BAR 1661 – IRELAND’S BEST COCKTAIL BAR 2019

Dublin’s Bar 1661, a new cocktail bar which opened on Good Friday this year, has stormed the Irish Craft Cocktail Awards 2019, picking up five awards including the biggest honour, Ireland’s Best Overall Cocktail Bar. The Northside bar, nestled among the fruit markets off Capel Street, also won Ireland’s Best New Cocktail Bar, Best Bar Team, and Best Cocktail Bar Dublin. The Best Bartender Award was won by Bar 1661’s Gillian Boyle with Ivana Maresic also nominated in the same category.

Bar 1661’s founder Dave Mulligan was also nominated for Best Brand Representative for Bán Poitín, the brand behind the bar’s mission to bring Poitín back from the underground and to create a place that pays homage to best drinks and produce our island has to offer. Bar 1661 boasts the largest selection of Poitín anywhere in the world, as well as a lovingly selected collection of vintage and premium Irish whiskeys, gins and even Irish wine.

The Irish Craft Cocktail Awards (ICCAs), held last night, the 1st December in Dublin, aims to celebrate the skill, training, uniqueness and artistry of craft cocktail concoction in Ireland. Winners are determined by public and industry votes and have been going since 2014. Bar 1661 founder, Dave Mulligan said: “So many passionate people have supported us over the last eight months, who believe in Poitín’s potential as Ireland’s native cocktail ingredient, and we are so happy that this has been recognised tonight. We owe these accolades to the independent and small producers that work so hard, allowing us to create something different for the Dublin cocktail scene!”

Named after the year Poitín was banned in Ireland, Bar 1661 aims to create a permanent home for our native spirit on home soil. Bar 1661 is proud to be 100% independently owned and operated, allowing for increased freedom to experiment with cocktail menus and work with small, like minded drinks and food producers. The niche sits beside the revered, the up and coming with the established, and the traditional with the innovative.

The bar’s house drink is the Belfast Coffee, a cold brewed Poitín version of the classic served with locally roasted coffee, double cream and nutmeg. The newly launched winter cocktail menu features cocktails named after independent businesses in the area, such as ‘Brother Hubbard’, made with Mad March Hare Poitín, Vanilla Butter, Irish Apple Brandy, regal Rogue Rose Vermouth and Rose Hip (€12).