Our search for the Best Smithwick’s Experience in Dublin brings us next to The Old Stand of Exchequer Street. The Old Stand is a pub with hundreds of years of history, named after the old stand at Landsdowne Road, which betrays its heritage as a ‘rugby pub.’ But The Old Stand itself long pre-dates the incident where William Webb Ellis famously “picked up the ball and ran” in the 1820s, having been a licensed premise for over 300 years.
“Of all the pubs I’ve ever had a pint in while wearing a suit, this is this one that I would most like to revisit,” comments one of our group. And despite that, its well-established reputation and its extremely central location, the Old Stand is not, on our Thursday Smithwick’s-sampling visit at least, particularly suitish. In fact, there is a slightly more mammyish vibe, ladies stopping in for gins and tonics, perhaps a single flat cap. Well-established, like we said.
This resolutely bright and clean bar and lounge has a small footprint dominated by two bars with chamfered corners and a television perched at ceiling height, with Sky Sports News’ revolving melodrama and yellow tickers on mute. Due to this, the Old Stand always seems quite busy, if never ruffled or hurried.
The Old Stand’s reputation as a sports bar precedes it and precedes one’s entrance, with jerseys and oval balls of rugbymen past displayed to the outer world on Exchequer Street and Andrew Street. The Old Stand always strikes us as a place for doing two particular thing: watching a rugby match, or stepping out the clamour and commotion of Christmas shopping on and around Grafton Street. Or, preferably, both of those birds with one stone.
With neither option available on our Thursday visit, we settle in for pints of Smithwick’s and a bite to eat. The menu is resolutely unreconstructed pub food, the most exotic thing available is most likely the topically Ukrainian Chicken Kiev, which we plump for. There’s little that can go wrong on a menu like this, but similarly it is not the most thrilling, even if we are enthralled by the dumb-waiter. (Easily pleased? Us?) The pint of Smithwick’s itself is the definition of crispness and consistency, as the barman pours it for us without attending to other tasks or customers.
Thrilling, however, is not what has kept The Old Stand as a resolute city centre favourite for so long. It’s a classic traditional pub that reinforces the traditions against which upstarts and modernists can define themselves. I feel slightly like I should be pulling up the collar of a Crombie and donning leather gloves as we slip out into a spring shower after dinner, but at the same time we are never made to feel the least bit unwelcome, the friendly barmen no doubt having seen far spottier than our ilk pass through their esteemed doors over its centuries of continued trade.
The Old Stand
Exchequer Street, Dublin 2
t: 01 6777220
