The Dublin Community Blog

I finally paid a visit to one of northside Dublin’s most well known restaurants last weekend: 101 Talbot restaurant.

Taking a chance, I rang them at 8pm on Saturday night hoping a table might be free and thankfully my gamble paid off (The bank holiday weekend may have helped). We arrived at 9.30 to find the restaurant buzzing and full of people. There’s no background music but because of the layout of the dining area you don’t really miss it. The hum of people talking gives the place enough background noise so you don’t feel like your neighbour’s table is listening to everything you say. We ordered our meals (Garlic bread and olives to start, steak and cod for the main courses) and apart from a mix up with the starters, the grub was great and the wine was excellent. The coffee was good too, oh and for dessert you have to have the creme brulee!

We especially liked the fact that even the most expensive wines cost no more then €25. No pretension here, just good food and wine at a good price.

By the way the restaurant wasn’t as empty as it seems in these pictures, I took the pics at the end of the night!

I’m a big fan of all variations and types of coffee, depending on my mood or the time of day I might have espresso, latte, cappuccino or good old black coffee. In fact for me one of the great benefits of living in Dublin city is the ability to pop out and sit in a cafe reading a book and enjoying a good cup of joe.

Last Saturday I visited Starbucks on Dawson Street and ordered a grande latte with whipped cream and caramel drizzle (I know, I know, it’s such a pretentious order that I felt like slapping myself in the face but damn it tastes good!). Then I sat down and texted a few friends to see if they’d be interested in joining me. Whow you get some interesting reactions from people when it comes to Starbucks, “They’re Evil!” for example, tends to pop up a lot.

For me they’re safe, by that I mean I always have a good coffee when I visit. I’ve quite often bought a coffee from O’Briens or West Coast Coffee and two minutes later ended up throwing the foul tasting muck in a bin. They’re just not consistent enough in their coffee for my liking, in fact I’ve yet to find a take-away coffee establishment as dependable as Starbucks.

They also seem to support fair trade coffee and have been ranked 45th on Business Ethics’ list of “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens” of 2004, I presume that’s a good thing.
One bad point I can agree with is Starbucks’ tendency to start popping up everywhere and putting the little guys out of business (then again if the little guy’s coffee tastes like mud, should we really weep at their demise?!)

What do you think, should we start defending Dublin against an onslaught of Starbucks cafes?
Are they evil?

Sorry about the shaky picture, took it after my caffeine fix :)

Every day I get the BBC main headlines via email. I usually scan them and tend to read the health articles. Yesterday I saw an article that was a bit disturbing to me and was part of an interesting discussion today at lunch. The BBC article states that teenagers may smoke while pregnant in order to ease labor.

This is disconcerting for a few reasons. OK, really one: smoking while pregnant is known to cause developmental disabilities. It can be a cause of ADHD, learning difficulites (like dyslexia), low birth weight, failure to thrive (partially due to low birth weight). Yes, in many cases the babies are fine but isn’t that an awfully big risk? My coworkers commented today that their experiences are that not just teenagers are smoking with the hope of reducing labor, it is women of all ages. Just a note, smoking does not reduce the pain of labor, but may decrease the baby’s birth weight and increases chances of miscarriage.

Another coworker commented today that she had seen a show on the television this week about women drinking while pregnant. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Affects are preventable and also related to significant developmental disabilities.

So, if you are pregnant or know someone who is, please try not to smoke or drink alcohol. Ok, public service announcement over.

Breaking News.ie is reporting that the Gardai have mounted an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour on the Liffey boardwalk.

“Gardaí in Dublin have made almost 50 arrests in the first two months of an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour on Dublin’s Liffey boardwalk.

Gardaí mounted a crackdown on drug-dealing and alcohol consumption on the boardwalk in April and say they arrested 46 people during the first two months of the operation.” (Breaking News)

The boardwalk is a lovely spot to enjoy watching people go by, relax and have a coffee and even enjoy the sniffy Liffey.

