Living Dublin Pubs

Brogans

Dame Street

If you like your pubs to be Pubs, if you're the kind of person that supports CamRA and if you believe that there is only one colour scheme suited to the creation of a proper drinking atmosphere, and that Rembrandt had it about right, then go to Brogans. It's the nearest thing you'll find to a genuine, no-frills local in the centre of the city.

Decorated in sepia tones with a rough oak bar and wooden floorboards, the walls covered with old Guinness advertising (they've even got that embossed wallpaper covered in several layers of paint on the ceiling), it looks as though Brogans hasn't changed in 100 years. In fact, some minor recent changes have beene made to clear space at the front of the pub, but this is no carefully-planned neo-Edwardianism. Instead it's the kind of pub that looks like it doesn't care whether you like it or not and that's exactly what makes it so charming.

Always busy, never more so than in the hour before and after the curtain in the Olympia Theatre next door, Brogans attracts a broad mix of drinkers, for many of whom it's clearly a regular venue. There's a friendly atmosphere - it's the kind of place where striking up a conversation with a stranger is easy -generating down from the efficient and professional staff (real career barmen and women rather than migrant workers). The service and pints are excellent, even at the busiest times.

Brogans is the kind of pub experience which is about socialising and unwinding at the end of the day, rather than partying at the start of the night. The genuine article.

There's also an attractive cellar bar downstairs. It's very rarely open - only at the busiest times - but as far as I know it can be booked for parties.

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