Cream of the crop

Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh and Emily Imbert visit Piseog’s, the Liberty Pub Survey winner

And the winners are . .

IT ONLY opened last March, but Piseog’s of Camden Street has already won first place in the Liberty’s "Best Local Pub" survey. A victory its manager Barry Lynch described as "good stuff".

The pub is a part of the Camden Court Hotel but is open to guests and members of the public alike.

It is not difficult to pinpoint why so many people named Piseog’s as their top watering hole. The Celtic figures painted on the walls, the pillars of stone and the simple, unadorned branches standing in their pots - Piseog’s sylvan atmosphere raises it above the artificiality of so many other Dublin pubs.

Barry puts it down to the unique atmosphere of Piseog’s, which "you won’t get anywhere else," and the unusual Celtic décor.According to the manager the pub has been drawing in big crowds since its opening less than a year ago. He added, "I think the area around us is on the way to becoming a new Temple Bar. It has so many clubs and pubs doing great business."So if you’re tired of the forced, ill-lit "cosiness" of the standard city bar, with its mock atmosphere of rare oul’ Dublin, the bright and spacious Piseog’s might be your next port of call.

However, fans of packed pubs might dislike the sense of space in Piseog’s. "This is a pub for people who like their corners," says Barry. "It’s quite spacious." Tables are not isolated from one another but there is plenty of room. No doubt some people would think the pub lacks cosiness.

Although Piseog’s is primarily a hotel bar, it is always open to the public. Barry Lynch says "our clientele would be to a large extent students and office workers from the area.

But we also get lots of people who live in the local area; I’d say about 50 per cent of our customers are locals."The pub offers a DJ every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. "He plays everything except rave!" laughs Barry. "Mostly he does seventies, eighties and early nineties music.

The audience for that is very good; mostly people in their twenties and thirties."Has Piseog’s had any famous visitors? "The only ones I can think of are Ally McCoist, the Scottish soccer player, and the Donegal gaelic football team. Donegal always come here when they’re playing in Dublin."What else can I say?" he muses. "The prices of the pints are very competitive.

We show Premiership football on the big screen. We cater for parties - we have a big 21st coming up on Thursday, for 150 people. We stay open late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night - until half one.

"So is Piseog’s the best pub in south inner city Dublin? Some locals might not feel at home due to the amount of suited, office-worker customers it attracts. But whatever faults it may have are not enough to deter plenty of Dublin drinkers from visiting Piseog’s...or voting it ‘best pub’ in our survey.

The result reflects the views both of locals and of people from outside the city who were passing through - to work, college or just on a day out.