you're in the tiniest pub in a rural village, pop in to Mother Reillys here - and don't go down the steps to the main seating area - the bar is squeezed up to the front door with a small area packed with what I assume are all the regulars/locals drinking at it. The toilets are downstairs so you'll need to break the illusion eventually; but it should work for the first few.
That bit aside, the rest of the setup is quite standard for a small urban hotel in an urban area - there's a mixed bar/restaurant area in the basement, with the small bar up in an extension over what would have been the garden of one of the houses that have been merged to make the hotel.
We guessed that there was probably a bit of trad played here, from the small seats beside the (gas) fireplace and the large lighting rigs pointed at it; and it seems that there is - along with a variety of other live music and an open mic night - going on the frequent events posted to their Facebook page.
All the pubs in Rathmines are at least a little bit different from each other; and the accidental rural element provides the difference here
That bit aside, the rest of the setup is quite standard for a small urban hotel in an urban area - there's a mixed bar/restaurant area in the basement, with the small bar up in an extension over what would have been the garden of one of the houses that have been merged to make the hotel.
We guessed that there was probably a bit of trad played here, from the small seats beside the (gas) fireplace and the large lighting rigs pointed at it; and it seems that there is - along with a variety of other live music and an open mic night - going on the frequent events posted to their Facebook page.
All the pubs in Rathmines are at least a little bit different from each other; and the accidental rural element provides the difference here
Tuesday, 7 January 2020
S0238 Rody Bolands
Rody Bolands is a huge pub, oddly large for an area with quite a decent number of places to go for a pint, and operates as one of two late bars in Rathmines village - the last proper "nightclub" at Tramco having closed some time ago and will be downsized to just a bar if the hotel it is in is ever redeveloped as proposed.
Their website *was* exactly what someone like me wants - it detailed every former name of the pub in a very obvious place that ensured I didn't have to do much more work when putting it on the map. But it doesn't anymore. It does, however, explain how the second shopfront (when you go through the front of the pub, you end up in the smoking area and not the front of the pub) and much of the interior were moved here in the 1990s for the last major refit of the pub; from the Boland family pub in Nenagh; where it had apparently lain unused since 1937. I don't know if the twin shopfronts thing was done in the 1990s with incredible foresight for the 2004 smoking ban, or if it was done later.
I had somehow built up an idea that this was a bit of a grab-a-granny (or grandad) place; however the crowd there when I visited didn't indicate that at all. Maybe on a different night it might be that; but I think that scene is mostly dead now.
Their website *was* exactly what someone like me wants - it detailed every former name of the pub in a very obvious place that ensured I didn't have to do much more work when putting it on the map. But it doesn't anymore. It does, however, explain how the second shopfront (when you go through the front of the pub, you end up in the smoking area and not the front of the pub) and much of the interior were moved here in the 1990s for the last major refit of the pub; from the Boland family pub in Nenagh; where it had apparently lain unused since 1937. I don't know if the twin shopfronts thing was done in the 1990s with incredible foresight for the 2004 smoking ban, or if it was done later.
I had somehow built up an idea that this was a bit of a grab-a-granny (or grandad) place; however the crowd there when I visited didn't indicate that at all. Maybe on a different night it might be that; but I think that scene is mostly dead now.
Monday, 6 January 2020
January 2020 licence register update
Only new entries this month, and a relatively large amount of them
1015966 - East Lounge, Dublin Airport. This has physically replaced 1013188 Etihad Lounge and that licence has not been renewed yet this year - and I doubt it will be. There is no need to cancel aerodrome licences for reuse as they aren't standard Publican licences so they are usually just let lapse.
1015968 - Moxy Hotel, Marlborough Street
1015988 - Lenehans, Rathmines. I have already visited this as I guessed from its website that it would have a pub licence. As you'll see when I write it up, it is basically a restaurant.
1016072 - Jacobs Inn, Talbot Place
1015966 - East Lounge, Dublin Airport. This has physically replaced 1013188 Etihad Lounge and that licence has not been renewed yet this year - and I doubt it will be. There is no need to cancel aerodrome licences for reuse as they aren't standard Publican licences so they are usually just let lapse.
1015968 - Moxy Hotel, Marlborough Street
1015988 - Lenehans, Rathmines. I have already visited this as I guessed from its website that it would have a pub licence. As you'll see when I write it up, it is basically a restaurant.
