Dublin

“When I die I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Dublin.” JP Donleavy

I was in Dublin more than a month ago visiting T., a friend who is currently working over there. It was just a weekend visit, hence time went by really quickly and even as we visited a lot of different places, it really seems to me know that it was really a very short time.

BTW, sorry for not posting in a while. I've had a fairly interesting social life that got me in a temporary retirement on the blogging scene :). Hopefully I'll come back a bit more regularly now...

Just a tip for any Dublin visitor – the only thing to do in that city is visiting pubs and drinking Guinness. It may sound a bit harsh, but apart of the Guinness Storehouse aty St James Gate, which is a must for the lovers of the black stuff, any other attraction – say Dublin Castle, say Jameson distillery, say St Patricks Cathedral, say whatever you want – is quite worthless, at least under my point of view. So don’t panic, don’t stress yourself, relax and enjoy a perfect and creamy white top on your pint, ideally with a clover draw on it if you get a barman skilful enough.

So let’s start with the pub crawl briefing.

1. The Purty Kitchen

34 East Essex St, Temple Bar, Dublin

This is a nice nite out pub, with live music, a club upstairs - it has 4 different floors, all of them listed-, and plenty of space and hidden corners to get your own place. Although it is not a pure traditional old fashioned Irish pub, it is not a crappy chain-owned one. Indeed, it is the sort of club you may find in London quite easily with a couple of big contrasting differences: In one hand, Guinness tastes better – much better indeed – but not THAT better to justify a 6 euro charge per pint. In the other, life music is covers of classics, which, to be honest, is a great thing if it is party and not music what you look for. I am one of those weirdos who love to listen a good band play their own themes but equally understands that covers at some point in a Friday night can change the party mood in a big way. That was the case, under my point of view, and I congratulate these guys for that.

On the top of that, the classic stuff you may find in the perfidious Islands: impossible heels, drunkards everywhere, good music and better beer. Not a surprise at all.

2. The Porter House

16-18 Parliament Street Dublin

I already wrote a post about the London representative of this Irish chain of brewery-pubs. All I said in that one applies to the PorterHouse in Dublin as well, with a couple of hints to remark. First, the guy playing live music in this place – again covers – was really, really funny. I don’t think you can find this kind of freak playing in London, and that is a shame as everybody enjoyed it a lot. Second, the mere fact of not serving Guinness in a pub in Dublin should be forbidden. End of the conversation :).

3. O’Neills

Suffolk Street, Dublin

Now, this is a traditional Irish pubs, with its pros and its pros. No cons at all, if you want my opinion. A massive place with quite a lot of different rooms, TVs, smooth music creating atmosphere, and the best pint I tried in the whole weekend. The pub has a couple of floors, and even while several tourists groups where around you could easily spot the differences between a classic English pub and a classic Irish one. To remark some of them, in an English they don’t play any music, while in an Irish one they do, and while the good mood is always present in both of them, the atmosphere is slightly more friendly also in the Irish one. Now that I think about it, there are a couple of cons in the red-haired one: the prices and the prices. Also, beer variety is much bigger in any average London pub than in a big Dubliner, and they have Heineken instead of Carling or Becks, and I prefer the latter ones. Altogether, the quality of the Guinness makes a big difference.


About the decoration, O’Neills was really a very nice place to give a slow look at. Old clocks, Guinness memorabilia, comfy coaches, horse races pictures and a thick layer of dust altogether generate an extraordinary feeling to a pub lover as I am.

4. Café en Seine

39 Dawson Street, Dublin

As lovely as bizarre, this place is a unique experience, even if it is not an Irish one at all. The places tries to resemble a French café, and it is quite clear the owners have decided to table as much cash as needed to get the effect right. The decoration is ubiquitous, expensive, and some times surrealistic. Greek statues, palms, golden carving, and so on, I’m quite sure you easily get the picture.

I confused the place with Zanzibar, a gay club I was in – by mistake – the previous time I went to Dublin. T. told me they both belong to the same chain, and it seems there are some more scattered around Dublin. So finding out where they are looks like a pretty interesting task to write down in my travel book for the next Dublin trip.

