Custom House Quay may not be the first spot that comes to mind when considering ideal pub locations in Dublin, but when the sun is out, it’s difficult to beat Urban Brewing’s beer garden. And given just how few true brewpubs there are in this city – Rascals is really the only other one at present – it’s a great place to enjoy a few pints (or cocktails) in the sun, although there are also very handy shade options, too.
Although the branding is different, Urban Brewing is an outpost of Carlow Brewing, of O’Hara’s fame, which means that the core O’Hara’s beers are always available, the gorgeous Leann Folláin included (and if you haven’t read Eoghan Walsh’s thoughtful take on that beer, with beautiful illustrations by Mark Hill, you should head to Pellicle and remedy that now). But there is a rotating lineup of exclusive and one-off beers brewed here on site as well – there’s often a mild that’s a delight in warmer weather, and a variety of interesting things to try. There’s also a brewery tour you can book.
And the site is one of the main reasons to visit Urban Brewing: built into a Grade 1-listed former warehouse at Custom House Quay that has been here since at least 1820, it’s an excellent example of thoughtful and creative reuse of a heritage building – something we could really use more of in Dublin (looking at you, Aldborough House). And while I’m probably not the target audience for EPIC (as someone who lives locally, and who has no ‘Irish emigrant’ connections – I’m the opposite here), also housed in this complex, their gift shop is one of the few places on this side of the river where I can buy delicious Brona Chocolates – buy the dark chocolate Salt & Chili and thank me later.
But what I particularly enjoy about Urban Brewing is that each part of the venue feels very different – the outside space is the go-to when the weather is good, but the modern bar in the old building has a lovely look and feel, while the vaults below are great for events – cosy and always beautifully decorated. And as a newer business in an older building, they’ve had the space to get their accessibility figured out in the retrofitting; there are lifts as well as stairs.
Oddly, in 5+ years of living nearby, I’ve not had the chance to do the brewery tour, but I imagine I’ll get around to that eventually. In the meantime, it’s always a nice surprise to find Emerald Ale, the aforementioned mild, on tap, so it’s well worth the longer walk from my usual haunts…
Where: CHQ Building, Custom House Quay, IFSC, Dublin, D01 Y6P5
Access from the city centre: Buses 14, 15, 15A, 15B, 27, 151, Luas Red Line, 18-ish minute walk
Food: Brunch, flatbreads, cheese board, tapas, sandwiches, ‘elevated’ mains and more…
Sport: More pre- or post-sport
TVs: If they are there, they are well-hidden
Music: Always a varied soundtrack inside, harder to hear outside
Family-friendliness: No specific children’s menu, but handy after a tour of EPIC
Pub-crawl-ability: Medium – Dockers and The Wind Jammer are across the Liffey, while The Brew Dock is a short walk away; The Morris Bar isn’t terribly far, either
Local sites of note: EPIC, Custom House, 3Arena, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Grand Canal Dock
Haunted: The vaults have a lovely, spooky atmosphere
Other notes: There’s also basic Eurolager if that’s your thing, as well as very nice cocktails
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
This week, it’s another relatively rare visit into the more touristy part of town as we visit 
Kennedy’s is another pub I’ve walked past many times without entering, but I finally had a bit of free time in the area this week, so stopped in for a sneaky daytime glass after visiting the National Gallery. While not nearly as extensive a list of craft beer taps as nearby 
There’s a lovely tiled bar in the basement for live music and events, and this space as well as the terra cotta decoration on the pub’s exterior add unique touches, while the rest of the interior feels a bit more ‘standard Irish pub.’ All told, it’s probably more of a destination for those on literary walking tours than anything else, but it’s nice to find a spot in tourist-land with a few craft beers; it’s not necessarily a given in Dublin.
Sometimes, it really is all about The Socials.
And while you’re not really here for the beer – labelled moderately-pretentiously-but-it-works as ‘pale ale,’ ‘lager’ and ‘stout’ in lower-case cursive on gold tap towers – they are, for the record, the Changing Times pale ale, Birra Moretti and, of course, Guinness. But if it’s good beer you’re after, you can do what we did and stop off at 
We didn’t have time to get to a ‘new’ pub this week for a conventional entry, but given the (strange) glorious sunny weather, we’ll do a quick round-up of the nicest 
And so, with definitions out of the way, here are some of our favourite proper Dublin 
Then, to the other side of the Liffey: 
Next, on to 
Last week, we asked whether 
The pub has been here since the 1850s, and in the Hedigan family since 1904, and you can’t miss their name in neon, either. Of course, like so many pubs along this route, it’s name-checked in Ulysses, and has a useful write-up 
Well, there have been proposals to 
We are back this week with a ‘request pub’ – one that’s much further north than our more common north-of-the-Liffey-but-still-pretty-central stomping grounds. We’re heading out of Dublin City proper to Howth; it’s an easy trip on the DART, but a bit of a pain if, for example, you needed Dublin Bus to deposit you to a nearby spot at a predetermined time. Dublin Bus is not always especially good at the concept of ‘on time’ (but it’s pretty great on ghost buses), so the journey in this general direction involved more taxis than I typically take in a 6-month period, but we got there in the end. Our (eventual) destination was 
I’d recently had an exchange on the socials lamenting the lack of railway station bars in Ireland, and while we have nothing here quite like the small-but-mighty 
We enjoyed excellent food and service when we stopped in, which isn’t necessarily a given in some pubs mid-week in the middle of the afternoon (hardly a fruitful time for most), so it was much appreciated. There is outdoor seating as well around both ends of the pub, but we kept to the more dimly-lit interior on a lovely sunny afternoon. Having offspring who actively avoid the sun may be odd to others, but hey, at least their vampiric ways are preventing long-term sun damage, and the pub interior really is lovely, all stone and dark wood.
A proper ‘Pubs of Croke Park’ roundup is long overdue, and with so many events on this summer, we may as well finally start working on that. While we’ve already covered a few handy ones like 
It’s very much a ‘locals’ pub most of the time, but a welcoming one; I’ve had out-of-town guests wind up there and have great chats with the barstaff. No frills, but no pretention, either. If you are looking to pre-game before an event at Croke Park, it’s hard to be better-placed for an easy walk in to the stadium. And, of course, the pub’s name 
Locals know this, but the visitor to Dublin may not know that horse racing is Kind of a Big Deal. There are endless ads from the various wagering platforms leading up to some of the larger race meetings, and as we’re in the middle of Cheltenham Week*, it seemed appropriate to venture to one of the many Old Man Pubs that draw in the 
But back to The Wind Jammer: the exterior looks more than a little tired, but once in the door, it’s perhaps surprisingly tidy and well-wallpapered – not to the standard of the much-newer 
While it’s only a short walk from more ‘hipster’ bars like 
Back in the day – you know, perhaps 3 years ago – this week’s pub was The Porterhouse Central. It was a very handy spot in that you could enjoy a mix of interesting beers from Porterhouse and various guest options, but you avoided 
However, I happened to be in the area and had a bit of time after a meeting, so I gave Tapped another try. I’m pleased to say that the interior, while still feeling just slightly too ‘taproom’ has been softened and improved. There is now much more comfortable seating and the lighting is more dialled-in; it feels warmer on the whole. There are screens showing the beer lineup, 