Originally the Iona Garage, owned by the Cahill family (who were also associated with the aviation industry), Porterhouse North is a large white canalside building with a copper sign above the door - hard to miss, although parking nearby may not be so easy in this busy area.
It has been redeveloped to retain some of the original art deco features - notably the stepped badge detail in the middle of the pediments, which have been preserved, stripped back to the original plaster and clad with black and white terrazzo and copper banding.
Inside it is a very trendy pub - on four different levels, with outdoor seating at the back and side - and the building's history is echoed in materials associated with the era (terrazo flooring, leather on the counter, rippled glass walls with copper banding and ceramic column castings; with large flat screen TV, an open kitchen with pizza oven on the first floor and a buzzy atmosphere giving it obvious youth appeal.
While menus offer a range of popular dishes, it's not really a food place (perhaps with the exception of pizzas). But this lively canalside watering hole is a sister business to Dublin's original craft brewery, The Porterhouse (see entry), making it the perfect place for beer lovers to drop in for a drink.
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