The Essence Of Dublin

The Old Library (College Green; +353-1-896-1000), at Trinity College, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, is filled with more than six million rare books. The smell of ancient tomes and hand-carved wood, matched with the reverent, academic atmosphere of the library captivate Marija every time she meanders through the Long Room’s towering stacks.

The library’s extensive holdings reflect centuries-worth of academic thought, but the crown jewel of the collection is definitely the Book of Kells, a medieval illuminated manuscript dating back to 800 CE. Each day, the library displays a different page from the book’s 340 folios in the Long Room, along with 200,000 of the library’s oldest books.

After breathing in centuries of history, get some fresh air outdoors. Emerge from the library and walk 10 minutes south to the 22-acre St. Stephen’s Green park to take in the scent of flowers and freshly-cut grass, and appreciate visual pleasures like brilliant red, pink, and yellow tulips, or fuzzy taupe cygnets gliding along the Green’s man-made lake.

After a six year, 32 million USD renovation, the National Gallery of Ireland (Merrion Sq. W.; +353-1-661-5133) is set to reopen in June, 2017 with a noteworthy international exhibition, Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting, developed in consort with Louvre and Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art.

Despite the museum’s renovation, our perfumer, Marija Aslimoska, often finds herself wandering through the open rooms of the National Gallery in search of inspiration among the exquisite canvases on display throughout the museum. Particularly inspiring is a canvas painted in 1670 by Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer himself entitled, Woman Writing A Letter, With Her Maid. The tableau is illuminated by a soft glow emanating from an imperceptible light source shining through windows, transforming an ordinary, everyday setting into a mesmerizing event.

For a romantic evening, or to celebrate special occasions, indulge in the fresh, seasonal fare at Amuse (22 Dawson St.; +353-1-639-4889). The cozy, 40-seat restaurant owned by husband and wife duo, Conor and Joanna Dempsey, is a chic culinary theatre of the unexpected, weaving delicate Franco-Asian fusion flavors into artfully composed dishes.

The three- and five-course tasting menus combine painstaking technique with innovative culinary arrangements: organic goat’s curd with white asparagus, pata negra ham, and pickled enoki mushrooms; blue fin tuna carpaccio smothered with razor-thin radishes; and savory squid ramen in a delicate dashi broth.

For a wine pairing to enhance the flavors of your meal, consult the Amuse sommeliers, Jean Baptist Letenois and Lena Duhamel; together they have created an approachable and wide-ranging wine list to compliment the menu’s nuanced dishes.

For a glass of single malt Irish whiskey on the rocks, or elaborate cocktails mixed with scientific precision, head to The Liquor Rooms (6-8 Wellington Quay; +353-87-339-3688) a subterranean den of iniquity channeling the roaring 1920’s. Located in the Temple Bar district, the speakeasy-style establishment is known for its high-quality craft cocktails conceived by Fergus O’Leary and a team of expert mixologists, as well as its Dark Pearl burlesque show in the Black Rabbit room on the weekends, and swinging Boom Room dance floor. Explore the cocktails and tasty gastronomic thrills by browsing the highly stylized menu, which visually explains the flavors of each drink through playful illustrations. The Liberty Sour, made with Teeling small-batch whiskey, house-made spiced syrup, Angostura bitters and lemon, is a house favorite among the bar’s revelrous clientele.