While sitting on the plush satin high stools of Bar Giuseppe, leaning in with white wine in hand, a friend and I chatted about cooking courses and the Dublin food scene. It felt like the beginning of something, with the dimmed atmosphere and muted lights. The venue was small and intimate, a little rustic and a little chic. The large frame windows lead outside into windows across the street, bricked red compared to the pink hue of the interior. The owner himself, Joe Macken, came to help us choose another wine.
Since hearing about its potential opening, I had climbed up the stairs from Jo’Burger to what I was not sure was Bar Giuseppe, promising people all the while I was sure it was open.
Its transformation was astonishingly quick. What was a half-built top floor of a Georgian building in the Creative Quarter became in an instant a small and charming wine bar. The phantom venue was no more.
Even while making our selections, we were a little surprised by the eclectic menu. It felt foreign and some of the wine names seemed a little bizarre. Rather than being divided into red or white, region or grape, the list is comprised of five feelings that represent how the bar might feel at this time of year, from “dead leaves on the dirty ground” to “acid jazz”. It might be a new way for an amateur to make a choice and learn a little.
I did not expect the wine list to be so niche. It is a largely continent-focused compilation with glances to South Africa and the United States. There is a wine from Slain in Meath and a rosé from Georgia, a scene that is old but resurfacing. We tried some whites on the “wines to pour list” and chose specifically what we had not tasted before.
The tentative swilling of an unknown wine is trickled with uncertainty as you decide whether or not you like it. We liked the Adele Clairette and the Riesling by Kumpf & Meyer a little less, but spotted a Gruner Veltliner on the menu, which is always a pleasant lift. This is a mineral wine with more acidity than usual from the slightly sour grapes of the region. I have always treasured it since driving through two summers ago, and the 2017 wine on the menu is from a wonderful producer in Austria called Brigit Eichinger.
When we were there, the menu was not yet finished and the foods were more limited. However, the new menu has a larger list of snack foods. As well as the traditional olives, cheese boards and meats, there are some exciting options like toast with celeriac, goats’ yogurt and rayu and also a black pudding toastie. There are even cheese puffs. No joke.
I generally dispute a large food menu in a wine bar but a rumour that there will be oysters from Niall Sabongi at the weekends is weighing in the balance here, and I hear Monday and Tuesdays will be for fondue. So it is likely I will be back and guzzling seasonal wines soon. Bar Giuseppe is certainly different, and might well be pioneering a new kind of wine bar for the young city dwellers that we are. I leave it to you to decide.
