L Mulligan’s Grocer in Stoneybatter was a dusty pub with sticky floors when Seaneen Sullivan, Colin Hession and Michael Foggarty started renovating in 2010. I was there during opening week to find what appeared on the surface to be a very lovely old man’s pub. Upon taking a closer look, the reams of craft beers in bottles and on draught, enough bottles of whiskey to drown out a thousand livers, carefully selected second-hand books used as menus and ambitious pub grub revealed themselves. Eighteen months on and Mulligan’s identity has grown stronger and their clientele know it, with people travelling to Stoneybatter to enjoy its charms.
Someone also paying attention to the trio and their team’s success is the landlord. It seems another dusty, sticky-floored pub on the northside was in need of a new lease of life. It was offered to the trio who began work on the downtrodden space in January of this year.
Walking into WJ Kavanagh’s turns out to be a familiar experience for customers of Mulligan’s. Although it’s a larger and more open space, the familiar little touches are there. The jam jar cocktails such as the Elderflower and gin-based Daisy Chainsaw Massacre (€7.50) and the hard-to-come-by Irish craft beers such as Eight Degrees Brewing Knockmedown Porter (€4.60) have set up shop behind the bar. There are flowers on the tables, odd old books on wooden shelves and upholstered chairs of varying sizes and shapes scattered around what is essentially one large room. They’ve clearly sectioned off areas by using furniture to denote a dining area to the front, a soothing brandy-sipping zone near the fireplace in the middle and finally long tables at the back of the room hinting at the potential for a beer hall vibe.
Visiting on opening night meant that the kitchen hadn’t officially kicked off yet but the staff were serving platters of chips with lime mayonnaise, chicken paté and smoked salmon. As with Mulligan’s, the produce is excellently sourced with a keen emphasis on the best of Irish produce. The plans are to open for lunch from 12:30pm switching to dinner from 5pm onwards. With only a handful of decent eateries in the area, WJ Kavanagh’s (or Little Kavanagh’s as it’s known locally) should do a roaring good trade as long as the price is right.
As you walk out of the pub towards the corner of Frederick Street North, it’s hard not to ignore Dorset Street’s lack of development. There are plenty of dubious-looking fast food joints but just as many forgotten shops with closed shutters. One would hope that the addition of WJ Kavanagh’s could breathe a bit of life into the rest of the street and encourage other brave landlords to take a chance on new businesses.
Have a look at http://www.wjkavanaghs.com/ for more libatious details.
