S3947 37 Dawson Street

The last outlier for me on Dawson Street, the usual presence of a bouncer in the door here sets off one of my dislikes about pub - having to pass someone to get in - so it ended up becoming the last visited for that reason. Of course, now you have to sign in with someone to get in to a pub; so it doesn't really matter - but the bouncer wasn't on yet when I arrived anyway.

A branch of the NolaClan/House group, this was a bar and restaurant in normal times but is currently only operating as a bar. I hadn't realised this, and had signed in / been seated before it became apparent - so pints were followed by a trip to Burger King on Grafton Street instead. I suspect this isn't the plan for the future, but the premises has only recently reopened after Lockdown closures.

This isn't my type of pub, but that means its probably perfectly tuned for those who it does suit - a design heavy cocktail bar in the city centre has a specific audience, and I'm not it. List tick obtained, and I would go back if I had a reason to.

This bar originally opened in the mid 2000s as "Ron Blacks". This incarnation closed in ~2010 and reopened as 37 Dawson Street in 2012; but Ron Black - who I don't think owned this pub - continued working in 37 in the whiskey bar until 2018.

Ron Black was however the owner of S0010 Dawson Lounge, Dublin's smallest pub a few doors up, a pub which many people still call Ron Blacks.

Edit: It appears that this premises was opened by the Thomas Read Group, who at that stage also owned the Dawson Lounge. It was sold by their receiver to become a branch of the Gaucho restaurant chain - which didn't happen.

1017192 Zanzibar Locke

"Hot white walls, black shadows, the aroma of strange Eastern spices" - or so began the text written on the front of the Zanzibar nightclub / cafe bar which formerly occupied the quayside portion of the site of this hotel.

Opened in 1998 with a then groundbreaking (for Dublin) interior, Zanzibar survived until the crash, and then had a short afterlife as a "beach club" nightclub. Dublin's night-time temperatures being absolutely perfect for beach attire, as we all know!

The building then sat derelict for quite some time, before being stripped back to its facade, and a substantial branch of the Locke Living hotel chain built between it and the Lotts behind.

During much of the early stage of construction, the name given for this hotel was to be the Ormond Locke; but either potential confusion with the forever-delayed Ormond Hotel rebuild down the road, or a decision that the Zanzibar name was more interesting lead to opening as the Zanzibar Locke. The hotel opened in December 2020, having only days of public service before the country returned to lockdown, so my visit wasn't really that late after reopening.

The public bar element of it is a stylishly designed, spirit-led bar and restaurant called Baraza. It is relatively low-lit, but not sufficient to cause black shadows; and my whiskey didn't smell particularly Eastern, so it's probably for the best that the old inscription is gone. 

A limited selection of beers is offered along with the cocktails and spirits, but its very much more of a post-dinner drink type of place than a hotel-with-a-pub like some other city centre hotels.

1017216 Dockers

A Pet Shop Boys of a pub, in that its name seems somehow wrong without "The" in front of it, Dockers is one of the longest closed pubs to reopen in Dublin in recent years, having closed for demolition in 2005 and only end up being saved by a recession. Presumably the change in use profile and further densification of that end of the Docklands also encouraged its eventual owners to decide to renovate it as a pub.

This premises was nearly ready to go in December 2019, but had not opened by mid-March 2020; which is why it instead opened in October 2021.

Operated by the L'Estrange Group, a substantial pub operator with no website and very little presence, the pub has been extended and is quite different to what went before. Its very modern while deliberately trying to look old - the interior design feels like that of a Press Up venue, but just done better. 

Food offerings are basically just pub toasties done fancily, and the drinks offering is decent - six Irish craft taps instantly tell you that you aren't in a Press Up venue!

The pub got busy-ish by the end of my trip here, which started just after 5pm on a mid week evening, so there are signs that when normal (or close to normal) office occupancy returns, it will be rather busy just like its neighbouring pubs. 

November 2021 Licence Update

The file released at the start of November is the first of a new year, so has a huge amount of spurious removals, so none are listed here.

