I was pleasantly surprised by the number of independent boutiques in Dublin. I didn't have a huge amount of time to explore, but I did spend a few hours wandering around the central Grafton Street area and Temple Bar on Saturday afternoon. 

A good test of whether I will like a city is the presence of good independent espresso bars. And in Dublin, luckily, I soon came across 3FE, which has two locations, one fairly near my hotel in the O'Connell Street area and one south of the Liffey on Lower Grand Canal Street. 

I've eaten fairly well in Dublin this week but I haven't really had much in the way of choice, dining-wise, so this evening I decided to find my own place to eat. Luckily, the owner of one of the independent coffee shops I visited earlier in the day (of which more to follow) recommended a place that sounded right up my street. It was a bit of a hike from the convention centre--well, three miles or so--and I thought I was about to reach the countryside when eventually I spotted Jo'Burger across the road.

Menu/reading matter at Jo'Burger

It was fairly busy but there was enough room for a little one at the long, cafeteria-style tables, and before long I was consulting my menu, which came inside a Tiger 1975 annual. As for the food, unsurprisingly, burgers feature prominently, although there are also salads. The choices are similar to Gourmet Burger Kitchen in many ways: you pick your meat first (I went for Irish beef) and then what, if anything you want on top. Extras like cheese and bacon cost either 1.50 or 2.50 Euros. I would have liked to have had a bacon and/or cheddar burger, but somehow, this did not feature in the long list of choices. Instead I went for the "pure" burger--just the burger, Jo'Burger relish and the bun (I had my salad on the side and my burger, as ever, medium rare). I also ordered some sweet potato chips, which were expensive at 4.95 Euros, but the portion was large enough for me to take half home for later.

Ginger lemonade, sweet potato fries & pure burger

The burger itself was very good--juicy, flavoursome and perfectly medium rare. I also ordered a ginger lemonade, which was great--ginger can often overpower other flavours but at Jo'Burger, you just get huge chunks of ginger in your lemonade, adding just enough of a gingery kick. At about 9 Euros even for the boring pure burger, fries not included, Jo'Burger isn't particularly cheap but the quality justifies the cost. 

Jo'Burger: worth the trek

The music was cool and the crowd was young and hip. No one seemed to be playing any of the board games that were available (then again, they may just have been boxes holding cutlery if the menus are anything to go by). The staff weren't especially friendly, but that's only compared to pretty much everyone else I've met in Dublin, all of whom have been helpful, chatty and interested. The location, on Lower Rathmines Road, is a bit of walk from the centre of town--20 minutes from Temple Bar, perhaps. But a bonus of this was that on the way back to my hotel, I discovered a whole load of interesting-looking restaurants and bars on Aungier Street and Great Georges Street. Now at least I'll know where to head next time I come to Dublin.

Jo'Burger. 137 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin. Website. Twitter.

I've been in Dublin for several days now but I still haven't seen much of the city, spending most of my time in sessions, press briefings and searching for wifi. Last night, though, there was a networking event organized for the meedja attending the conference and because this is Dublin, naturally the location was the Guinness brewery. I have been to Dublin a couple of times before but not since about 1996 and the only things I can remember are a) going to see The Woman in Black at the theatre and b) the tour of the Guinness factory. I didn't drink more than a sip of Guinness then and I wasn't tempted this time either.

Brewing the black stuff

First, we had a quick coach tour of the city, where the driver pointed out various science-related sites--St Patrick's Cathedral, for example, which is associated with Robert Boyle (he of the law) and his family. Then we had a quick wander through the museum section of the brewery before ending up in the Gravity Bar, which has an impressive 360 panorama over the city. Dublin is a small city and it's also quite low-rise, but the view was still pretty cool, especially as the sun went down and the lights came on; I was clearly concentrating so hard on the networking part that I forgot to take many photos. Luckily, wine was on offer for those of us who don't do Guinness, although the beef stew I had for dinner did have Guinness in, so I don't feel too bad. 

Dublin by night

My schedule eases off a little today and I'm hoping to visit some of the more interesting areas of town and to take in a few more independent espresso bars and maybe even a shop or two.