SOME BARS ARE exactly what you’d expect from the outside. Others… aren’t.
These are the second kind.
1. The George Bernard Shaw: big blue bus
The George Bernard Shaw was a first mover in the hipsterification of the Camden Mile. And they haven’t stopped since, adding new areas and niche businesses at a steady rate.
But perhaps the most surprising find in the GBS meleé is the large blue double-decker bus parked in the smoking area, serving up delicious pizza at all hours of the day and night.
2. The Vintage Cocktail Club: a dark door into the 1920s, kinda
The Vintage Cocktail Club is identifiable from the outside only by the letters ‘VCC’ on a dingy Temple Bar doorway. Inside, it’s a through-the-wardrobe experience with several floors of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink 1920s decor, and a small army of staff delivering cocktails around the place.
3. Electric Galway: a rooftop ‘street food discotheque’
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Upstairs from the dancefloor at Electric in Galway is Bite Club: a rooftop cafe with excellent food, cocktails and tunes. Try a basil black pepper margarita, or a buttermilk and bourbon fried chicken bun. It’s open late, aiming to be “a vibrant alternative to Friday night in the pub”.
4. Hacienda: the local that doesn’t look like a local
Outside, this mysterious building in Dublin’s fruit markets is like something from a Western: all terracotta awnings and colonial ironwork. There is no sign to speak of. But ring the buzzer for admission, and you’ll be let into a strangely traditional low-key Irish pub with a good mix of auld lads and hipsters. A fine spot.
5. Hidden Attic: your granny’s house in a club
The Secret Garden – an outdoor club owned by Cork city heavy hitters Reardens – might seem an unlikely place for this, a rather unusual ‘attic-themed’ bar with a selection of creepy dolls, ancient toys and a DJ booth in an old caravan. But sure look.
6. The Hop House: a Korean restaurant in a north-inner-city institution
The Shakespeare pub has been a fixture of good, grimy old Parnell Street in Dublin’s city centre for years. But perhaps it’s never been more lively than since its takeover by The Hop House – an addition which has left the decor largely unchanged, simply tacking a Korean restaurant onto the side. Delightfully unexpected.
7. The Bram Stoker: a 25-seat cinema club
The Bram Stoker Hotel in Dublin’s leafiest northside suburb is home to the Subtitle Little Cinema Club. Once a week, it opens an “intimate 25-seat-cinema” to show a European film. (With subtitles, geddit?) Impeccable film selections and the fact that you can take your drink in with you only add to the appeal.
8. M O’Shea: Two hot whiskeys and a fly swat, please
A classic of the ‘Irish pub that is also a hardware store’ genre. Not least because (a) it really IS still a hardware store, and you really CAN buy toilet brushes and three-amp fuses here; and (b) it gives no warning outside that behind the bar is not a rack of spirits, but a rack of Solas lightbulbs.
9. The Square Ball: full games room with ping pong
The latest outing from the Bodytonic people is a sports bar just off Dublin’s Grand Canal. But – as the owners say – it’s “a sports bar where, if you’re not into sports, you’ll have a good time”. Their newest addition is a dedicated games room with board games, arcade machines and a ping pong table.
10. The Shire: um… a Shire
A strange one, this. It’s not like they hide their Shireness exactly – what with the name and all – but still, is anyone really expecting to find an entire Lord Of The Rings-themed pub in Killarney town centre? Yes, they have a life-sized Gollum. Yes, they serve Bilbo’s Beer. No, you’re not even drunk.
11. P Macs: tucked-away Street Fighter II machine
Waaay down the back on the (long) route to the toilets in this Dublin city-centre favourite is every child of the 1990s’ young dream: a real, working Street Fighter II machine. Elbow the crowds out of the way and give Zangief the beating he deserves. Hadoouuuken!
12. McCarthy’s, Fethard: ‘We’ll wine you, dine you and bury you’
A vintage multiple-opportunity Irish pub: this time not a hardware store, but a pub, restaurant and… undertaker. Yes, really. Come for the craic, stay for the 24/7 hearse and casket service.
