GEMMA TIPTONstays at La Stampa Hotel & Spa in Dublin
I REMEMBER when they were building La Stampa. The dining room at its namesake restaurant had been known as the “most beautiful in Dublin”, so over the months that saw the empty shell of the facades on Dawson Street and South Anne Street being filled, glassed and curtained, I often imagined how beautiful the hotel itself might be. For all that, it took years before I actually stayed there, and by the time I arrived, the other week, I reckoned it could do with another lick of paint
The entrance is dramatic, if misleading. From the main steps of the hotel, which also lead to what is now Balzac Restaurant – following a short-lived incarnation, based on even shorter visits, by Jean-Christophe Novelli – a sign directs you down another set of steps to the right and into an exotic Moroccan(ish) lobby housing both the reception desk for the hotel and the portal to SamSara bar.
Once you’re checked in you can walk through the long bar (rather lovely in a sumptuous, mosaicked, warm-brick sort of a way), to a lift at the back, or ask for an access code and go back up to the first entrance and through to the main, though seemingly seldom- used, way into the hotel.
We opted for the bar route, but we were a little perturbed to discover that the lift at the back doesn’t require an access code or key card, so, technically, anyone could roam the hotel. This, it turns out, isn’t a problem, as the lift and the public areas are monitored by CCTV.
Perhaps it’s because the bar below had been so lavish, but these corridors are where we noticed that a spot of paint would cheer things up. It’s not a big issue – paintwork in hotels gets so much wear and tear, and keeping it fresh can be a fairly constant process – it was just a shame, as everything else seemed so escapist-fantasy lovely.
The exotic theme of SamSara continues, though more mutedly, in the bedrooms. There are a couple of suites, which, I’m told, are more over the top, and sound great fun, but we were in a Classic Room.
Relatively small by the standards of some of Dublin’s newest hotels, but with plenty of room for our needs, it was painted in lavender, with dark hardwood and lacquer furniture, a pair of pale yellow sequinned curtains, ornately funky lamps, a red rose in a vase, and a large bathroom, where the Gilchrist Soames toiletries aren’t pocketable, as they are in containers attached to the walls.
Living in Dublin, I hadn’t quite realised how difficult it can be to go out for dinner on a Sunday. The restaurants and bar food at La Stampa aren’t available that day, but the helpful receptionist got us a table at Saba instead – the unfulfilled promise of Tiger Becs restaurant, downstairs in the hotel, had made us fancy Thai. She was impressive, refusing to take “we’re fully booked” for an answer, and by the end of her phone call they were ready to welcome us at Saba with open arms.
Later, heading back through SamSara bar on our way to the room, we met some nice Americans. They bought a round of drinks and wondered where they could find some “real Ireland”. This is actually pretty real these days, we told them, before relenting and sending them off to Doheny Nesbitt and O’Donoghue’s. Then, borrowing a couple of DVDs from the selection at reception, we went up to bed.
Our bed had been turned down, and the sequinned curtains drawn, which was just as well, as in the morning we realised that without nets behind them the people in the apartments across the road have a pretty unimpeded view of whatever’s going on in selected sections of
La Stampa. Impossible, of course, to say whether they avail of this facility.
In the morning we discovered that hot was cold and cold was hot in the shower taps, but as I also have this little quirk at home it didn’t take long to work out.
Breakfast is served in Balzac, which is still a dramatic dining room. Being picky, I decided I wasn’t too keen on the artwork there, but I enjoyed my scrambled eggs and espresso.
La Stampa describes itself as “a luxurious, hip boutique Dublin hotel with an eastern influence”, and I think that’s pretty accurate. It has a fantastic location and does not suffer from the generic could-be-anywhere feel that afflicts so many places. Although the decor doesn’t exactly scream Dublin, the hotel’s sense of fun and the helpful, friendly attitude of the staff definitely are Irish – even if it isn’t the kind of Irish the Americans we met were here to seek. We enjoyed our stay very much.
Where: La Stampa Hotel Spa, 35 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, 01-6774444, www.lastampa.ie.
What Four-star boutique hotel in the city centre.
Rooms28, including six junior suites, plus Moroccan Suite.
Best ratesRooms from €120 midweek. Two nights' bed and breakfast, staying in a suite, with champagne and strawberries on arrival, from €210 per person.
Restaurants and barsSamSara cafe bar, Tiger Becs Thai restaurant and Balzac restaurant.
Child-friendlinessNo special facilities for children. Cots available on request.
AccessibilityNo wheelchair access.
AmenitiesMandala spa, Wi-Fi, DVD player in room (small DVD library available). Excellent city location.