Additions

1017216 - Dockers, Sir John Rogersons Quay - a reopening but on a new licence

1018000 - Beckett Locke Hotel, Mayor Street - new hotel

Reapperances

S1491 Coopers Corner, Bow Bridge - former Murrays pub, sold a year or so ago. New name is on licence file, owners seem to be the same as S1994 Killinarden House. Not open yet as far as I'm aware

Revisited Pubs October 2021

Not a lot of pubs visited, old or new, in October due to being busy and also hobbling around like a 70 year old due to a knee issue - physio derived exercise regime should help

1016228 The Mayson

S0153 The Ferryman

1001412 Bord Gais Energy Theatre

N0006 Brew Dock

N0246 Penny Hill

A barn of a pub - not in a negative way, but just a decent description of most of the pubs built in the Dublin County areas from the 50s to the 90s. As a 1998 build, the Penny Hill would be towards the end of the era when it was rather difficult to get a licence transfer approved, with distance rules in place, but it still stands alone as the only pub for a large suburban area.

The 2003 "Dublin Superpub of the Year" in the Black & White Pub Awards (S0172 The Waterloo taking the 'normal' Dublin award that year), the Penny Hill bears a lot of resemblance to my local Fitzgerald Group premises - albeit with a single giant room for the lounge areas rather than three across two floors as it has.

If you've been in any Fitzgerald suburban pub you've been in them all, really. There's nothing hugely distinctive here, but it has a large customer base, a slightly more varied than some taps list, and does food all day. A slightly baffling lunch menu was still on offer when I arrived in what would really be mid afternoon, so some nachos were obtained to have with my pints.

There was an upstairs nightclub here ("Mint") until recently, but the pub will now only operate as a pub and restaurant (and off-licence - which is pretty decent actually) as per a Sunday Independent interview with the Fitzgerald family on October 3rd. Suburban nightclubs are all but dead now, but what is done with the presumably substantial space it once occupied will be interesting to see - as the pub floor is already vast.

As a random item of limited interest, this is one of a number of pubs that are clearly South of the Liffey with an N/Northside licence serial number - the dividing line is based on court districts, not the actual river. Newer licence serial numbers do not indicate the court district at all; and I don't actually know the boundaries used within Dublin. A limited number of Dublin licences have Meath, Arklow or Drogheda licence serials also.

Back From The Dead: Lengthy pub closures

The most recent pub opening in Dublin that I'm aware of, right at this moment, is Dockers on John Rogersons Quay, a L'Estrange Group pub in one of the few remaining original buildings along the South Docks.

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But there was a pub here before, until ~2005, also called Dockers - it had a narrower frontage, as can be seen in photos from the time. I haven't been in yet so have no idea if there's much original content left.

This was due to open in early 2020, but COVID intervened and it was delayed until October 2021; giving us a 16 year closure.

While this is a considerable enough period for a pub to be gone and yet come back, Dublin has had similar recently, some more soon and hopefully some more again in the future.

Press Up Groups 1014121 Lucky Duck opened in 2018, in the building which had previously been the Aungier House, which closed in the late 1990s. The building was in a significantly derelict state, but some original features remain - including some of the Victorian basement toilets.

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Press Up feature again with the Bottle Boy bar of their 1016228 Mayson Hotel having been Vallance & McGrath, a famed pub for its trad music history and which closed in the mid 00s. After a significant renovation, the bar reopened in December 2019.

This wasn't the first hotel to open with a resurrected pub as its bar. The 1015221 Aloft Hotel was built around and atop The Tenters, which closed in the mid 00s, with the hotel opening in May 2019. In this case, little remains bar the external walls and the name; however.

These are the pubs which have come back from the dead so far, but they should soon be joined by some more:

A third, and last at the moment, Press Up resurrection is underway at N1130 The Foxhunter in Lucan, which has been renovated from a derelict condition and appears to be ready to open at any minute. This pub "only" closed in 2012

Another imminent opening is that of Meaghers on Eden Quay - this is in the former "Liffeyside Mooney" pub ("Mooneys sur mer" in Ulysses) which was later and better known as the Horse & Tram. 

This has had a messy past few decades, having been sold for a significant sum in 2001, having had a brief incarnation as a gay bar, two periods of being a strip club and a time as an Indian restaurant. It would appear to have last been licenced as a pub in ~2005.

There's a potentially vain hope here as the last item:

N1097 Conways on Parnell Street has been shut since 2007, and is in an extremely vulnerable condition - held up by steelwork, a stench of damp coming from within. However, in the masterplan for the Hammerson redevelopment of the North end of O'Connell Street, it is claimed to reopen. Possibly as the bar of a hotel - this has been rumoured, but the planning applications in so far cover the Southern end of the site only. Notably, it is still licence and its licence has been renewed annually for the entire time it has been shut

There are a number of other licences which are sitting valid attached to long closed pubs, or even notional premises on a site of a pub, which will eventually be reused for a new hotel or pub on the site - but they won't be the old building renovated like these examples.