While I do believe everyone has a right to enjoy the boardwalk it is intimidating to be surrounded on both sides by gangs drinking hard, throwing cans into the river and occasionally being obnoxious and threatening to passers by. The photograph shows a fella who was twisted and who was falling all over people and as you can see there are families with kids trying to enjoy the day.

While there are aspects of anti social behaviour happening on the boardwalk which need to be addressed I do not at all wish to see people being moved along by the Gardai simply because they are an addict or whatever. Regular walks by gardai on the beat would go a long way. What do you think?

Today we wanted to go out to dinner for Boyfriend’s mother’s last night in Dublin (she’s been here since the 1st of June). We wanted to go to La Paloma for clarico and tapas but they were closed. Disappointed, we thought that we would try our luck at Elephant and Castle even though it was 7:15 PM. We were told that we would have to wait an hour. So, disappointed again, we decided to head over to Porterhouse Central since they have a bigger menu than Porterhouse on Parliment Street.

On our way, we saw O’Shea’s on Anglesea Street in Temple Bar. We decided that the menu looked alright and they had OK specials so we went in. There were four other people in the place who were having dessert. It is a small place and we were seated at a table set for three that was really the size for two. We looked at the menu again and Boyfriend and his mom ordered two specials. His mom said it was the special, he did not. I ordered charcoal chicken. Boyfriend ordered the Whiskey sausages and his mom ordered spring chicken with bacon. Boyfriend also ordered a Smithwicks.

The service was fast and the food came up quickly. All the food had a beef gravy on it that tasted like salty beef. By had beefy gravy on it, I mean swimming in it. I don’t eat beef. I don’t like beef. Boyfriend’s mom’s chicken was also swimming in beef gravy. She didn’t like her gravy, either. The chips that came with the food were acceptable. The salad that came as a side dish was dirty. The Whiskey sausages were pretty tasty. The mashed potatoes were made from real potatoes. The mushy peas that came with the sausages reeked of vinegar. He tried to give me a taste but it burned my nose!

So, we ate our meals. Meanwhile, a couple near us had arrived and ordered. They both got some sort of stews that looked better than our meals. The brown bread looked good. After we declined dessert, we got the bill. They gave Boyfriend’s mother the specials price, not Boyfriend even though he had ordered a special listed in the window (which they took down after we ordered). We questioned it and were told that because he didn’t say he wanted the special he didn’t get the specials price. The waitress claimed that the portions were smaller for the specials. The portions all looked the same to us. We paid the bill exactly, no tip, and left.

So, moral: don’t go to O’Sheas unless you want a mediocre meal at best at high average Temple Bar prices.

After dinner, we went home and I made yummy chocolate brownies for dessert.

Last night after dinner at the Italian place directly across from Thomas Reid’s (very tasty but can’t remember the name of it), I met up with some coworkers for drinks at Thomas Reid’s. It was a decent place. The pub is fairly large and by the time I got there at 10:00 PM it was pretty crowded.

When I first stepped in the place, I was apprehensive because I was hit by a wall of noise. At least there wasn’t loud music over the talking (music started around midnight). Why can’t Dublin places put in some sound absorbing materials? It wouldn’t be very hard to put some tiles on the ceiling or curtains over the windows/on walls. These things would go a long way.

OK, so Thomas Reid had a lot of people, especially on the ground floor. There was also a floor below that apparently had dancing, but I didn’t go there since my coworkers were in the corner at tables.

Overall, I liked the place. However, it was difficult at times to get drinks. For the size of the place, they had a tiny bar down near the entrance. So, you were supposed to walk around through all the people and squeeze through them all to get your drinks. That is way to much touching random people for me. There is a section that is raised above the main floor a bit. Along the edge of it there is a ledge. If you stood there long enough and got a bartender’s attention (two of the four that is), they would bring your drinks to you there. By 1:00 AM, one of the bartenders was actually bringing the drinks to the table but they had slowed down a bit by then.

One thing that stood out for me was that they had the Kopparberg ciders. The only other place I have seen them is the Porterhouse. Kopparberg makes a yummy mixed fruit cider with 7% alcohol that tastes like fruit juice. It is soooo tasty. The pear one is very sweet and I don’t remember the apple if I have tried it.

