S0032 Moss Lane

For about 25 years, the only way in to this pub was to be invited. Or be the one issuing those invites.

Attached in terms of ownership to S0031 O'Neills at various points (this was D'Arcys pub when the corner section of O'Neills, not yet then part of the pub, was D'Arcys shop - same D'Arcy - in the 1840s); this was their private function bar and only opened when pre-booked. I had considered having my birthday here one year to get it ticked off; but a sale of O'Neills has changed things.

New operators and one renovation later, Moss Lane has opened here as a normal pub, in terms of access arrangements. The drinks offering here is heavily whiskey based; but with an interesting facet of offering a house beer that isn't just a rebadged stout or session IPA from a large independent brewery.

Instead, the offering is Moss Lane Red, from Barrelhead Brewery, an interesting red ale. There's some O'Haras products among conventional macro offerings. 

Dublin has quite a few reopenings or deep renovations of pubs that have opened since late 2021, so it isn't that unusual to find a pub with an immaculate interior, new toilet facilities and so on; but you get all that here too, for anyone keeping track. I feel like I'll be conscripted to write Pub Spy if I talk about the condition of toilets too much, though.

1014500 Trinity City Hotel

Better known amongst older drinkers for its Fireworks nightclub - closed for approaching two decades and still unused as far as I know (looking through the windows you can see random bits of hotel fittings in the space); the Trinity City does have a normal bar as well.

The bar is quite large, albeit a bit chaotically laid out; with a small smoking terrace that can catch the sun, when it's willing at least. Much of the seating areas are away inside the structure of the hotel and not obvious when entering the bar from the street.

The hotel was exceptionally busy checking in two tourbuses of English tourists when I visited, and I imagine the cosier corners of the bar could be quite nice when its quieter.

On the topic of noise, I do wonder how well soundproofed the hotel structure is. Located partially in the old Central Fire Station and *on top of* the main hall of the current Central Fire Station, the potential vehicular noise day and night here could be quite high!

S3249 Herbert Park Hotel

I'd always somehow thought this was a 5* hotel, and that it would be rather unapproachable to just wander in and get a pint in. 

It isn't (it markets itself as "luxury 4*") and it isn't - you can walk in to the bar without passing reception.

The bar itself is exceptionally limited, having the now common Heineken Ireland lineup - albeit a very small subset of what some pubs do - with a Guinness tap on the end. I'm no Guinness rater, I don't put much in to the mythology of Guinness, and the Leinster game the previous day probably ran many a keg through the lines, but the pint was at the top end of what I'd expect from a hotel bar

When an otherwise Heineken Ireland Only bar doesn't even have the full range... Note the Islands Edge barmat. Surprised they had the branded glass even pic.twitter.com/uwKwWA5oXB

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) May 15, 2022

The food was also good, albeit not the type of menu I was expecting - being very conventional pub food. There is another restaurant here open for evening service.

When did Ireland get Beer Gardens?

The previous post (at least it's the previous as I begin writing this) post has what I believe to be an early use of the term "Beer Garden" in Ireland to refer to what we're currently used to - an outdoor area, with furniture, the ability to drink beer from a pub if not full on service and possibly its own bar, and some level of covering for rain or sun shade - from summer 1953. I felt this was quite early, even if a pub garden had been a critical requirement in London for Orwell in 1946.

The term Beer Garden is obviously much, much older - it first appears on the Irish Newspaper Archives nearly a full century earlier in 1854, but it was only used as a reference to those in Germany and German-influenced areas, or somewhat insultingly - e.g. a court report on a rowdy pub referring to it as "turning in to a beer garden". So when did people start using it to refer to those spaces that we became so reliant on in 2020/2021?

The first reference I can find to the term being used by somewhere for its own facilities is from 1936 by the then Dollymount Hotel, latterly the Dollymount House which closed in about 2006.

Evening Herald, July 29th, 1936

This is still referencing the German concept, but saying that its available in suburban Clontarf.

Unlike the Cherrytree's Beer Garden, there are no photos or further descriptions to confirm that this is like what we're used to now.

The next reference is from August 1938, to an entirely indoor "Beer Garden" simulated by painting the ceiling to look like the sky, at the College Mooney (now S0009 Doyles). I don't think that would have got around 2020/1s outdoor dining requirements!

Otherwise, the only other references I find are further ads from the Dollymount Hotel, until 1941.

In 1941, however, there is:

* a sale listing for the Ballydowd Inn (latterly N1130 The Foxhunter) mentioning its beer garden

* a sale listing for the Blandford Inn (now N0312 Coachmans Inn) mentioning its beer garden

* an ad for a pub in Tramore mentioning its beer garden

* a letter complaining about proposed beer gardens on Bull Island (which never happened) - possibly back to the disparaging use of the term!

The term is pretty solidly established at this stage, definitely referring to a seated outdoor area and not some attempt to ape a German setup. There is continuous use of the term from 1941 onwards

S1478 Cherrytree

Like *twitches* Pet Shop Boys, there are things where I feel I really must add the word "The" before their name. This pub is one of them - it is not The Cherrytree. Or at least it isn't now.

I headed here for lunch, but it seems that they only do it on weekdays. Which meant that I was forced to get a Hillbillys instead - what a terrible imposition!

But I could still get a pint and tick it off the list - and could have got coffee and cake, as they are operating a takeaway coffee shop window out of the side of the bar.

Only the main bar area appeared to be open - there were more sections darkened, and stairs going upstairs - but this was still a decent size. A few regulars were in, and there was floor service with a decent enough range of drinks on offer.

I can't nail down when the pub opened, but there was an extensive spread in the Evening Herald in June 1953 about the opening of their new "Cherry Garden", a beer garden (that actual term is used) that doesn't look like it would be too out of place in 2022. Of interest is the promotional plug for Cairnes Ale, making two suggestions that would absolutely not be allowed now!

Evening Herald, June 4th 1953

The "The" falls off the pub name in media references and Thoms by the 1960s. The current pub social media was using a 20 years hashtag about 3 years ago, which would suggest the current owners have been there since ~1999.

Its near neighbour, S1484 The Kestrel has had multiple proposals to replace with apartments; but with a tighter site I'd hope that that common death of a suburban pub doesn't even get suggested here.

(No number yet) The Samuel

The latest Dalata hotel to open in Dublin, The Samuel skips their normal naming convention - presumably as there are already a ridiculous number of Clayton (their standard 4* brand) hotels in the Docklands.

It also skips having an obvious bar - there is a coffee shop on the ground floor with a door opening to Mayor Street, with the main hotel entrance being on the new street (this seems to be on the path of the original Wapping Street, as opposed to the adjacent New Wapping Street, so possibly called that); and this doesn't serve alcohol. Its not even open yet, actually (as I write this).

The bar and restaurant are instead in the basement - although they have extensive windows to an atrium which comes down to that level. They are very much open to the public - promotional material advertising it as a lunch venue was sent in to my work place - but not many people seem to have noticed that yet.

The bar/restaurant has some design elements that suggest the first class dining room of a 1930s ocean liner, and interestingly for a new hotel bar, actually has a wider range of drinks from different suppliers, all macro but not a Heineken monoculture like so many others.

I had a pint of the Open Gate Citra - which I haven't see in some time, but which tastes the same as I remembered it; and a burger - which was good, while being more of the old type of pub burger, with a much thicker burger than would be common now. 

I may be back here soon enough, as somewhere near work where getting a seat on a Friday lunchtime doesn't require booking is always useful. I am in the process of (hopefully) changing jobs, though!

Revisited Pubs April 2022

Extremely scant revisit list this month:

N2741 The Boat