Our continued search for the Best Smithwick’s Experience in the city brings us to The Hairy Lemon on Stephen Street, between Aungier Street and St. Stephen’s Green. The Hairy Lemon’s (unappealing) name is taken from one of the cast of local characters who populated the Liberties in Dublin and whose names are immortalised in engravings on the portico of the original Coombe Hospital which still stands beside on the Coombe.
The pint of Smithwick’s Pale Ale that I’m served in the Hairy Lemon is certainly my favourite thing about this busy and popular bar in the city centre. The pint served by the European girl behind the bar is wonderfully tasty, fresh and ever so slightly bitter at the end. It’s simple and to the point. The same cannot be said for the rest of the Hairy Lemon.
The walls of this bar are slathered in hyperactive paraphernalia of literally every conceivable sort. There’s a theme of photographs of celebrities – Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes together, then a 1980s David Bowie – that seem to be testament simply to their celebrity, rather than an appearance at this esteemed bar. There’s an extremely old Dublin Bus sign attached to the bottom side of a staircase, unsorted Beatles tat, sports programmes, Aston Villa ticket stubs, a penny arcade shoved into one nook and even a copy of the maligned sleeve of Roger Waters’ post-Pink Floyd solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking hanging above the bar!
The atmosphere is busy between both the bar and restaurant parts of this establishment. The crowd is also varied. There are larger groups from offices in the bigger seating areas, there are smaller groups dotted around the bar. There are tourists (young and old), couples in conversation, and even a few heads keeping an eye on the mid-week European football on offer on the televisions dotted around the bar area.
Over my Smithwick’s Pale Ale, I peruse a battered menu, slathered in cod-Celtic script and serving a plethora of diner-style and carvery-style options and plump for spicy wings as an accompaniment to the crisp pint. They go well together even if the wings are outshone by satisfying, long-finish of the ale.
Overall, the Hairy Lemon seems partly like a country pub, but at times can feel strangely rootless, never sure of exactly what it wants to be, and perhaps in trying to please too many, it feels somewhat underwhelming. That said it’s usually busy, so they are definitely doing something right – and not just their pints of Smithwick’s!
The Hairy Lemon
Stephen Street, Dubin 2
01-6718949
