City guide: Dublin
BEST BAR WITH A VIEW
Where else but the incomparable Gravity Bar, atop the Guinness Storehouse at St James’s Gate. From here you can sip a perfectly poured glass of the dark stuff while looking out over the city and the hills beyond. You won’t be alone, this is Dublin’s premier tourist attraction, but if you can drag yourself away from the view it’s great fun watching tiny Japanese ladies tackling a pint. The St James’s Gate Brewery has been Guinness’s home since 1759, and the former fermentation plant is now a seven-storey visitor centre where you can absorb the history of Ireland’s most famous liquid export. Hear about the men who made it and made fortunes from it before trying pouring a pint yourself.
BEST PLACE TO LINE THE STOMACH
Dublin is stuffed with restaurants but it can be pricey, so it pays to pick carefully. Just south of the central Temple Bar area, on Trinity Street, is Pichet, a funky café-bar opened by up-and-coming duo Nick Munier and Stephen Gibson. A great place to soak up that early-evening atmosphere, a glass of passionfruit prosecco whets the tastebuds for a range of starters from which it is almost impossible to choose. Our favourite was a crispy hen’s egg, baby leeks, caper and bacon dressing on black pudding. That made way for rare-breed pork belly, tortellini, fried sage, carrot purée and wholegrain mustard and roast monkfish, white bean, pancetta and girolle mushroom cassoulet with parsley and artichoke. A side order of duck-fat baby potatoes was irresistible, but we didn’t count the calories. Desserts – potted blueberry cheesecake and fresh strawberry pavlova – are equally scrumptious. Ambitious and excellent fare.
BEST PLACE NOT TO DRINK GUINNESS
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Hide AdWhatever you do in the Porterhouse Pub, don’t order a Guinness – or expect withering looks from the staff. This is Dublin’s first micro-brewery pub, set up in 1996 to try to convince sceptical foreigners that Ireland can produce other great beers. You can choose between ten different beers brewed on the premises, including plain porter (named because the light stout was the favourite and once cheap tipple of the early-morning porters at Covent Garden in London), oyster stout, brewed with fresh oysters, Wrasslers 4x from a West Cork recipe, Porter House Red, a sumptuous ale, and An Brain Blasta, which needs no translation. In Temple Bar, it’s a warren of a place with great live music.
BEST FOR a drop of THE HARD STUFF
While the Guinnesses were brewing beer for the masses, the Jamesons were busy catering for the spirits market, turning a blend of water, barley and yeast into smooth, golden whiskey. Their story is engagingly told at the Old Jameson Distillery. Knowledgeable guides take you through the production process of this – unlike Scottish malts – triple-distilled spirit. Expect a sampling, and volunteers can choose to take part in a tutored blind tasting of the native stuff, an American bourbon and a Scotch. Those who pick out the Jameson’s earn a pat on the back.
BEST PLACE TO STAY
Dublin’s city fathers have spent a fortune dolling up the once grim banks of the Liffey, which runs through the centre of the city, and nowhere more so than in the former industrial districts between the centre and the harbour area. The now long gone financial boom brought the International Finances Services Centre, with a range of hotels catering for delegates to the nearby Convention Centre. One is The Clarion, on Excise Walk, which fronts on to the river, making it an easy stroll to O’Connell Street and the late-night delights of Temple Bar. It has well-equipped, comfortable and contemporary rooms at reasonable prices and is in a great location for the open-air art gallery that the river banks have become.
BEST WAY TO WORK OFF A HANGOVER
Stroll along the Liffey and it won’t be long before you find a cycle bank, from where two wheels can be hired for a few euros by credit card to take you careening around the streets. The city is relatively flat and bike-friendly, and if you want to push out of the centre, try the cycle route that leads out to the Botanic Gardens. A horticultural gem little known even to most Dubliners, this tranquil space, 3.5km north of the river, was founded in 1790 and has been a green oasis ever since. Ditch the bike at the entrance, stretch your legs and fill your lungs among a collection of trees, rare grasses and Victorian glasshouses. Highlights are the rose garden (best in season, obviously) and the magnificent cakes in the café (all year round).
Dublin’s financiers may have had a torrid time in the economic crisis besetting the euro zone but its tourist industry continues to thrive. Even the Queen visited last year, and its cultural highlights – from ancient churches and learned museums to the academic groves of Trinity College and the open spaces of Phoenix Park, best seen from an open-top bus that allows you to get on and off at your pleasure – remain undimmed. It’s hard to go home, however, without sampling the brews that have made Ireland’s capital world-famous.