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BARFLY Michael McDermott 1. 2. ANOTHER VERMOUTH S
TORY We made it back again to Another Love Story, hands down the best little festival on this isle, which is held aloft with love and consideration by its organisers and attendees. And we certainly dropped a welcome wedge at the lovely Valentia Island Vermouth bar too beside Way Out There which was home to joyous bops in the company of the likes of Charlie Bones, Lumo, Cian Ó’Cíobháin, My House and Donal Dineen. A few fantastic spritzes and negronis were conveniently consumed and we bumped into Anna and Orla Snook O’Carroll, the colourful wife-and-wife team behind this botanical magic on Saturday morning while, erm, in recovery mode. valentiaislandvermouth.ie HIGH BAR/LOW BAR The Bar of the Year Awards took place recently and here is where it’s at besides Cork where Palader, the Latin inspired cocktail bar, scooped the overall prize. 1661 won both Cocktail & Innovative bar of the year, 37 Dawson Street was considered Late Bar/Nightclub while House has the Outside Space of the Year. The Brazen Head (Tourist), FIRE (restaurant), Roe & Co (Visitor Attraction), The Landmark (Customer Service), Black Forge (People’s Choice) and Jimmy Rabbittes (Judges Choice). All in all a mixed bag and unlikely pub crawl of choice. baroftheyear.ie 3. MADONNA’S TIPPLE Mert and Marcus is the working name of two fashion photographers who have collaborated as a photography duo for almost 30 years. They have directed music videos for Madonna (Girl Gone Wild) and have shot advertising campaigns for leading luxury brands. We follow one of the partners Mert Alaş on insta and spotted him recently hanging with Her Mads in Lisbon. We also spotted the website he wishes to draw our attention to – not for his photographic endeavours but for Seventy One gin, his latest invention as a distiller. “The most notable ingredient in Seventy One is an orchid cactus known as Queen of the Night, which blooms for only one night a year,” according to their blurb. “It infuses the drink with a perfumed, jasmine-like flavour, without being as sweet.” Batch 004 is online now for £168, a bottle for all you Bacterial Girls. @mertalas seventyonegin.com 4. TITANIC DON’T PANIC While you can’t walk out your door in Dublin without stumbling upon a whiskey distillery*, production is under way again in Belfast for the first time in almost 90 years, on the site of the historic Thompson Dock and Pumphouse, the birthplace of the Titanic. “Whiskey has played an important part in the history of our city but there hasn’t been a working distillery here since the 1930s, so, as a Belfast boy, it really means a lot to me to revive this great distilling tradition – and help bring Belfast back to the forefront of Irish Whiskey production,” says Titanic Distillers director Peter Lavery. * we did a bus tour of Dublin earlier this year and seriously wondered about the degree of monotonous fatigue which starts to set in on a certain part of the route as tourists are introduced to distillery after distillery. titanicdistillers.com 40