It’s visible in the city’s thriving hotel scene, too, with all the very best places to stay in the city channeling a fierce sense of Irish pride. That spans everything from the celebration of Ireland’s rich literary history at The Merrion with its ornate Georgian trappings and James Joyce sculptures, to the Art Deco glamour of The Westbury, to the slick co-working vibe of newer hotels like The Alex.
Another reason to visit Dublin now? The buzzing food scene. “I grew up in Dublin, so I do feel inspired by what my mum used to cook when I was younger and the food markets we used to go to on the weekends in Temple Bar Square,” says Max Rocha, the culinary wunderkind behind the fashion-crowd-favorite east London restaurant Café Cecilia, of his relationship with the city’s culinary culture. The most exciting dish to try in Dublin right now, according to Rocha? The answer might come as a surprise: pizza. His favorite place to pick up a slice is the city center spot Bambino, but he also recommends the charming, no-frills café Assassination Custard—“Ken [Doherty] and Gwen [McGrath] make the tastiest and most honest food around,” he says—as well as the Irish restaurant-cum-bookshop The Winding Stair. (If Rocha’s Guinness bread and sage and anchovy fritti at Café Cecilia are anything to go by, you should certainly write those names down.)
Meanwhile, Margetson’s top tips include Grogan’s pub—“the best Guinness in town, in my opinion, and all the art on the walls is by local artists and for sale”—as well as Vico Bathing Place, where she enjoys a chilly dip in the sea. Another spot that comes highly recommended is the theater and arts venue The Complex, where you can experience the kind of back-to-the-roots but still forward-thinking creative projects she previously mentioned. “One thing I find particularly beautiful in the language is how emotions are expressed: you don’t feel happy or sad, you have happiness or sadness “on you,” as if you’re simply wearing them,” Margetson adds. “It’s why, in the Irish arts, joy and melancholy so often live side by side. That duality feels deeply Irish to me.” And it’s exactly that duality that also makes Dublin an endlessly fascinating city to visit.
Here, find Vogue’s guide to the best hotels in Dublin to stay at now—shared, as Margetson puts it, “le grá,” or “with love.”
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