The Best Places to Drink Near Courthouse, by the Record
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A cocktail bar tucked inside a Georgian townhouse that was built for wealthy merchants and nobility, which is a lot of context to absorb before your first drink. No. 23 takes its name from the house number, so the address and the sign are the same thing. The plasterwork is original, the antiques are serious, and the art on the walls belongs to one of Ireland's significant private collections. Dress accordingly.
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Rows of boxy leather armchairs face the windows, and those windows face the Liffey, which is a better deal than most hotel bars offer. This is the lobby bar of the Morrison Hotel, a John Rocha-designed property that once described itself as "probably the hippest and coolest luxury hotel in Dublin," which is exactly the kind of confidence you either admire or sidestep. The vibe is calm, the setting is polished, and the river is doing the decorating.
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Carved mahogany climbs every surface, including the ceiling, and the stained glass and mosaic floors have been there long enough that the Victorians would still feel at home. The Stag's Head is an old-school Dublin pub on a tucked-away court off Dame Street, the kind of place where the craftsmanship does the decorating and nobody felt the need to update anything. Order a pint and let the room do the talking.
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