The opening of a new Russian-themed pub in Dublin would seem to suggest that at last other countries are starting to get their own back on us for inflicting Oirish bars on every big city in the Western world. However, Pravda on Dublin's Lower Liffey Street is not the brainchild of some entrepreneurial Russian emigres - it is a home-grown idea from the extraordinarily successful Thomas Read group.
Pravda Irish-style is a mix of European coffee house and cosmopolitan bar - all against a backdrop of dramatic revolutionary murals painted on red walls. In the same way as no Irish pub abroad would be complete without a hurley behind the bar, there's a hammer and sickle behind the counter in Pravda. On a wet Tuesday evening this week there was a queue of nearly 100 people trying to get in, so the new pub is clearly a big draw for Dublin's hip young socialisers.
A queue outside really says something about the place's instant popularity - because Pravda's sleek black but modest-sized exterior is very deceptive. Inside there are three bars on four different levels and the upper level is particularly airy with its industrial but high-glazed roof.
"There's no particular reason for the Russian theme," says Martin Conroy who, with brothers Hugh and Declan O'Regan form the Thomas Read group. Of the three, only Declan has ever been to Russia - and in any case it is not a country where there is a tradition of pubs, so there wasn't any actual pub style to copy.
Moscovites are more likely to drink in one of the city's seven Irish pubs with names such as the Shamrock and the Rosie O'Grady.
In the past six years the three have become the trendiest publicans in Dublin. After the success of their first venture the Temple Bar bar, they moved on to develop the Oak, and now they own Hogans, the Harbourmaster, the Dawson Lounge and the Bailey. "I think part of the reason for our success," says Conroy, "is that when we started we didn't know anything about running a pub." Up to six years ago Conroy was a telephone operator in Telecom, Hugh worked in a bank and Declan in a building society.
According to Conroy, they decided to move northside because "there aren't really any other cool pubs around there," but what there was was a warehouse building close to the quays. It had potential, but the big problem with the old CIE building was that it had no obvious entrance.
The partners solved the problem by buying a newsagents on Liffey Street and knocking through. They then bought the pub on Capel Street and moved the licence.
The Russian-inspired murals by artist Maeve McCarthy are a bit of fun, as are the Russian sayings stencilled around the walls. The drinks menu includes several vodkas, including the flavoured varieties, and there are plans to introduce a Russian dish of the day onto the pub's lunch menu. But the Russian theme really is a bit of an add-on in that Pravda is really following the Thomas Read Group's very successful formula of a coffee house-style pub where a double expresso is as readily available as a pint. Conry admits that it could have been an Australian themed bar just as easily, but they decided to give the Russian idea a whirl. "We don't research our ideas," says Conroy we just open the doors and see what happens."
As one seasoned Russia-ophile said of Pravda, comparing Dublin's trendiest new pub with Dublin's trendiest new restaurant, "It's as Russian, as Mao is Chinese."