N1804 Travelodge Dublin Airport

Prepare for a journey through space and time! You're going to be whisked to Somewhere in England, and somewhere in the early 1990s. And while this may accidentally sound like some era-appropriate Scooter lyrics; there's a reason for it.

This pub was a Little Chef. As in the semi-recently defunct brand of roadside restaurants that you're more likely to remember from family holidays in England than from Ireland. And if you know what their standard architecture is, this jumps out immediately as one

To those of us who are or were roadwarriors at some stage, this is blatantly a Little Chef. It's now a little chef with a liquor licence (I wish that was more perfectly alliterative); and that's why I came here on the bus. pic.twitter.com/dY3PTWajWV

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) March 30, 2024

The Little Chef brand entered Ireland for a decade or so in the early 1990s; all co-sited with Travelodge hotels, which were in shared ownership at the time. I believe there were 5 Little Chef locations in Ireland at peak, at hotels on major roads. In 2005, these closed and those outside Dublin became Eddie Rockets; with the two in Dublin remaining with the hotels as their restaurant - these hotels were both in relatively isolated locations, this one on the by then bypassed N1; and the other near the M50/N3 interchange in Castleknock.

With the knowledge that there was a licence here, I knew I'd have to drop by at some point; but when driving past I noticed that the former Little Chef was now branded as a Smokin Bones - you'll have seen the photo already. And Smokin Bones website mentioned a full bar. Its also rather better food than I was expecting to get at a Travelodge.

When you go in to Smokin Bones, you don't get much indication that this was ever a Little Chef - no decor remains, and the menu is very different. A burger with pulled pork topping and a pint of Hope isn't quite what I'd eaten in Welsh Little Chef's out of dire need ten minutes before closing time when racing back to Holyhead at night anyway.

However, if you go to the toilets, you'll walk straight back in to that 1993 Little Chef; with fixtures and fittings the same as installed over 30 years ago, from giant pastel plastic door handles to hand dryers with 6 digit 01 phone numbers on them.

There's always a period between something becoming dated before it becomes retro chic, or indeed worthy of preservation - as possibly the only 90s Little Chef interior left in Ireland, this could end up reaching the final category in time!

1013980 Premier Inn Airside

Premier Inn now have a number of hotels in Dublin, with a subset of them having public licences on the register (so far); but this one has been on the register since day one of this blog. For many years, their only property in Dublin - or indeed in Ireland - was this one, the result of an acquisition.

Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inns, purchased the UK chain Golden Tulip in 2007; who had only recently expanded in to Ireland with this hotel; and while they retained it, they showed little interest in expanding in Ireland for many years. They have now started expanding at an immense pace, so presumably they eventually saw a market here!

I've stayed in many Premier Inns in the UK and in Germany; which give you very different ideas of whether the bars are public are not - UK ones are usually either built beside a pub (older style locations); or have a bar buried somewhere deep within; whereas the German ones I've stayed in have had a very public lobby bar. My previous brief glance at the other currently public licenced Premier Inn in Dublin - 1018396 on Georges Street - had failed to even see a bar; so I suspected we may have UK-style bars here; but I was in the area and decided to wander past.

And indeed we do have a UK style bar, behind reception; but it's easily visible from outside and its quite easy to just walk past the reception desk. 

I was not asked for proof of staying there to get served; but I'm not sure you'd be bothered - there's a limited tap selection, and you are drinking in a hotel bar overlooking the carpark of a retail park. But a tick is a tick.

Celeb's Favourite Pubs: 1985 style

Another archives dig and another bit of gold - the Sunday Press gave a full page in August 1985 over to asking Irish notables, possibly a bit less "celebrity" than an equivalent piece today, what their favourite pubs were. 

As the Sunday Press was a national paper, there's plenty of pubs outside of Dublin, and because there's only ten I may as well list the lot of them

Neil Jordan

Neil references two pubs, one of which we'll have to guess at as its not named. "A pub on the quays, beside the cinemas. It had a big marble table and the dockers stood around drinking their pints" - this sounds like what is now, after a high quality refurb, 1018821 Meaghers on Eden Quay, which sits beside two former cinemas; the only place which had cinemas plural on the quays anyway.

His second mention is for N0171 Manhattan in Raheny

Anne Doyle

Ann, as they call her for some reason, choses S0012 The Duke, then widely known as Tobins

Ivor Kenny

(Ivor Kenny was a founder of the Irish Management Institute)

Ivor opts for Kelehans, Bushy Park, Galway; a pub which is still trading but obviously outside my scope for normal content

Gay Byrne

Gay Byrne opts for two pubs in Dungloe and, by random coincidence of where my family is from and having done a writeup of Dungloes pubs, I've actually been to one of them, even though it is currently not trading

Beedys was, and indeed now is again shut (it did reopen), when I did my writeup; and Johnnies, as he calls it, is Mulherns across the road from it. I don't know its licence number as it appears to have not surfaced on the register whilst open; and has been shut for a while. 

Mary McEvoy

S0035 Mulligans, Poolbeg Street is given here; along with Tí Johnny Shéain in Inverin. This pub is not trading as a pub, but has been converted to a cafe, Pota. I believe this pub was popular/important with people involved in TnaG/TG4 in its early days; as it is extremely close to it - but this list predates TG4 by 11 years!

Lord Henry Mountcharles

The 'rock and roll Lord' gives four different answers here, after his own home bar (whether this was reinstated following the fire, I don't know); and may indicate that he was not frequently in Dublin despite opting for three there.

S0059 Buswells Hotel - as a Fine Gael politician at the time, this would make sense, location wise; the Champagne Bar in the Phoenix Park Racecourse (this having recently reopened, but is long since closed), and for after the races, N0205 Ryans of Parkgate Street.

