24 hours in Dublin
Good food and good people
The New York Times recently featured this 3 day itinerary for a long weekend in Dublin. It’s an excellent itinerary with no mention of Temple Bar, the Guinness Storehouse or Dublin Castle. Instead, it reads like a Dubliner’s Guide to Dublin: suggesting places Dubliners actually go, like Grogan’s, Bread 41 and the Forty Foot with interesting cultural and historical stops too like Kilmainham Gaol, the Hugh Lane Gallery and the tenement museum on Henrietta Street, which I’ve never been to but of course…always meant to visit.
Between the Canals
When my husband and I first met, I was living in the city centre, in an apartment on Patrick Street. Because of its central location, we regularly passed it in the years that followed and any time that we did, my husband was physically incapable of not saying out loud: “I did my best courting in there”, not matter who was in our company at the time.
We later rented together in Ringsend and went on to buy our first house in Phibsboro, a house from which we left, on the morning of our wedding on Grand Canal Street and the house we brought our two baby daughters home to from the Coombe. Other than one year where I lived in Ballsbridge (and felt like I was in the sticks) we’ve done a lot of living between the canals and the world of this 24 hour itinerary is even smaller because it never leaves Grand Canal Dock.
Stay: The Marker Hotel
3:30pm: I was stressed before pulling up at the Marker Hotel car park and the added stress of trying to park a car, as an unskilled parker, in a very tight car park, reminded me that there had been a valet service on the website and amn’t I Betty Big Box home from America now so why not swing up and hand somebody else the keys?
I parked up at the front door and Ivo came out to greet me. His very genuine charm was immediately disarming. When he closed the boot of the car, he said, “Astra - beautiful car”. Which was sweet because, not only is an Astra not a beautiful car, this particular Astra was a 12 year old Astra in which neither the radio nor the aircon worked. As we walked in, he said in a non-Irish accent “Céad míle fáilte” which made me smile. “Go raibh maith agat”, I said to which he replied “Tá fáilte romhat”. “Wow”, I said, impressed and he goes “Ná habair é”. I’d just found myself in an Irish-off and Ivo had won.
Ivo set an impeccable first impression but every single staff member I encountered throughout my stay was outstanding in their professionalism and friendliness. First stop was the spa: I had the 30/30 treatment which was a 30 minute massage and 30 minute facial and it was heavenly. I think I fell asleep. Afterwards, I retired to the relaxation room for a post-treatment smoothie and sorbet.
Dinner: Note on Fenian Street
After unpacking1, we headed for dinner. The 14 minute walk to Note on Fenian Street was the furthest we travelled all trip. Walking there, we marvelled at all the new buildings, trying to remember what had previously been in their place as though we were emigrants returning after a 20 year absence. Grand Canal Dock was looking very well.
Note was an excellent choice but I'd like to give a shout out to three others we strongly considered:
This is the first runner up. Camile is my favourite takeaway. I haven't found a single option as good in NYC. I would eat a Camile Thai dinner every day of my life if I could. I love it. I love the food but also how quickly the Phibsboro outpost used to deliver to our home (9 minutes was their record). Having driven a long way that day however, I felt we really should exit the hotel and get some fresh air and this was the single only reason we didn't just order a curry to our room.
An outstanding option. One of the hardest bookings to get in Dublin but there was a table for two available at 9pm. I'd previously been to Allta at one of its former locations (a Drury Street car park) and their meal kits had given us the tiniest sense of occasion during lockdown. It is now located in Grand Canal Dock but because it is right beside my husband’s office (Warning: first world problems incoming) , he said that if we went, it would be his third dinner there in a fortnight and his second night in a row, so we passed.
A friend recommended it. An easy DART trip. It’s near enough the 40 Foot which I had a notion of jumping into. This plan was something that was lovely in my head. Maybe a good Instagram post but nothing we were ever really going to do.
Note it was.
“This used to be Probus”, we said to eachother as we walked in and recalled various times we’d been there. I had been in Note previously and knew the type of wine bar it was. A proper one that serves organic wines and orange wines and sulfite-free wines. Wines that are not for me. If I were a beer drinker, I’d be the person going into a craft brewery asking for “something that tastes like Heineken”. When asked what red I wanted, I said “Something that tastes like it’s €15 a bottle in a supermarket and has plenty of sulfites. Lots of sulfites, more sulfites the better”.
