Cappuccino Thoughts 115: On a Dazzling Weekend in Dublin
where to stay, eat, shop for yarn and books
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Hello! Apologies for no newsletter last week and a late one this week due to recovering from a rough jet lag / food poisoning combo. Thoughts and prayers. I spent the last week in Dublin, Edinburgh, and Paris traveling with my mom and wanted to share all my tips.
We spent three days in Dublin, including a half day in Howth, a small town in greater Dublin about thirty minutes away by tram. That was plenty of time to tour around Dublin, which is a city of only about 600,000. If I returned to Ireland, I would tour more around the country/seaside. Dublin was interesting historically and politically, but it isn’t a physically beautiful city.
What to do:
I’ve had really good luck recently with AirBnb experiences. We booked a private walking tour with a local Dubliner who shared Irish history and hit all the major hot spots, like the Dublin Castle and Chester Beatty Library. These experiences are also nice because you get to hear a local’s point of view, and all the money goes directly to them instead of a third-party agency.
We also did an Airbnb experience to learn about Aran knitting (from the Irish Aran Islands) and our instructor was simply delightful. I’m now about halfway through knitting a cabled scarf using Aran techniques and am loving it.
We walked around Trinity College and I saw lots of spots where they filmed Normal People. We learned that Trinity College is actually the University of Dublin and was supposed to be the first of many colleges (think how Oxford and Cambridge or Yale and Harvard have multiple colleges within the university), but the rest were never built, which sort of sums up the British attitude towards the Irish…..
We popped in to see the Book of Kells, which I had studied in an art history class. It was…honestly not super exciting.
We loved Powerscourt, which is a converted nobleman’s townhouse that has been turned into the kind of venue every urban studies major dreams of, with an art gallery, pizza place, cafes, greenhouse, and the cutest family-run knitting store, This Is Knit. I picked up some skeins of 100% Donegal wool to knit myself an emerald green sweater inspired by my travels.
I had a laugh when we walked by The Portal, if you remember that two-way video stream. New York briefly had the other half of the Portal, but it was taken away from us because we couldn’t behave. Now the other half is in Hungary. In some ways the Portal being in Dublin made more sense to me (I was quoted in a Substack newsletter questioning its location last year).
The Irish have such a history of leaving for other countries. It’s the only place I’ve ever been with a Museum of Emigration as opposed to Immigration. During the Irish Potato Famine, of the 8 million people living in Ireland at the time, 1 million died and 1 million left. Today the population is only 5 million.
We took a half-day trip to Howth, a coastal area of Dublin sitting on the Irish Sea. Some of the excellent show Bad Sisters was filmed here. We had a delicious fresh seafood lunch at Beshoff’s, then walked on the cliffs.
Where to eat:
I arrived before my mother and my taxi driver told me to have breakfast at Bewley’s on Grafton Street. I get the sense that it’s more of a touristy spot, but it had a beautiful cozy fireplace and I enjoyed a full Scottish breakfast (while carefully poking around the blood pudding…).
One day we skipped lunch and had tea at the Shelburne, a beautiful hotel where, in 1916, they kept serving tea while British forces exchanged fire from the hotel with the rebels in St. Stephen’s Green across the street. Nothing stands in the way of teatime!
The next day, we managed to have lunch in an old bank and dinner in a converted church. I do love how Europeans give new purpose to their historic spaces. The Bank on College Green was lovely for lunch, while The Church was a bit hokier—we went because they have Irish music and dancing in the evenings. I loved seeing the dancers in action, though the food wasn’t fab.
After having had our fill of Irish food, we had our final dinner at The Ivy, which has locations across Europe/the UK. The decor is absolutely gorgeous and we spoiled ourselves with the “chocolate bombe” for dessert. I’ll just leave you with this video.
Where to browse books:
I dragged my poor mother into way too many bookstores on this trip (although she reads 100+ books a year, so it wasn’t too much of an ordeal for her). My favorites in Dublin were Hodges Figgis, which had a great selection of Irish books I hadn’t seen on the shelves in the US, and International Books. I also learned that Ireland has a program where you can buy or gift book tokens and use them in any bookstore across the UK and Ireland, which is such a smart idea to encourage reading and independent book shops.
Where to get a cup of coffee:
I couldn’t believe how good the coffee was in a country not exactly renowned for this culinary tradition. Cocobrew, Copper + Straw Specialty Coffee, and Shoe Lane Coffee all served up wonderful cappuccinos (and hot chocolates for my mother, who doesn’t drink coffee. Can you even imagine?).
What to read and watch:
Over the last few years, I have consumed a lot of Irish culture through books and shows. Ireland has such a complicated history and I think the more you know about it, the more you will appreciate your time in Dublin. Recommended reading: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen. Recommended watching: Derry Girls, Normal People, Bad Sisters, The Commitments.
I wrote a bit about Edinburgh when I visited last year. I was so charmed by the city that I went back again this year. I would add to my list of recs the Stockbridge Eating House, which is the perfect kind of place with just a blackboard menu of a few daily options and amazingly fresh food. We stayed at the Royal Scots Club, which also grants you access to the private park across the street (very Gramercy Park of them). And the Georgian House, which is a Pride & Prejudice-era house that you can tour. They were filming a show when we were there. I really love Edinburgh and by the end of the trip had a very detailed vision of figuring out a way to spend a month there and write….We’ll see.
And for all my thoughts on Paris, you can read one of my earliest issues.
And join me on May 9th with
, my favorite Parisian Substacker, to chat about all things living a creative life. More info here.Finally, I wanted to shout out some friends who’ve recently started their own Substacks.
is the definitive guru for everything about skincare and just launched Lip Service Ledger (deeply flattered to be called the fellow skincare aficionado in her intro). Jeanne shared Controlled Chaos, a newsletter about finding your way in your 20s. And shares her cultural commentary at LOL. Give them a read!
If you are interested in advertising in Cappuccino Thoughts, please email claire@claireakkan.com. You can also find a brand kit with full information here.
There’s a big batch of new bags coming in a couple weeks! As a sneak peek, I’ve added a few new ones to the site (think lots of black Gucci). I’m excited to unveil some brand new designs later this summer.
I’m also excited to be stocked in Berriez in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn! Check them out for vintage finds.
In Scotland, I loved how many men pulled out the traditional dress and were wearing kilts. Men should show off their calves and thighs more (but NEVER the feet, no one wants to see that). It was a fairly brisk day, so this gentleman found some warmth with argyle socks, thick boots, a tweed blazer, and heavy green cowl scarf. What helps the look come together is sticking to a central color palette of tan and mossy green, with just a pop of orange from his bag (coordinating perfectly with his friend’s hoodie).
While in Dublin last week, I binged two of Claire Keegan’s books and read Foster and Antarctica. She writes concise, moving stories that often reflect what’s going on in Irish society. She’s become something of a national hero. I appreciated how finely crafted Foster is. You could read it as a soft, quiet story about an impoverished family who sends one of its daughters to live with another family for the summer. Or you could wring every word to uncover hidden symbolism. I thought it was a very moving story that I wish I could have read and analyzed in a college English class. It’s now included on the Irish high school final exam. Antarctica is a collection of short stories and it was less successful for me. Some of the stories, like a woman dealing with the fallout of a pregnancy following a six-day tryst, stood out, but I didn’t love many of them. If you are just working your way into her oeuvre, I recommend her stunningly beautiful novella Small Things Like These.
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This week I am getting jazzy and hoping to see the new Printemps store that opened downtown.
All my best,