He also picks Morans Oyster Cottage in Clarinbridge, for its seafood but also its pints.

John Hume

John Hume opts for what he refers to as a "talking pub", Da Vincis on the Culmore Road in Derry. This is now a hotel of the same name.

Noelle Campbell-Sharp

(Noelle Campbell-Sharp was a magazine publisher at that time. She is still alive at time of writing and now better known for arts involvement)

Noelle opts for the Horseshoe Bar of S0061 Shelbourne Hotel, for its cocktail prowess

Jim Kemmy

(Jim Kemmy was a Democratic Socialist Party and later Labour TD for Limerick)

Jim's choice is the White House in Limerick, which claims to be Limericks Oldest Bar

Fergal Quinn 

(Fergal Quinn was the founder of Superquinn, a Senator and, at the time, chair of An Post)

Fergal opted for a pub that was already gone, Mary Maher's in Corofin, Clare.

RetroReviews: S3454 The Odeon

This RetroReview is up next, because I checked my revisited list and found it sitting there as one I've not written up yet.

The visit was in 2019, from when I started doing the revisited lists; but never mind. I think that means I have a writeup published or scheduled for every Dublin pub I've visited since August 2016, be it new or a revisit.

So this pub is a train station. Its not a pub *in* a train station, like the selection of Railway Refreshment Room licenced premises we have in Dublin (S3132 O'Reillys, N0002 Madigans, S1512 Galway Hooker, N1879 Bloody Stream); it is a train station. Or, it was a train station.

Harcourt Street Railway Station operated for just under a century, from 1859 to 1958; when it - and the line, which connected Harcourt Street to north of Bray - closed. The station building continued to operate as, aptly for my purposes, a bar and restaurant and also the CIÉ Liquor Museum, for about a year afterwards but the building was sold and converted to offices. 

And offices it remained, until the 1990s; when it was converted in to two licenced premises - the train shed and basements becoming the S3032 POD nightclub complex (which will likely be the last RetroReviews to get written when I go back and fill in places that shut pre 2016, cause I'll do them in sorted order); and the booking hall and railway offices becoming The Odeon. 

POD opened in 1993, with The Odeon opening in 1998. The "The" in the name seems to be semi optional, it isn't always used; and the name itself needs some explanation - the Odeon cinema chain had left Ireland in the 1950s and only re-entered under their own name in 2012, having managed the UCI and Storm chains for a few years before. The pub opened when there would have been no clash with the name.

So, after all that history, should you expect a particularly historic interior? No. The 60s office conversion put paid to most of the interesting features; and while the interior is that of a quite classic and plush bar; it's not a railway ticket hall, let alone an original railway dining room - you need to go to aforementioned Galway Hooker for that.

[The] Odeon ends up being an "events bar" for me for whatever reason - I've attended everything from 21st birthdays to company Christmas parties there; and had my own leaving party from the job I spent the single longest period in (I've worked for longer in one company over two stints) there. I suspect that may be quite a major element of their business, with the premises no longer even opening Sunday or Monday

DG0508 Balrothery Inn

Balrothery lies just beyond even my willing walking distance, at 2.5km from the previous pub; but the frequently scheduled, and Leap accepting, Bus Éireann 101 service connects the two. With headways of as little as 20 minutes, this should have been an easy method to connect between the pubs.

It wasn't.

Multiple buses were no-shows; with Bus Éireanns Twitter claiming that the company was unable to mark buses as cancelled on RTPI (I used to work in CIÉ and can confirm this is a lie); directing me to their own website where apparently the service cancellations would be listed.

They weren't.

The buses in use - when one turned up - look great, but are also absolutely horrible to enter and exit for those of abnormal height; with a downstairs cabin that is significantly below 2m in height. 

I eventually got to the pub, very pissed off with the entire experience. Thankfully, the pub is quite nice.

The pub was set up for floor service of food, but I was directed to sit where I wanted. On ordering a Beamish, the barman expressed his desire that more people would drink it as it might quell Diageo's desire for constant price increases, the latest at the time having been announced a few days earlier.

It was a relatively nice day, but the outdoor seats I noticed were those facing the carpark, not the best to sit in - there's photos online of a much nicer set that I assume are out the back somewhere. However, the traditionally looking lounge was a more than sufficient place to wait.

I timed my pints here to the scheduled time of another 101 bus; heading out when it was due... and it didn't show up. Of course. The next one, ~25mins later, did - I'd have much preferred another pint than standing in a bus shelter during that time!

1000734 Bracken Court Hotel

There's quite a big bar here, but its bordering on the hotel lobby feel rather than being more like a pub. It did, however, have some non-macro beer on tap; something completely missing from the rest of the then open pubs in Balbriggan.

The hotel is a modern build, dating from 2000; but on the site of a late Victorian hotel - the Hamilton Arms. That building appears to have survived the Sack of Balbriggan, but not the Celtic Tiger.

DG0482 The Central / Mrs O's

"Vape / electronic cigarette devices are banned from the 1st of April" stated the signs in here, in the very dying days of March. I didn't see anyone actually vaping inside to celebrate their final days of being allowed to; though - possibly this was far less of a problem than the number of signs would indicate.

Since my visit here, a pub has (re)opened in Balbriggan with an even more prescriptive set of rules - banning the wearing of hats and coats indoors and strongly suggesting you need a collared shirt and shoes; something that reminds me of nightclubs when I was a teenager. Maybe Balbriggan just likes rules. I'm much more in favour of banning vapes inside than banning runners though, considering I do need to actually get in to pubs myself.

Rules aside, this was a decent local pub with nothing terribly memorable about it - as explained many times before, this is actually good in nearly every case - if I remember something particularly special it's usually bad!