Ireland (Winter 2023) - Dublin (Day 3)
Guinness Day - St James Gate
The Guinness complex actually dominates a good portion of the west side of Dublin real estate. The company is now owned by mega-corp Diageo and it looks like more expansion is happening with the construction going on. It is nice that it is located right in the middle of the city and you can walk to it for a visit. You need to book a ticket for the self-guided tour.
Groundstate Coffee
But first - breakfast.
This place is located near the brewery and made a fine cup of coffee. The proximity also drew a lot of brewery workers who stopped by before their shift.
I also had some of the toasties that I became very fond of while in town.
Guinness Storehouse
Things I learned and my thoughts on Guinness during my visit to Dublin:
Irish people do drink it and a lot of it. People were pounding this everywhere I went (both the men and the women). I would gauge how quickly people would put it away compared to how fast I could drink my pint and often I would see guys drink 2 or 3 before I finished my one glass.
The low percent alcohol is nice in that you can just pound this stuff all day if you can handle the fluid volume. I saw many people drink this in the morning here.
In the old days, it was stored in wooden barrels instead of steel kegs so it definitely likely tasted a lot different back then. They had employed a lot of coopers to make barrels in the old days and left a lot of guys unemployed when they went to steel. They say that they got re-employed by making furniture but I’m sure they weren’t all able to be re-tasked to making dining room tables.
The nitrogen wasn’t introduced until the later 50’s so it must have not tasted that great in the old days since it’s the fine nitrogen bubbles that really makes Guinness good in my opinion. When I asked locals about it they agree that it probably didn’t taste that great back in the day but it was all they had so that’s what they drank.
You can see the round rooftop bar in the first photo. That is where you basically end the tour. The complex is pretty large and you walk around to the main entrance in between some buildings.
I’ve been to the Jim Beam distillery in Kentucky and someone described it to me like that it feels like the Disneyland of bourbon. This self guided tour felt the same way. It is set up to handle crowds and the experience is packaged for the masses vs seeing the inner workings of the brewery.
You still get to learn a lot about the history of Guinness which is very interesting but it is definitely built for commerce. I was glad I was here in the off-season as it was plenty crowded here even in the dead of winter. There is a huge gift shop at the entrance selling every possible type of Guinness swag but there is really nothing there that you couldn’t find anywhere else.
This was the aroma room where they had 4 vapor vessels oozing one of the flavors that you should be tasting from a glass of Guinness. At the bar they pour you a small glass so you can see if you can distinguish the aromas as you sip your glass.
There is a level below the rooftop bar where there are other restaurants and bars and also one place where you can get your photo etched into the foam before you drink the glass of Guinness. We just skipped all that and headed to the roof.
The payoff at the end of the tour is the rooftop bar where you get your free pint and have a clear 360 degree view of Dublin while you enjoy your beer. The big circular room is split into two areas with bars on both sides.
You can get non-Guinness beers if you like as well but, dude, why are you here? We were also fortunate to be there early enough to enjoy a morning beer by the window as the seats fill up quickly and can be hard to find as the day goes on. It was fairly empty when we got there. By the time we finished the pint, it was SRO on both sides of the bar.
Doheny & Nesbitt
We sought out this place after a local directed us to check it out. It is one of the classic pubs on the east side of St Stephen’s Green. The front of the place was rather cozy but the back opened up to a fairly large space with another bar in the back. I believe there is an upstairs to the bar as well.
The front I guess is the original part of the bar and it was filled with old men regulars who had the look like they probably went there every day. The front part of the bar was also partitioned out a bit so there were cubby holes and some of them had a little door.
The next bar we went to across the street had the same style of layout as well.
Toner
Here is where I learned about the partitions in the bar as this one was set up the same way as D&H.
The sign by the door called the Toner the “Best Snug in Dublin.” I had it explained to me previously that a “snug” was a place that the women went to drink in the old days that was next to the main bar. But this bartender explained to me that a “snug” is a bar where couples would go to hang out. That would explain the partitions and cubby holes in the bar. They provided places small seating areas where a guy and his girl could have some drinks with a little privacy.
This place also had a larger open air back area. I think a lot of these older bars do this in order to handle the thirsty masses. It was mid-day and it was already packed.
Bruxelles
This was actually a place we chose because the several previous pubs we tried to go to were just way too packed to get in. Dubliners really do like to go out and this was a Friday night. No one seemed to be too discouraged by the cold weather.
This place had seating and food so we were sold. Not an authentic older pub like we were hoping for but it did the job. The inside was big but it has that corporate feel you find at chain restaurants here in US. FIsh and chips order was large enough to split.
McGettigan’s
This was the last drink stop of the night while walking back to the hotel in the Smithfield neighborhood. It is also the place where a bartender finally shamed me for ordering a 1/2 pint of Guinness. My thing at that time was it was more about the volume than being able to handle more alcohol.
He pointed at my glass and asked “Is everything ok mate?” which apparently is Irish for “Dude, what’s wrong with you?” I mostly avoided the 1/2 pints from then on to not upset the locals.