September, 2023 - Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs

I had every intention of writing something about the couple of new-to-me bars I had a chance to pop into in New York while I was over for work – Beer Run, for obvious running-nerd/beer-nerd reasons was a standout to me, and I was thrilled to have a few festibiers from around the region (I’m the weirdo who prefers the darker, grainier, more bready American festbiers to their modern German counterparts – sorry/not sorry), but instead, I ended up with a longer hiatus as I came back from the States with Covid – thanks, Obama!

Luckily, I was recovered by this past weekend, and I had the chance to get to one of our favourite pubs on the fancier side of Dublin: The Old Spot. We don’t get over this way terribly often, although we used to live around the corner, just on the other side of the Aviva, so going to the stadium in question gave us a perfect opportunity. After watching the Irish Women’s National Team beat Northern Ireland, we headed around the corner to The Old Spot for dinner – and it does feel very much, to me, like a ‘nice dinner’ spot (Spot?).

It’s certainly on the ‘gastro’ end of the gastropub spectrum, but it doesn’t try to hide this, and with that said, it’s entirely family-friendly and has both ‘good’ kids’ options and ones my currently-very-picky younger one will accept. As a side note, the vast majority of pubs and restaurants, even the ‘higher end’ ones here in Ireland tend to be welcoming to children (presuming it’s not terribly late) in a way that just isn’t as common, at least in my experience, in either the US or UK, where there is often a tendency to treat even older children as annoyances or somehow not members of the same species. And while I am not, on the whole, the biggest fan of ‘other people’s children,’ I find them much better-behaved and more like fully-baked humans when they are given the opportunity to exist comfortably in public spaces. Again, this is by no means universal in either direction, but Ireland seems to sit more in the ‘European’ camp in this regard, with the Anglo-American attitude being typically (though not always) considerably less inclusive – but I digress, back to the food and drink!

I’m a big fan of the food at The Old Spot – even the burger simply seems ‘elevated’ compared to what you find in most pubs, and there are always interesting specials that I would consider actually ‘special,’ but by no means fussy. And in addition to a really lovely cocktail menu, they have Hope and Kinnegar on tap, and in their own glassware, so Irish craft beer is well-supported. There is also an excellent whiskey selection, which pairs well with the always-interesting dessert menu, so I’ve never left in any way hungry.

I know that some find the décor a bit twee, but I really enjoy the whimsey of it – plenty of on-theme pigs around, and there’s always the more ‘bar’ bar area at the front if you prefer simply stopping in for a pre- or post-match pint.

I need to get back that way more frequently.

Where: The Old Spot, 14 Bath Ave, Dublin 4, D04 Y726
Access from the city centre: Buses 4, 7, 7A, 38, 38A, 39 39A, 56A, 77A, DART
Food: Gastropub, with many specials
Sport: Better for before or after the game
TVs: Nope
Music: I always feel targeted
Family-friendliness: Thoroughly welcoming
Pub-crawl-ability: Medium – The Bath Pub, Slattery’s, The Chophouse, The 51, The Gasworks and The Merry Cobbler are all a short stroll in various directions
Local sites of note: Aviva Stadium, Beggars Bush Barracks, National Print Museum
Haunted: There are some lovely older homes in the area – maybe some ghosts wander in?
Other notes: Worth making a reservation, it can fill up

They don’t have German beer on tap any more.

While The Porterhouse has been serving its own beer in Temple Bar since 1996, it used to highlight more overseas craft and traditional beers as well; or, at least, that is how it seems to stick in everyone’s memory – ‘everyone’ here being the group I most recently visited with – we all had pre-Covid memories of finding a range of interesting German, Belgian, British and American craft beers on tap, alongside The Porterhouse’s own well-known porters and stouts.

The bottles of beer from all over the world – a good portion of them from now-defunct breweries – still line the walls, there are sessions happening in multiple parts of the building, but there does seem to be a sense that things have changed – and perhaps it’s more because the local craft beer scene can now fill more of those taps, even in a huge venue like The Porterhouse. Indeed, the downstairs bar was nearly all local options like Lineman, The White Hag, Kinnegar and Whiplash, which was delightful to see – and the prices were not terrible, despite the Temple Bar location.

When The Porterhouse first opened here, Temple Bar itself was not the combination tourist trap/stag-and-hen destination it has become in the past decade or so, though it is worth noting that while the immediate area is a nightmare for a nice pint at a normal cost (without a bit of effort), there are still interesting places to go for tourists and locals alike – the Project Arts Centre and Smock Alley Theatre are great for performances of all sorts, and the National Photographic Archive has all manner of excellent exhibits. You may well have to avoid or step over certain kinds of revellers, and there are pubs to simply skip because they will charge you something like €‎14 for a Guinness, but having a spot like The Porterhouse that is a known quantity does provide a bit of a refuge from that aspect of the area.

There is probably some sort of thesis possible in terms of determining whether Temple Bar and its flagship modern businesses, including The Porterhouse, ever had a specific ‘heyday’ in between the overall regeneration of the area to pinpointing when the tourist trap tipping point happened – and I’m far from being best-placed to determine when that happened. And while the recent-ish news that Conor McGregor would be buying the brewing arm of The Porterhouse did not thrill most local beer nerds, it can’t be said that this turn of events is in any way reflected in the pub – yet. There was no sign of his stout, already brewed by the same team, and no obvious change in the overall ‘feel,’ though as the pubs are not part of the deal, we may not expect that to happen any time soon (or it may have already ‘happened’ to the old Porterhouse Central, now ‘Tapped‘ – a makeover about which I Have Opinions).

So, on balance, the absence of German beers nowadays may be a sign of the growth of the local industry – though I wouldn’t mind a nice radler in this hot weather. Mind yourself on the cobblestones.

Where: Porterhouse Temple Bar, 16-18 Parliament St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, D02 VR94
Access from the city centre: 6-ish minute walk
Food: Pub grub, pasta, cheese boards, desserts
Sport: It’s on when it’s on
TVs: Scattered around, just keep an eye out
Music: GenX and elder Millennials are aggressively targeted by the playlist before the sessions – this is fine
Family-friendliness: While it can get crowded, its size usually makes it fine during the day
Pub-crawl-ability: High – The Stag’s Head, The Long Hall, The Lord Edward, The Beer Temple/The Oak…or walk across the river to hit The Black Sheep and Underdog. Oh, and there’s all of Temple Bar, if that is your thing
Local sites of note: Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublinia, Olympia Theatre
Haunted: Big old building like this? Surely…
Other notes: Don’t get me started on Tapped

Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs: The Old Spot

Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs: The Porterhouse Temple Bar