We’d like to share a short anecdote of some of the best hospitality we’ve ever experienced in an Irish pub.
Last week we were in Fallons in The Coombe, a fine pub. It got quite busy as it does from time to time, so we decided to go somewhere with a bit more room so we could have a chat and make space for more people to join us.
We decided to go a short hop up the road to Shanahans, a pub we’d walked by several times but never explored. The pub was quiet and we got a warm ‘Hello’ when we came in. After ordering, we took a seat in the corner. The barman dropped our pints over to us and instantly made us feel welcome. He told us to pay for those pints at the end of the night or when we were ready, and that by the end of the night we’d have to get in behind the bar with him and get our photo taken.
Well, it’s unusual to be given a tab in a pub, unusual to be invited behind the bar of a pub, and even more unusual to be presented with all of this the first time we entered the pub.
The hospitality continued from there. The barman, a very jovial man who looked a veteran of the trade, dropped all of our rounds down to us after that. After seeing that we were playing some quiz games involving music and pubs, he would come down with some facts about the area and pub quiz questions for us.
The pints were great, and the chatty yet quiet atmosphere complemented them perfectly. I don’t think we’d have had such a good time playing 20 questions and other pub games had we not felt instantly welcome when we come in. For the most part, you make your own fun in a pub, but it’s up to the bar staff and the pub to give you the right atmosphere to do just that. This is a place that gets it right.
True to his word, after everyone else had left the bar, we got in behind the bar and got our photo taken.
It’s nights like this that make you truly appreciate the Irish pub. Hospitality isn’t unique to the Irish, but the devotion to pub culture and the creation of a sense of community in a pub certainly is.
Of course, the barman might not have been able to show us such attention on a busier night, and the night might have been a once off in terms of experience, but the impression we now have of the pub and the barman will last a long time to come. It’s always a good feeling to find a new place you’re excited to visit, especially in the city in which you live and think you already knew. This pub, for us, is the definition of a pleasant surprise.
