Come Here To Me!

When I look out out my window, I think three things… One is the thought that I might not be in this gaff too much longer, with the bank now owning the place and actively trying to flog it to the highest bidder, the second less depressing thought is wow, this view still amazes me, and the third, hmmm, that Farrington’s place, wonder what that’s like.

Well, I had thought the third until a couple of weeks ago when I made a brief stop in there with a couple of CHTM! comrades. I liked it so much that I persuaded DFallon to call in with me on Friday for an early evening swift one; and its the perfect place for this. While from the outside, it can be compared to the Temple Bar only a few doors down, it exudes much less a “tourist kitsch” feeling, rather an “I know we’re in Temple Bar, have to appeal to tourists but we’re much more serious than that” feeling. If you get what I mean.

My favourite thing about the pub though? They stock Brewdog, and in particular 5AM Saint, an absolutely beautiful Red Ale, the kind of drink that you feel a little bit guilty about paying over the odds for but when you taste it, you know its worth it! They also stock a wide selection of Brewdog’s other bottled creations, Trashy Blonde, Punk IPA and Zeitgeist included, and the barman, who pulled up a stool beside us and had a chat, let us in on a secret… that they’ll soon be getting Punk IPA on tap, only the second pub in Dublin to have it. So I can see myself going back.

Internally, the pup reminds me somewhat of the Mercantile or The Oak, not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, and alongside Brewdog, they’ve a wide range of Irish Craft beers, unusual for a Temple Bar pub, where the staple is four Guinness taps in a row and Diageo branding all over the place, catering to tourists crying out for “a drop of the black stuff.” I went for the 5AM Saint, and tried another beer that they had on special, I think it was O’Hara’s, smoked golden ale (or something to that effect,) and at €5, it compares well with spening around €4.80 on a mainstream lager in any of the pubs around the place.

Its definitely a place I can see myself dropping into the odd time, a nice little spot for one or two pints and a look out the window on a rainy day. The bar was spotless and well run, empty glasses dispensed with as soon as we had fresh pints in front of us (a pet hate of mine is a bar the pulls the glass as soon as you’ve finished it,) the barstaff were spot on, for a pub in TB, it had locals, who all seemed friendly enough, oh and they do food too. I’ll drop in later on in the week to see if they’ve fulfilled their promise regarding Punk IPA, and if so, I’ll bang up a comment here.