Alex Lawes is the co-founder of Whiplash Beer, a craft brewery based in Cherry Orchard.
With a passion for good beer, good food and good music, the Inchicore-raised Celbridge resident has a lot to say about the very best of Dublin...
Home is...
I live in Celbridge with my dog, a little collie/retriever cross called Brettsie. The name is from a wild yeast that used to be in Dublin porters – the full name was brettanomyces claussenii. We named her that because she was too wild and I couldn't let her in the brewery.
I grew up in CIE Works in Inchicore - it was like Phoenix Nights in the CIE club - so that was my childhood, and I moved to Celbridge in my adolescence. But I did a lot of stuff in town.
How I get around the city:
It's a classic walking city, so always by foot. There's a certain romance to it – all of Ulysses takes place with people walking around the city over one day.
When Americans in particular come here it's hilarious, they're kind of bamboozled by the fact that we walk everywhere and take public transport. Americans, largely, aren't built for that.
So I'm very proud of that. You can get everywhere within 30 minutes, it's good for your feet and it's good for your heart.
My favourite pub in the city:
The Big Romance is my go-to for interesting independent beer and music, and we're very connected with the folks there.
I think if I'm going for food and a beer, L. Mulligan's Grocers in Stoneybatter.
And then I love old Victorian Dublin bars, particularly if they do independent beer of any nature - it doesn't have to be ours. The likes of The Long Hall, Wright's of Parkgate Street, The Swan – I love all of those spots and long may they prevail.
My favourite restaurant in Dublin:
The Winding Stair – love it. Unpretentious, great Irish food and a bistro atmosphere.
That's where we bring people who are on business from abroad – people often want to know great Irish cuisine and we have fantastic ingredients.
We're great producers of this stuff and it's lovely to see it brought together on a really well executed, well delivered plate there.
My go-to café or coffee shop:
Daddy's in The Circular down in Rialto – big shout out to them. The pub there is excellent as well, and it's great for good café food.
When I go for a coffee, I have a fairly high standard and I think 3fe are doing it extremely well. I love Cloud Picker too, and Proper Order Coffee in Smithfield do a fantastic job.
I'm around there a little bit, particularly to visit The Light House because I like going to the pictures a lot, so I'll often pop into Proper Order for a really good black coffee, and they do fantastic pastries as well.
Where I get my exercise:
I take the dog for a 6k run every day, out in Celbridge.
Her mother was a working dog, a proper sheepdog, and she just has buckets of energy. If you don't run the legs off her, she gets very sad. She gets a full jog, I try to tire her out, and the summer's harder on her with the heat.
So that's how I get my exercise, in Castletown House. There's a really good loop along the River Liffey.
My favourite shops:
Lilliput Stores – they do their own ranges of really good conserves and stuff, but I just love that shopfront and I love their attention to detail and the curation that they do. It's just done really well.
My favourite place in Dublin to get away from it all:
Sally Gap up the Wicklow Mountains. It's great – you can bring the dog up there and definitely bring visitors.
It's nice that you can pick them up at the airport and half an hour later be in the mountains looking out over the whole city and taking that drive through the Sally Gap and down to Glendalough.
My favourite place to let my hair down:
I think we're all feeling the pinch with the lack of venues these days. Everything is getting turned into offices and hotels.
I do lament the closing of things like District 8 and even Crawdaddy back in the day. That's where I hung around for a long time, up at the Pod on Harcourt Street. So we are missing a lot of venues. Hopefully, there's more stuff coming back.
I think the guys are doing a really good job in Centre Point [aka the Button Factory] at the moment – I've gone to see a couple of gigs there recently – the guy from Kiasmos and Romare – so a big shout out to the guys at Hidden Agenda, in particular, for doing really well with those gigs.
But I really want to see more venues, that's the main thing.
The last live event I went to:
That was at Centre Point, Janus Rasmussen – he’s one half of Kiasmos. It was really good, it was crazy to see a venue busy again and really up for it.
Dublin's best kept secret:
Marsh's Library is great. It's connected to St. Patrick's Cathedral, near Kevin Street Garda station. It's exceedingly beautiful when you're in there. It's very tactile and visceral and it's very enjoyable being in there amongst the quiet.
