The Shelbourne Bar — Restaurant in Cork

Everytime I visit Cork, I walk in here. The pope may kiss the ground upon arriving to a country, I walk into my version of heaven. Summer or Winter The Shelbourne Bar delivers instant joy at the opening of the door. On a very miserable rainy day last week I stepped off the train and headed straight to Mac Curtain St, the blazing fire and Christmas decorations met me. The people who work here are so welcoming, efficient and make you feel at home. I sat by the blazing fire and slowly dried off. A Guinness was called for and after a 2 and a half hour train journey I had to have their spinach and celery soup, accompanied with brown bread. It's a body hug, soul calming kind of place. The twinkling beautiful lights, log fire, local conversations in that wonderful Cork tone warmed me. The choice of whiskeys in glass cabinets is endless and cute little snugs for cosy private meetings are like a grown up Santa's grotto at this time of year. The bar is in the middle of the pub, so the bar tenders have a 360 degree view, everyone gets attention. The ladies toilets are so clean and spacious. Some may say you should judge a place on their loo. On my quick visit to Cork, I returned 5 hours later after a busy day, on my way to catch the train, I popped in and had a baileys before my departure. Local Cork characters chatting and telling jokes and quietly singing along to the music. Waves and goodbyes sent me out into the rain once again as I left. Make it your first and last place to visit...

Starting from the outside with a great little outdoor area for smokers or nonsmokers alike to have a look into the day to day, night to night hussle and bustle of the Victorian head quarter Mc Curtain st. With such great food on the street itself, the shelbourne bar embraces that in every aspect and let's you order food to have while you "sup" on a pint of there craft beers, stouts, lagers and even a whiskey or gin. They've a huge whiskey collection over 120 bottles of whiskey to be served up with a smile from the bar staff. Also there ever increasing there gin list and tonics all the time. Whilst you enjoy your delicious food with a drink, you can watch any game that's relevant on the big screens. There's small screens aswell for the not so lucky fans of the game that can't watch there game on the big ones. All this can be done with a beautiful fire blaring in the back round keeping you nice and toasty during the cold months. Just adding that little something to the place. There's Alot more within the bar itself but then again I'll leave that to you to find on the walls and hidden gems of history around. Toilets are up stairs so keep that in mind when you take a tasting tray of whiskeys...

I was a regular customer of the Shelbourne Bar until the 22nd of Sept when I was bared for no reason other than having words with another customer from Glounthaune who only goes in there twice a week. He is part of what I would call a click (who from what I could see are running the place into the ground). after that date in question I had a conversation on the 22nd I was barred for no reason other than my explanation above ! I'm dumbfounded to say the least but not all that surprised as a lot of people in this trade don't have either the personally or the skills to talk and communicate effectively with people anymore. I have been dealing with people for over 40 years both in sales and marketing and in the service industry i.e bars/restaurants/shops and hotels and never witnessed anything like it in my life. So to finish up I'm very upset with the owner Philip who was very vague and insulting to me and unclear as to why I was being barred but then maybe this business has...