Porterhouse Central on Dublin’s Nassau Street has reopened with a new name, Tapped, a new look, and a new approach to the serious business of drinking.
It has been renamed Tapped as its 18-metre long bar will have upwards of 50 taps, pouring not just beer but organic and sustainable wine, and the bar’s own kegged cocktails including espresso martinis.
Kegged cocktails? That sounds like a mixologist’s nightmare, but Porterhouse boss Elliot Hughes said serving cocktails on tap eliminates an enormous amount of waste daily, but equally it saves the consumer so much time waiting for their drink.
“However, we understand that initial impressions may be that cocktails on tap might not be of the same standard cocktail connoisseurs are used to. We are very confident this will not be the case here,” Hughes added.
Hughes helms both the Porterhouse Brew Company with its chain of pubs in Ireland, UK and USA, and its sister company the Dingle Distillery.
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Hughes explained: “Each cocktail on tap will be carefully curated by Dingle Distillery global ambassador Alan Glynn and made by the team in our brewery, where a cocktail laboratory has just been created for this purpose. This allows us to offer fresh bespoke cocktails on tap and to minimise our environmental impact while doing so.
“These cocktails will be just as delicious as the consumer demands, so much quicker to serve and ultimately far, far better for the environment,” he added.
The redesigned interior is a bit different, too.
While Porterhouse Central, housed in the old Judge Roy Bean’s premises just off Grafton Street, had a somewhat dim and welcoming interior, the crepuscular atmosphere has gone, replaced by what Hughes calls an “edgy” design based on wood, concrete and steel, Italian glass bricks, the country’s first bar made of concrete, steel tables, and shipping container ‘pods’.
As well as featuring Porterhouse’s own beers such as the famous Wrassler or 4X stout, based on a recipe from Deasy’s of Clonakilty which, supposedly, Michael Collins was partial to, Tapped will offer beers from independent breweries in Ireland and around the world including White Hag, Garage, Stigbergets, Trouble Brewing and Kinnegar.
To ensure new beers are always available, the menu will change weekly, according to Hughes.
That’s in addition to the usual wide range of bottled beers from just about everywhere, plus a “premium wine selection, both on tap and by the bottle, as well as a wide range of canned craft beers, a large offering of Irish whiskey, rum, tequila, and an impressive non-alcoholic drinks selection.
Hughes added: “Customers are looking for experiences when it comes to eating and drinking out and that includes their surroundings. It was important that we brought something truly unique to the Dublin bar scene, while thinking of sustainable practices every step of the way.
“We brought on the exceptionally original and talented Irish creative studio, Third Mind Design, to come up with a truly eye-catching concept, while creating a bold and contemporary atmosphere.”
Dublin Pizza Company will be the official food partner at Tapped, providing not only pizzas but smashed burgers, wings, sandwiches, and salads seven days a week.
Tapped will be open from 12 noon Monday to Friday and 11am Saturday and Sunday, until late.
A new entrance from Grafton Street has been added, making it the only pub with a Grafton Street entrance.
The Porterhouse Brew Co was founded in 1996 by cousins Liam LaHart and the late Oliver Hughes, together with brewing director Peter Mosley, later expanding to three pubs in Dublin, another in Cork, and more in London and New York by 2011.
The partners opened the Dingle Distillery in 2012, its Dingle Gin and Dingle Whiskey going on to win several awards. Elliot Hughes took over as managing director of both the brew company and the distillery following the death of his father in 2016, while LaHart is now managing director of the Porterhouse Group.
