Dashi: An Excellent Underground Cocktail Bar

Having a fresh feel every week is a trying feat, but Dashi manages this in spades. Dashi is an underground cocktail bar based in Smithfield, that’s just below the Soup Ramen restaurant, Soup 2. What this cocktail bar offers to make it stand out amongst its competition is its one of a kind interior, in-house dog-themed cocktails, and series of events they have on every week.

Dashi – Interior

The interior of Dashi as you walk downstairs into it is a sparsely lit, intimate space with an area for its various live acts and seating for its customers. There’s also a wide enough space in the centre of the basement space to have a boogie for its live music events, or simply to stand around and chat to your friends or whoever you may meet in here. This bar is suitable for both smaller and larger groups alike to meet up over a few drinks.

Dashi – Cocktail Range

Another key feature of Dashi is its in-house cocktails on offer. The in-house cocktails offered by Dashi are all dog-themed under the slogan “dog owned, human friendly”, but also offer more common and traditional cocktail types too. One of their Dashi-exclusive cocktails is the “Black Dog” (shown above). The “Black Dog” is made up of a stirred mix of bourbon, amaro, cherry bitters, carrot pickle juice, and coffee bean vermouth, which is cold brewed with Upside Single Estate Coffee Rwandan.

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Also within their menu of cocktails is the “Milkshake Penicillin”. This cocktail is a concoction of Maker’s Mark bourbon, ginger and rosemary syrup, lemon, and the Milkshake IPA from The Garden Brewery. More specifically, it stands as one out of three of their “pastry cocktails” they offer customers. As a nod to more traditional cocktail offerings, their whiskey sour comes with all the usual ingredients all topped off with a charred marshmallow (in the image below).

Dashi – Weekly Events

Events are the aspect of Dashi that keep it feeling fresh and lively each time you enter. As a matter of fact, Dashi has also played host to events with our very own Babylon Radio. The above image is from an event we had with Dashi back in late May with one of the late night DJs known as Cameratraxx, captivating the attendees with his techno set.

Babylon Radio events aren’t all Dashi has to offer though. Jazz nights every Wednesday (formerly on Thursdays) are also another worthy event in this underground cocktail bar’s repertoire. An example of group that perform on these jazz nights are the quartet of saxophonist Steve Welsh, violinist Duirmuid Lally, pianist Luke Howard, and the drummer Dylan Lynch (all of whom are shown above).

One other great example from the events Dashi puts on is the Tuesday evenings dedicated to the Open Mic nights facilitated by Smithfield Creatives. They often place the spotlight on both newer and older local creatives, such as Kate Field. With her music pieces inspired by artists including The Police and Lana Del Rey, Kate contends with similar lyrical themes to her musical influences, like in her latest single “Searching for Somewhere” (single cover shown above).

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Suffice to say, Dashi has a lot going for it. Its unique interior, in-house cocktails, and diverse and lively events give both Smithfield locals and visitors alike a vibrant, underground cocktail bar to come and see for themselves all week round. This underground cocktail bar will be (and arguably already is) one to watch in the cocktail bar scene of Dublin.

Address: 44 – 47 King St N, Smithfield, Dublin, D07 Y7AA

Opening Hours:

Mondays

Closed

Tuesdays to Saturdays

7pm – 12:30am

Sundays

7pm – 11pm