A Theme for 2023: My Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs

It’s a new year, and as I’ve become wildly undisciplined about writing outside of work, I’m giving myself a prompt for 2023: semi-regularly writing about some of my favourite pubs here in Dublin.  Now, there are already several excellent, long-running blogs that focus on the full spectrum of Dublin pubs: Every Pub in Dublin and Dublin By Pub are out there doing fantastic work, so this will be a much more idiosyncratic approach. If I were a Terrible Person, this would be A CURATED LOOK AT DUBLIN PUBS, but because I can, on occasion, reign in in, you will be spared that kind of nonsense.

Instead, I’ll focus on what makes the pub especially welcoming, handy or interesting for me, so do expect a bit of a Northside bias: proximity helps, but it’s not the only determining factor; regular readers and followers know that I will travel for cask, though alas, compiling a list of all cask pubs in Dublin would be an all-too-swift task (though if the pub does do the odd cask event, it will be noted). You can expect that the majority of the pubs covered will have at least a few local/Irish/overseas guest craft taps, but we simply don’t have dozens of craft beer pubs to choose from as you might in London or Philadelphia.

And while not all pubs need be family-friendly – indeed, at least a few on my list are very much Grownups Only – I will be including the options for kids, including children’s menus and family events, where relevant; after all, those are the ones I tend to get to more often, and new entries will, broadly speaking, be written based on how recently I’ve been to a particular pub and grabbed a few photos (so hey, recency bias, too! Let’s ignore the fact, for now, that the last time I was out with only my nearly-adult kid, they kept trying to give him the pint and me the Coke, but I digress).

I’ll only include some of the ‘usual suspect’ pubs that typically appear in tourist guides to Dublin if there is something about a particular venue that does stand out for me – there’s no need for me to write up a Temple Bar pub if it’s something I typically avoid, but there are some ‘must-do tourist pubs’ that are actually very pleasant, though it may be some time before I get around to those.

Do expect some of the usual off-theme posts as well…I’ll still be doing some (hopefully) regular travel-related updates, plus some things related to work, beer festivals, breweries and the Beer Ladies Podcast, so do come back to check those out as well as they appear, and a big thank you to Boak and Bailey for (possibly unwittingly) getting me to finally commit to this!

Expect the first entry in the Dublin Pubs series later this week…and hopefully, a few will surprise you.

Updated to add direct links to entries:
The Bald Eagle, Phibsborough
The Cat & Cage, Drumcondra
Doyle’s Corner, Phibsborough
The Underdog, City Centre-ish
The Black Sheep, Capel Street
Juno, North Inner City
The Back Page, Phibsborough
L. Mulligan. Grocer, Stoneybatter
The Big Romance, Parnell Street
The Hut, Phibsborough
BRÚ House Fairview, in, uh, Fairview
Fidelity, Smithfield
JR Mahon’s, City Centre
The Oak, City Centre
Rascals HQ, Inchicore
The Palace Bar, City Centre
The Flowing Tide, North City Centre
The Beer Temple, City Centre
Cassidys, City Centre
The Underdog (yes, again – new location), Capel Street
Bonobo, Smithfield
Kimchi Hophouse, Parnell Street
Piper’s Corner, North City Centre
The Porterhouse, Temple Bar
The Old Spot, Beggars Bush
The Brickyard Gastropub, Dundrum
The Botanic, Glasnevin
The Gravediggers, Glasnevin