The food standard in Dublin, and Ireland in general, is just so high. At every level of dining, it is streets ahead of anything I have seen in the USA.
To begin, we had half a dozen Connemara oysters with a glass of pink sparkling wine. For starters we shared courgette panzanella with goat’s curd and Vitello Tonnato (veal with tuna and anchovy sauce). I had pork fillet with apricot and potato for main while my husband had the bavette with rainbow chard and anchovy. We split a plum crème brûlée for dessert.
Breakfast: The Marker
For breakfast, we were treated to the experience of the Marker Hotel breakfast. A continental buffet, an Irish breakfast buffet and an à la carte menu from which I ordered the boxty with smoked salmon & crème fraîche and caviar. For breakfast dessert, I had bread and butter pudding. (For breakfast starter, I’d had sausage, potato, tomato and egg from the Irish breakfast buffet).
I hope this Substack doesn't turn into a serial of spas I’ve visited for which I’ve forgotten to pack appropriate undergarments, but I did forget to pack togs. Miraculously, I managed a matching bra and knickers (black) and thought it passed enough as a bikini to allow me visit the pool.
This was, I realised, the first time since I had my first baby that I wore a two piece swimsuit. My extra weight and stretch marks didn't seem to horrify the general population as much as I had been imagining for the past 5 years that they would (nobody noticed). I swam three lengths breast stroke with my head out of the water like the middle aged woman that I am, then did a lap of the Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room before returning to the room for some relaxed scrolling before check-out. I was meeting friends for lunch and coffee but I didn’t schedule anything before the check out time. I'm not stupid.
Lunch : Fairmental, Grand Canal Street
At 12, I decamped to the lobby for a coffee and some wifi and at 1, I walked to an appointment with wax therapist, actual therapist and friend, Mihaela. I first started going to Mihaela when I was working in Grand Canal Dock 15 years ago, as did every single other young professional woman in the area. Mihaela is an angel waxer that manages to inflict zero - read my lips: zero - pain.
I've stayed with her all this time, even after I moved out of the area, even after (it now seems) I've moved to America. Just once did I stray. After I’d moved to the Northside, I was on maternity leave, so not working nearby, and I said to myself: “This is madness. I’m not trekking across the river. I’ll find someone local. I live here now, this is my life. I'm a Northsider”. Oh what a mistake that was. I’d already suspected (but had very quickly confirmed for me) that there is no one like Mihaela. I felt like I'd cheated and the next time I was back with her she took one look at me and knew.
“Who did you go to?” she said, without looking me in the eye.
“Someone on the Northside, Mihaela. I'm sorry. It was a moment of weakness. I don’t even know her name. She means nothing to me. Please have me back!”
We had a fabulous catch up. I left feeling so much lighter and not just because she removed approximately 10lbs of hair from my body .
As well as being a wax therapist, nail technician and qualified psychotherapist, Mihaela and her husband, Valentin, founded Fairmental. Fairmental is a fermentation lab & deli on Grand Canal Street, offering breakfast and lunch as well as classes and workshops on brining, fermenting and preserving. Their own line of fermented foods and sauces are available for purchase in the deli, in supermarkets and online and they were recently nominated for Innovator of the Year at the Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year awards. I dropped into the deli to say hi to Vali and picked up a rice salmon bowl. The deli is a really cool, welcoming space and the flavours in the bowl were amazing.
Coffee in Il Valentino
At 2:45, I moved my shortest distance yet, for coffee and cake, outdoors in the sun in Il Valentino where I had a two hour catch-up with a friend. I hadn't realised how much I’d needed genuine, deep and natural conversation with old friends. I left Dublin feeling uplifted and nourished and not just because the food is so good.
*I've literally never before unpacked in a hotel room and won't be doing it again as everything I hung up in the wardrobe, I completely forgot about the next day and left without.
also your clothes!! 😭
Aisling, this is so lovely and funny as always! 💕🙏🏻💕