Head to the Silicon Docks for a more modern, relaxing and gourmet take on Dublin

You may think you know Dublin. Molly Malone. Temple Bar. Distilleries and breweries. Traditional music and Irish dancers. Museums, poets and James Joyce. That cute bridge over the Liffey. Dublin is an experience that seems to hover someplace in a Georgian-built past un-blighted by religious division, foreign overlords or problematic potatoes. But that’s tourist Dublin. 

Locals give Temple Bar a wide berth and … like any of us and our home towns … sheepishly admit they don’t get to the culture as much as they should. There’s another, very different, Dublin driving the modern Irish economy, and we lived a working week and two glorious weekends in the heart of it. Traditional tourist sights, and therefore traditional tourists, are thin on the ground in Grand Canal Docks, but it’s high on convenience and fabulous restaurants. It’s also within walking distance of both the tourist centre and the Aviva Stadium, which made it a perfect location for the ultimate point of the trip: an American college football match. (Of that, more in my next article.)

Throughout the week, and especially during the action-packed second weekend, we found the quiet sophistication of the Docklands a relief. Dublin city centre is a legendary party zone. We found retreating to the corporate suburbs for our bed and board a welcome counterpoint to all the festivities.

WHERE TO STAY

We took over a houseboat floating inside the docks for nine nights, moored beside McMahon Bridge at Charlotte Quay. The location was superb for our purposes: working weekdays, with the ability to walk into the city centre of an evening if we wished, the Aviva Stadium an equal walk in the other direction. The maritime lodgings were great fun, and cheaper for our group of three than two hotel rooms, but did have some drawbacks.

But first, more positives. The Sunny Barger is charmingly decorated, in beautiful repair and offers more room than you might expect. There’s a sizeable sitting room with galley kitchen, and a “bridge” area where you enter that can seat four at a table when you put the folding one up. It made an excellent shared office for two for the week, with solid broadband that could handle both of us on different conference calls when required. The front had a double mattress with a bit of space to walk around it, and the back two mattresses somewhere between twin and double a bit more like a cocoon you could crawl into. There was a toilet in back, and a bigger bathroom with toilet and a larger-than-expected shower off the sitting room. You could also clamber onto an upper deck above the back bedrooms to sit outside and watch the world go by. 

The weather on our visit was fantastic, which deprived us of the ability to start up up the wood-fired stove and have a cozy night in. We did stay in a few times to consume ready-meals and gourmet titbits from the upscale Fresh grocery across the water, but we sat out on our poop deck and watched the world go by. Our hosts were tremendously helpful, including a mid-stay check in to make sure we had everything we needed and to top up our water.

The drawback, as on any boat, is tight spaces. Large people will have challenges: wide ones squeezing through doors with latches and knobs liable to bruise skin or rip clothing; tall ones required to duck through every door and unable to sit up in any bed. There’s a lot of clambering and scrambling, with multiple changes of level that won’t suit bad knees. I was delighted with my stay, but am perhaps past the age and fitness level where I’d do it again.

WHERE TO EAT

Thanks to all those corporate offices and the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, the Docklands are awash with excellent restaurants and cafes, and I got top tips from my local colleagues. We’d originally imagined we’d be walking into town a lot to hit the traditional venues at night. A quick exploration convinced us there was no need to go anywhere else during the working week. In fact, we never had a dinner in town. Our top picks, Osteria Lucio and The Old Spot, were so excellent they will get their own story. Here’s our round-up of the rest.

Il Valentino - This Italian-style bakery and cafe reminded me of places I knew as a child on “The Hill”, the Italian neighbourhood in St. Louis. Conveniently located just on the other side of the bridge from our house boat and 200 metres from my Dublin office, Il Valentino serves up artisan breads and pastries every morning, with lashings of southern sun. Croissants filled with pistachio cream. Succulent fruit danish. The best cannoli I’ve had anywhere between New York and Sicily. Thank god this isn’t on the way to our London office; I’d be in real trouble.

herbstreet - The Sunday queues and the collection of positive reviews from glossy magazines on their website are a good indication of this place’s popularity with the locals. Our first Sunday brunch experience was so good we immediately booked for the next week. Spicy and sweet bloody marys  and fruity cocktails offer glamorous “hair of the dog” to kill those hangovers. If you like your brunch sweet, there are thick and sticky waffles and stacks of fat, fluffy American pancakes swimming in maple syrup. Or go savoury with rich, comforting eggs Benedict with local ham or spectacular, spicy jumbo shrimp po-boys. Yes, the American spirit runs strong here, but the hospitality, servers and locals are all resolutely Irish.

Charlotte Quay - With a pan-European bistro menu and elegant modern decor, you could be anywhere in the world, and wherever you were you’d be glad to have landed there. Charlotte Quay has a particularly fortunate location. The main docks are “L” shaped; the restaurant sits on the inside corner with frontages looking over the vast majority of the waterway. There’s a generous pavement between building and water hosting a bustling happy hour on weeknights and special events, including weddings, on weekends. I ate here twice, as well … unsurprising as it was stumbling distance from our houseboat. The starters are especially sumptuous and one night we made a meal of just a collection of those, tapas style: deep-fried soft shell crab, tuna tartare, pork croquettes, stone bass ceviche, burrata and heirloom tomatoes. Interesting and wide-ranging wine list. 

The rooftop bar at The Marker Hotel - If money were no object, you’d be staying in this outpost of the luxury Antara chain, and would discover its rooftop options as part of your stay. Most tourists wouldn’t even realise this luxurious resting place with its magnificent views existed. The roof is supposed to be exclusive to hotel guests unless you make reservations, but if you’re a loquacious type who remembers
servers’ names and likes to chat you might be able to talk your way in. And once you’ve been up once, you’re more likely to get in again. I’d recommend it to anyone visiting Dublin. It’s a low-rise town with few vantage points for elevated, sweeping views. The one everyone knows about is the Guinness storehouse. The Marker will cost a bit more but you’ll have better food and be less jammed. Whether it’s the secret nature of the place or the tough admissions policy, the rooftop proved pleasantly uncrowded in an otherwise tourist-packed city. Most tables were full but there was plenty of room between them. Cool jazz plays on the speakers and conversation stays at a low buzz. The whole vibe is marvellously relaxing.

And the views are remarkable. You don’t see much of the city centre from here, but rather the docks below and the intriguing mix of modern architecture, much of it incorporating interesting lighting schemes. Beyond is Dublin Bay, the coast going south and the green hills where suburbia gives way to the Irish countryside. There’s a fun cocktail list (I will be trying to recreate the amaretto cherry sour at home), grazing boards to pair with them and some surprisingly substantial main courses for an outdoor menu; the spare ribs were memorable enough to come back for.