So, overall rating: OK

Dubliners are being asked to watch their water usage this summer to ensure there isn’t a drought in the coming weeks.

According to the report on the Irish Times Breaking News site people use an average of 150 litres a day, the equivalent of 15 large buckets a day. That just sounds like so much water.
Among the water-saving tips recommended in the piece include, turning off the tap as you brush your teeth, having showers instead of a bath, and of course not hosing down your garden.

More tap-tips can be found here.

Meanwhile Dublin City Council is reported to be spending some €118m on rehabilitating old leaking water pipes in the Greater Dublin area. The mind boggles when you consider the network of pipes spreads over 2100 km in length ranging in age from new to more than a 100 years old.

…With coffee at eleven and a stroll, through Stephen’s Green…

OR, a bottle of West Coast Cooler cunningly disguised as a 7Up bottle, in Stephen’s Green.

When the sun is shining, Dublin really is at its best and it’s so lovely to sit in any of the many parks (Stephen’s Green, Wolfe Tone Park, St Patrick’s Cathedral Park, Tymon North Park in Tallaght, Corkagh Park in Clondalkin, the Phoenix Park the list goes on) and just soak up the rays and relax.

In about 10 minutes, I’m leaving work, jumping on the Luas and heading in to meet friends in Stephen’s Green to catch the last of the sunshine, eat ice-cream and certainly NOT drink illegal alcohol from a plastic bag.

Ah but seriously, bye-laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in our parks and green areas are in place and carry a hefty fine if you’re caught, so if you’re a visitor to Dublin and fancy a beer in the sun, just be aware of that and perhaps stick to beer gardens. If however you do have a crafty tipple in the park (as many Dubs do if I’m honest), be sure to clean up after yourself and not overdo the booze and we should all be happy. Bins are provided all over most parks, so do use them and leave our greens as you would like to find them. (That applies to Dubs as well as visitors, we can be a filthy lot when we want to be.)

Enjoy the sun!

Here’s a thought for pub owners across not only Dublin but the world based on my brief stint in one today. Lads, have a thought about the music you pump into your hostelries for the teeming masses.

The reason I say this is that today I was in a pub I’ve been in during the day before. I needed some quiet space to write for a while and this spot had proved to be just the ticket before. Today? Girls Aloud and the feckin’ Lighthouse Family-a-go-go. The level below? Sky News on full blast with a riveting piece on cohabiting couples in the UK.

The only reason I got ever so slightly agitated was that the last time I was there during the day there was no music, no tv and instead the quite restful sounds of the traffic and the canal and it made for a great spot to have a pint and think (one of the traditional pastimes indulged in when visiting Irish pubs in the olden times!)

It just seems to me that owners all too often these days confuse “ambience” and “atmosphere” with any old music (quite often a sticky copy of “Now 28″ under the bar) or the prattle prattle prattle of news or sports tv… Maybe we could have non-music areas in pubs just like the old non-smoking sections of restaurants?

Can we start a campaign?

R

Yesterday, one of my friends phoned me on her way home from the Porterhouse after dinner and a couple pints. She happened to stop by O’Sullivan’s Pub on Westmorland Street (sorry if I spelled it wrong) and wandered in at the sound of live music. Since John had wanted to go back to the Porterhouse, we were up for some live music in a pub. And this was a pleseant surprise. The musician was pretty good (guy with a guitar) and it was more of a group sing event. He took requests and then asked the audiance to participate. The musician is there every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! The music was in the front part of the pub which is pretty small.

This pub is more of what I think of as an Irish Pub. It was dark. It was small. The stools were unsteady. The locals were friendly. And there were regulars who knew the bartender’s names and vice versa. There was also an old guy who had his picture behind the bar and a seat saved for him!

I thought that this was a small little pub until I went to the toilet. There was a huge pub behind it the doors leading to the toilets. It has a huge TV which was broadcasting wrestling. It also has a pool table. The chairs are comfy ones and the back part is a little better lit and quieter. It was a place that you could go and have your pint and have deep conversation. Well, as deep as you can have while you’re drinking pint after pint…