1016072 - Jacobs Inn, Talbot Place
Friday, 3 January 2020
N2431 Jurys Inn Parnell Street
I was stuck in the city centre for a number of hours on the final Saturday before Christmas - without the car, thankfully - and saw queues for food even in fast food outlets near the main shopping areas.
Not really wanting to queue to then probably have to stand while eating, or wait for a significant period in any of the casual sit-down places I was seriously considering getting a bus out to somewhere quieter when I remembered the glut of hotels near Parnell Square. I've been to most of them, and many have relatively quiet bars - but I hadn't been to Jurys.
And it probably has the quietest bar of the lot, being on the second floor and not massively promoted from outside, although they do willingly let non-guests in. As probably the only non-guest there, I was able to get a comfortable table and read my way through the paper as well as get a fairly good lunch.
I would warn that they certainly know how to charge here - a pint, soup and a fancy sandwich came to over 30 quid - but if you need somewhere to escape its probably the poshest/nicest of options.I forget to get any pics of anything other than the bucket-of-condiments (Tabasco sauce *and* vinegar that's probably actually allowed be called vinegar - they really are spoiling us), but it is quite plush
Not really wanting to queue to then probably have to stand while eating, or wait for a significant period in any of the casual sit-down places I was seriously considering getting a bus out to somewhere quieter when I remembered the glut of hotels near Parnell Square. I've been to most of them, and many have relatively quiet bars - but I hadn't been to Jurys.
And it probably has the quietest bar of the lot, being on the second floor and not massively promoted from outside, although they do willingly let non-guests in. As probably the only non-guest there, I was able to get a comfortable table and read my way through the paper as well as get a fairly good lunch.
I would warn that they certainly know how to charge here - a pint, soup and a fancy sandwich came to over 30 quid - but if you need somewhere to escape its probably the poshest/nicest of options.I forget to get any pics of anything other than the bucket-of-condiments (Tabasco sauce *and* vinegar that's probably actually allowed be called vinegar - they really are spoiling us), but it is quite plush
By bucket I mean it's actually in a bucket. Even have Tabasco which you don't normally get in the bowl-of-sachet places pic.twitter.com/I1xL36jY4v— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) December 14, 2019
Thursday, 2 January 2020
S3416 Camden Court Hotel
Most readers of this blog would be familiar with the concept of a "tasting flight", generally a selection of 4 or more small servings of beers you may not have had before; with a variance of styles and tastes.
The Camden Court offers such an experience to its patrons - except its three half-pints. And they're Guinness, Smithwicks and Harp.
There are only a handful of premises outside of Northern Ireland and Louth still serving Harp at all, and this is a very odd way to try foist it on people. Diageo - or possibly pre-merger Guinness even - did market this combo as "Three Beers Strong" at some point in the 80s and 90s but I haven't seen it pushed as such for a very long time
Anyway, I didn't go for the tasting flight. I did go for a very off-tasting pint of Chieftain; and had to move seats after the fluorescent lights above my head started flickering at a very perceptible level. Just go to the Bleeding Horse next door instead.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this was my 550th pub, going on my current-count system. Basically I use a running spreadsheet of pubs that are on the licence register / haven't been explicitly removed yet. In reality I've been to about 20 more, and pubs come and go which is why there may not be precisely 49 different pubs between each x50/x00.
The Camden Court offers such an experience to its patrons - except its three half-pints. And they're Guinness, Smithwicks and Harp.
There are only a handful of premises outside of Northern Ireland and Louth still serving Harp at all, and this is a very odd way to try foist it on people. Diageo - or possibly pre-merger Guinness even - did market this combo as "Three Beers Strong" at some point in the 80s and 90s but I haven't seen it pushed as such for a very long time
Anyway, I didn't go for the tasting flight. I did go for a very off-tasting pint of Chieftain; and had to move seats after the fluorescent lights above my head started flickering at a very perceptible level. Just go to the Bleeding Horse next door instead.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this was my 550th pub, going on my current-count system. Basically I use a running spreadsheet of pubs that are on the licence register / haven't been explicitly removed yet. In reality I've been to about 20 more, and pubs come and go which is why there may not be precisely 49 different pubs between each x50/x00.
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