Again, prices are crazy, and the Carlsberg we had was a bit warm. So not a great value for money unless you take loads of pictures of the place, which, by the way, I didn’t – I’m becoming a lazy bastard when taking pictures is what you talk about.



5. O'Donoghue's

15 Merrion Row, Dublin

Very likely my favourite one, even while paradoxically we barely went in as we drunk everything – and this everything is sort of literal, as I cannot remember how many we took in this place. The place has a lovely indoor terrace with gas heaters, and the service attends you in your table/barrel, so no real need for having a fight on the bar all the time. Good thing, as the English traditional respect for your turn –fading nowadays, to be honest – has no equivalent on its little sister island.

Anyway, the pub inside was conformed by several narrow corridors with tables on it, and everybody in seemed to be having a great time. Outside wasn’t worse, and a nice mixture of locals, students and tourists blended in a very sweet recipe. So this is a place to be recommended to everybody to start a night with only a little flaw: you feel so good there that you may end up spoiling a night under a gas heater. Which is not a big flaw, if you think about it.


6. Solas

31 Wexford Street, Dublin

A club in Camden area– yeah, this is the name of the main street over there. Not a very remarkable one in my opinion, but with a very good bottled beer collection. It closed quite early, as almost everything in London, which is a shame, and at least, compared with the clubs around, looked like the best one and the one with an age average above 24. So good enough to end a good nite as well as a good weekend.

7. Ocean

Charlotte Quay Ringsend Dublin

This is a lovely bar in the docklands area of Dublin. Not a pub, but a quiet place to chill out, enjoy a drink or two and watch the sunset as it goes by smoothly as the whole weekend went.

Ordnance Arms: a quiet place in poshland

29 Ordnance Hill, London, NW8 6PS

St John’s Wood is one of those posh areas in North London you cannot really understand what its purpose is. Not too far away from Central London but not close enough either, and surrounded by several other posh areas like Maida Vale, there is absolutely nothing special about it. Quiet, everybody’s a wasp – more likely a banker than a plumber – and it seems nothing ever happens.

The reason I was over there was I have a friend who works in a school in the area. Add to that the fact that it is on the way to Central London on the Jubilee line from my place, and you get the point about trying a pub close to the station as the Ordnance Arms is. And from the time being, it is by far the best place in St John’s I’ve found until now.

First of all, the place is unpretentious, which is a brilliant point if compared with almost everywhere else in the area. No marbles, no stupidly pricey drinks, no design food. Just a pub that has been taken care about, at least lastly as it seems previous owner was a twat. Now the atmosphere is friendly, and the decoration, if simple, is very effective. I particularly liked a custom tree with lights on its branches that loomed all the place around in a nice way. The design is cute too - the pub has a very pleasant layout, and the furniture is just right for the kind of place it is. The chimney is always an extra point, and the room is big enough to feel pretty comfortable, at least on a weekday when it’s not too stuffed. Maybe on weekends it’s a different matter, but… who cares about St Johns Wood in a weekend, I ask?

On the top of this, they have Sam Smith. Yes, the same Sam Smith they have in Cheshire or Chandos, and I already said what I have to say about it on those posts. Just as a reminder, it is very good, particularly the stout type. And yes, I know, they don’t serve any proper bitter pint, but as I’m not that much for bitter beer lastly, at this point it doesn’t seem to be such a big problem to be honest.



The best point of the place, though, is not the beer but the food. I have not tried it, true, but it looked really good, and at amazingly cheap prizes for that area in London. As soon as they get an outdoor terrace on summer I’m planning to get a proper lunch over there.
I know, this is not an impressive post.

Mueble Bar Nation

Two options:

a) We are taking it easy lastly, as work in progress is stacking

b) We are having too many friends visits :)

From left to right: El Coteron Irish Whiskey Cream, Cacique, Dark Vodka - home made, Barcelo a;ejo, Red Label (2, in plastic-made bottles!!!), Bushmill 10 years, McCallan 12 years, Arbelour 10 years, Talisker Distiller Edition and a Vodka bottle my brother brought from Moscow a couple of weeks ago.

And a bottle of coke to mix'em all :)