Dublin: Peppered perfection
SITED in The Bram Stoker Hotel, an attractive old Georgian pile perched on Dublin Bay, the omens bode well for the newly opened Pepper Brasserie & Grill. The bar downstairs is bright and welcoming with a healthy scattering of locals despite the wet and miserable Sunday night but, on a mission, we are directed back out to the tiny lobby and the stairway leading up to restaurant. Technically, this may qualify as a second rather than first impression but it rather undoes the good work of the former; narrow, steep stairwell, bare walls sorely in need of fresh paint, scruffy carpet and a malodorous stale honk you could slice with a half-decent knife, a combination of fumes from rain-shy smokers lingering in the lobby and other random odours insufficiently vented.
Conversely, the dining room itself is perfectly pleasant, clean and simple with some nice views of the bay when nightfall and meteorological apocalypse are not ensuing. Rectifying that offending stairwell would cost a mere pittance and needs to be done pronto.
