Irish highs
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"So Bertie Ahern had to come over to me because I couldn't get out from behind the motorised sofa, the coffee table was in the way." Oliver Hughes, one of the partners in the Porterhouse, holds court. With a pint of best stout in his hand, he is concluding a story that could fill a page if explained in print.
And while the incredulous looks of some of his listeners reveal doubts about whether the story is completely accurate, the pure entertainment value of Hughes' narrative makes it easy to forgive any embellishments.
Sitting in the Porterhouse in Temple Bar, Dublin, Hughes is a contented man. Over in Covent Garden, the newest Porterhouse is ticking along nicely, already hitting its turnover target of £55,000-£60,000 a week after just six months. The other sites in Dublin and nearby Bray turn over £2.2m a year between them and a fourth site is now being sought, probably in London.
"I was a qualified barrister but I'd always had an interest in bars," he says. "Why they work, why is that bar full and that bar empty and they're only 20ft apart?"
His cousin and now business partner Liam LaHart was the experienced publican in the family and somewhere between them they knew they could achieve a successful business. They put a deposit on a small bar called the Wavecrest Inn in Bray, south of Dublin, and renamed it the Porterhouse - but it was far from the stylised design of today's Porterhouses. "A tribute to brown Draylon," says Hughes.
That was in 1989, and a year later they'd raised the turnover, and with it the overheads. But the increased takings meant they could take out another £100,000 loan and finally go for refurbishment, and architect Frank Ennis was brought in for a full redesign.
"I'm not a great believer in the minimalist look," says Hughes. "I always think that's done because they've got a minimalist amount to spend. I told Frank I didn't want a ‘poseurs' bar, I wanted the type of bar where you can go in for a quick pint and six hours later still be in the same bar."
The refurbishment led to what is now the trademark Porterhouse design, virtually identical to the Covent Garden site. Hughes describes it as "warm and woody".
And it worked. Before the renovation, the Bray pub was taking £4,000 a week, but the week it reopened it took £18,000 and now during the summer it can take £55,000-£65,000 a week.
The turnaround at Bray inevitably led to thoughts of a second Porterhouse, and in May 1996 the Temple Bar site opened with Ennis now on board not only as designer but also a partner. It turns over £1.8m a year.
Temple Bar is known as Dublin's cultural corner, and in that sense it has a lot of similarities to Covent Garden, with film, art and music centres dotting the area as well as museums and galleries.
Unlike Covent Garden, however, it's a relatively new development and until 1991 was earmarked for use as a bus terminus.
"When we came in to Temple Bar in 1996, it was still very much up and coming," says Hughes. "But we'd spotted its potential like others had done. I still can't believe it was going to be a bus station."
Like Covent Garden, Temple Bar is as full of tourists as it is of locals, especially during the day. But the customer base is slightly different at night - the businessmen in suits who fill the London bar after work aren't as much in evidence in Dublin, for instance. And in Temple Bar there are probably as many English visitors over to sample the local brew as there are locals, but anyone expecting a row of English theme bars where they make a Union Jack shape in the head of a pint of lager will be sorely disappointed.
What's also noticeable about Temple Bar is the total lack of well-known brand names. There are no Wetherspoons, Hogsheads or All Bar Ones that are the staple of any English high street, and there are also no Bella Pastas, Costa Coffees or other food brands.
To any visitor from England, this comes as a refreshing change and goes some way to explaining why Dublin, and Temple Bar in particular, has kept its image of independence and uniqueness. Asked why this is, Hughes simply shrugs his shoulders. "I've no idea," he says. "Great, though, isn't it?"
The design of the bar is virtually identical to the Covent Garden site, although there are differences - in the seating arrangements, for instance. "I think we've ironed out all the little things for London," says Hughes. "It's essentially the same but there's always going to be small things, isn't there?"
The main difference is, of course, the Porterhouse brewery. Although it is all incorporated within the three storeys of the bar, to describe it as a micro-brewery would be an injustice. The Porterhouse Brewing Company claims it is the second-biggest brewery in Dublin and the bar serves only the draught beers that are brewed on the premises. Anyone asking for Guinness is scowled at.
The Porterhouse is a strong concept and brand, as the success of Covent Garden shows (it was among the five finalists for the Evening Standard Bar of the Year award) and the search for site number four has begun.
Hughes and his partners are looking at sites in London, although not of the same scale. "We've created our flagship," he says, "and now we're just going to find a smaller one, maybe 6,000sq ft."
Hughes says that if a suitable London site is not found, they will look elsewhere, with Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff possibilities, and he doesn't rule out franchising eventually. So the Porterhouse name could soon be a high street name in Temple Bar after all - just don't mention Guinness.
THE STORY SO FAR
The Porterhouse Bar opened in Covent Garden, London, in July 2000. In the six months since, it has already hit its target figures of £55,000-£60,000 a week. The English site is the third Porterhouse, however. The original is in Bray, outside Dublin, and the second in Dublin itself.
FACTS:
The Porterhouse, Dublin
16-18 Parliament Street, Dublin
Tel: 00 353 1 679 8847
Turnover: £1.8m a year
The Porterhouse, Bray
Seafront, Bray
Tel: 00 353 1 286 0668
Turnover: £55,000 a week
TEMPLE BAR
Temple Bar is a 28-acre area in the middle of Dublin, bound on one side by the River Liffey. Plans for a bus station were scrapped after 20 years when the shops, bars, restaurants and galleries came together in 1987 to form the Temple Bar Development Council. In 1991 the group persuaded the council to form Temple Bar Properties, a development company for the area. Ten years on, Temple Bar is a teeming pedestrianised area. The residential population has grown from 200 before 1991 to about 1,400 now, 340 new businesses have been established, and it is estimated that more than 50,000 people pass through the area each day.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 15-21 February 2001
Photographs by Sam Bailey
