Peruke and Periwig

Address: 31 Dawson Street, (nr St Stephen's Green), Dublin, 2, Ireland (Eire)
Tel: +353 (0)1 672 7190
Website: view Peruke and Periwig’s website

Door: Make reservation
Style: Lounge bar
Food: Set menu
Established: 2014

Peruke and Periwig are names of the men's powdered wigs popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and back in the 1900s the building that now houses this outstanding cocktail bar and restaurant was used by James Donoghue, a wig maker and merchant. Appropriately the bar's décor resembles how his shop around the corner on St Stephen's Green, might have looked.

Three-quarter height shutters obscure the front windows, continuing the dark panelling that covers the walls and ceiling. Gold signwriting on built-in cabinets, well-worn floorboards and a suitably vintage bar complete the look. Appropriately, periwigs line the top of the room and a portrait of Donoghue watches over the bartenders and greets you as you enter.

The cosy and quaint second and third floor lounge areas each have their own bar and offer a modern Irish menu for lunch or dinner, but like us you may struggle to make it past the ground floor bar. This serves everything from coffee to draught beer and if you're peckish, bar snacks and sandwiches.

But most impressive is P&P's passport sized cocktail booklet. This encourages patrons to travel the world in 40 cocktails - starting on "The Corner of Bow St. & St. James' Gate (a riff on an old-fashioned made with Jameson whiskey, Guinness syrup, angostura and sugar) to the Belfast inspired Shrubbery (made with Irish whiskey, Creole Shrub, plum shrub, mango shrub, agave and lemon) and onto the East Meets West (a Manhattan style drink with Oolong tea infused Irish whiskey, sweet and dry vermouths, black walnut bitters and "opium incense"). Each drink is listed with a quote or pearl of wisdom, for example this last drink says, "There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren't as good as others." Drinks such as "The Ministry Of Silly Drinks", a riff on the Sex on the Beach served with an upside-down cocktail parasol filled with popping candy, are tongue-in-cheek.

Great cocktails, playing on a brilliantly executed theme, but most of all Peruke and Periwig is a homely welcoming bar that's hard to leave.