November 2023 register update

Another month and another year - the November register is the first for the 2023/24 licencing year and is always down a few hundred entries as registrations are late being processed by the courts/Revenue/whatever. So there's no possible way to list removals for this month; but we will look at some figures from the year end and year on year

Additions:

1020397 Motel One, Liffey Street - another new hotel. At least I've found out the Hilton beside M Hughes only has a residents bar!

Readditions:

N2528 Jack O'Neills, Tyrrellstown - long closed pub re-licenced to a Jersey based financial firm

Yearly stats:

October 2023's file saw 958 premises renewed by the time the file was generated. This is one down on the equivalent 2022 figure, once Aerodrome licences are removed as per my decision to not count those. Between the two years additions and deletions, again excluding Aerodrome licences, there were 984 licences

This figure is usually a reasonable figure short (40-50 or so - due to late renewals or other issues) on licenced premises, but always a good amount above the number of trading premises. I would estimate at there being about 900 trading premises that meet my criteria currently; a hefty increase on 2022 as pandemic era closures unwind and new premises - nearly all hotels unfortunately - open; and outweigh other closures.

Year-on-year removals:

I have omitted premises that I believe are still trading, or were during the licence year. Some may have dropped their pub licence - if they don't reappear for some time I'll remove them from the master

ARP0667 Blue Gardenia, Brittas - has not reopened since the pandemic, licence has been sold
N0091 Mayes, Dorset Street - has become a Centra, licence presumably converted to off sales
N0602 Barrys Hotel, Great Denmark Street - sold 2021 and currently not trading as a hotel
N1898 Caulfields Hotel, Dorset Street - bar converted to more bedrooms
S0228 The Ton Tin, Rathfarham - pub with a very trouble recent opening history leaves the register, again
S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel, Ballsbridge - closed for demolition
S1594 Firhouse Inn, Firhouse - closed for redevelopment
S2278 Baron Johns, Crumlin S/C - this was being used for the Molloys off licence, which has closed
S3032 POD Complex, Harcourt Street - eventually removed many years after conversion to offices

I had already removed some of these, so this only hits my completion number by two, and my target by one (Barrys).

N0139 The Ramble Inn

This is a slightly odd pub, spatially. From the outside, its presence - at the end of a row of shops that features an exceptionally long closed but still present chipper - makes you feel like you're somewhere quite rural. And inside, you feel like you're in a branch of The Range - in the furniture and cushion section specifically. 

Its been done up quite recently, and features a *lot* of silver and grey decor and a *lot* of red leather. At that last refurb, the word "Inn" vanished from the name above the door; but this is ignored by basically everywhere that mentions the pub, so it remains the Ramble Inn everywhere.

Other than feeling like I was in Mrs Hinch's living room, my pint was a tad sour like it hadn't been moving (at all) so my overall impression wasn't great. I imagine the decor must appeal to someone, but it could easily put many off.

N0122 The Goblet

Where was I with moaning about that Five Lamps ad? Ah yes, in the Roundabout where they didn't actually sell their very local beer option, that being anything by Hope which were the closest of the set of breweries I measured the distance to.

The Goblet DOES sell some Hope, but still has the same damn ads up. Its actually closer too.

Beer made in Clonmel being represented as local in Artane. Whereas I'm having a pint actually locally made in Howth Junction. Ah Here is right pic.twitter.com/C2u4VqwRoL

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) September 10, 2023

Decent pint of Hop On. Inside of the pub could do with a little bit of a spruce up, but pub seems fine otherwise and was the busiest pub I was in all day. 

N0124 The Roundabout

We've all seen those old signs showing "the price of a pint" over a series of years, and can see that single penny increments were dropped for 5p increments at some time in the 1990s on most of those lists. 

I had now assumed that increments were 10c or maybe even 20c for most places; so I was somewhat surprised to be charged 6.05 for my pint. Of Cobra, as there's a fairly odd tap lineup in the lounge here.

There's also signs up claiming that Five Lamps is the locally brewed beer for the area. At 6.6km crow-flies to the Five Lamps Brewery on Camden Street, it is marginally closer than the 7km to Diageo; but there are two problems with this claim.

The first is that Hope are 3.6km away, with multiple other licenced breweries closer than 6.6km (Porterhouse, Brewdog, Urban, Hopkins & Hopkins and maybe more); so Five Lamps isn't the closest. 

The second is that the Five Lamps Lager being sold there is made in Clonmel. Only low volume products are made on Camden Street. So even without any Hope/Porterhouse/etc products, the Diageo stuff still wins.

But the pub doesn't supply the adverts, and likely doesn't care to vet them - and we'll see that sign again later, more problematically.

The lounge here is quite nice, renovated recently enough I'd imagine. Suburban pubs sometimes don't have a lot to write about, hence the rambling about prices and locations.

N0609 Ardlea Inn

One of the other pub-tickers claims this is "one of Irelands roughest pubs", of which I saw absolutely and utterly nothing to support that claim during my visit. This is not the first time I've found somewhere they claim to be incredibly rough to, well, not be - but this is the one that was the furthest from the case. Different times of day and so on may be different, your pintage may vary. I was also in the lounge, not the bar.

Easy place to get talking to the regulars, as far as I remember a decent pint of Smithwicks for how early in the trading day it was and a comfortable enough suburban pub.  

1020285 The Voyager

Sometimes you end up with a poor impression of a pub very quickly, and the reasons can vary. I initially found the wall of floor staff standing at the far end of the bar here a teeny bit intimidating, but that wasn't the problem here.

The problem here was two English fascists at the bar, discussing their support of specific English fascist figures and their racist views, in a conversation with the barman who was agreeing rather than fucking them out of the pub at the first instant.

I see no reason to return here.

S1523 Frehill Tavern

I think I need a new article tag for when I mention never really liking people standing in the doorway of pubs when I approach. But that isn't my only odd problem with pub doors - I don't like having to open the door (or the outer door) myself. Not in a "I want a doorman" way - the not liking people standing in the way would make that impossible; but in a "this isn't very inviting" way. I'm used to an outer door of a draught lobby being open at the least.

Frehills had the outer door closed, but I went inside anyway. Inside I was treated to cheap-ish Beamish in beer nerd pleasingly ancient glassware (2005 I think) and attentive bar staff. However, I was on a deadline for a bus and needed food, which the chipper next door supplied, so didn't stay for long.