It always feels a little naughty to be in a pub when it’s closed. I certainly get a kick from knocking on the closed door of The Sackville, in Dublin city centre, where I am due to meet owner Dave Mulligan for a sneak peek at his latest venture opening this week. Dave is the driving force behind Bar 1661, a multi award-winning cocktail bar in Dublin 7, as well as Craft Cocktails and Bán Poitín, so expectations are high when it comes to this new venue.
Originally opened in 1914, the then Sackville Lounge was a traditional Dublin pub for many years before briefly becoming Biddy Mulligan’s Old Ale and Stout House. Now Dave Mulligan and his team are restoring this traditional boozer to its full glory, bringing to bear all their experience from Bar 1661.
“We saw the Sackville first about a year into the lockdown. I walked in the door and went ‘oomph’. I could feel it in the walls. It has so much history and more than a few stories to tell.” At the time, Mulligan didn’t secure the lease, but he persisted. “This is something I wanted to do for ages, even before I opened 1661. I’m a cocktail guy at heart and I want to use that experience to change the offering of the traditional Dublin pub.”
“I want to bring the glamour back to O’Connell Street,” he says. “After all, it’s a magnificent promenade in a European capital city. I want to encourage people to come specially into the city centre, to join us for a drink during the day, or before or after dinner. I want negativity to stop at the door. We can’t fix the issues of the world, but we can make great drinks.”
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Dave is ebullient about the classic aesthetic of the bar. “A lot of people have had a go at the building over the years. The same architect designed the Stag’s Head. For me this pub should have been listed and nobody should have been allowed to touch it.”
For this project, Mulligan has worked in tandem with Nigel Dunning of Oakheart & Co who also helped design Bar 1661 and the adjacent Craft Cocktails. The ceiling has been beautifully restored, the misaligned wainscoting has been straightened and the original floor has been retained. Rather than completely removing the hand-painted mirrors which featured portraits of the 1916 Easter Rising leaders, Dave has elected to cover them up with panelling, thus safely preserving them for the future.
But there are new touches also. A smart new marble bar top will brighten the dark room, along with marble topped tables, black leather banquettes and black velvet stools. It’s inspired by the great hotels bars of the world, from Paris to New York. “It’s elegant but elevated. I joke that we will have the number one hotel bar in Dublin, we just won’t have any rooms.”
The original back bar has been expanded, and will showcase a carefully curated selection of 25 whiskeys, all chosen by Mulligan himself. “We will cater to all price points, but these are all whiskeys that I love, I spent ages agonising over the list.”
The theme of careful selection continues through the rest of the drinks menu where there will be three signature house drinks and 12 classic cocktails. “We’ll do them to the same high standards as we do in 1661, we don’t operate any other way, but they are ones that everyone will recognise.” Beer drinkers will have a choice of three taps and there will be a simple selection of bar snacks.
The showpiece drink will be the Irish Coffee, which will share a recipe with 1661’s Belfast Coffee, only here it will be made with Tullamore Dew whiskey instead of poitín.
With room for 50 people seated, or 65 with standing, it’s not a large bar, but Mulligan is confident it will find its audience with Dubliners and tourists alike. In a lovely touch for visitors to the city, guests can fill in specially designed postcards which will say “Posted from the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin”, which will then be taken across the street by staff and posted from direct from the GPO.
The Sackville will open from 5pm this Thursday, April 3rd, and will trade from Tuesday to Saturdays. The bar will be open initially from 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday, with plans to open from noon by summer time, while a small DJ space will allow for live sets late at night.
Stepping back out into the daylight I see the words “Beloved Dirt” emblazoned across the new awning – a reference to Joyce’s “dear dirty Dublin”. It somehow feels apt.
