RESTAURANTS: Sometimes all a man needs is a glass of red and a good steak. Here's a selection of a few of the best places for a lads' dinner
THERE ARE CERTAINLY restaurants in which the male of the species feels more at home than elsewhere. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy “mixed” restaurants; it’s just that there are places that press all the appropriate buttons for men.
Traditionally, the place for men (of a certain type) to eat among themselves was the club. This still goes on in London where, for example, no woman has ever eaten in the Coffee Room (as the dining room is perversely called) at the Garrick and where Boodle’s, on St James’s, has a “ladies’ annex”. Buck’s, the inspiration for PG Wodehouse’s Drones Club, provides a dining room for couples.
In Dublin, the only club that can claim kinship with such places (they reciprocate access to club facilities) is the Kildare Street and University Club (17 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, 01-6762975, www.ksuc.ie). By comparison, though, it is shockingly radical. It has admitted women as full members for many years and it does the best club food in Dublin. But take a look at the dining room at lunch or dinner and you will see that it's still generally men eating with men. Hence the game, the rare roast beef, the Stilton and the port. All very traditional and, well, all very male.
In the old days, Bentley's of London (which dates back to 1916) was a refuge for men who were taking time out from the clubs of Pall Mall. They liked simple but not inexpensive fare: a few oysters, a Dover sole and a pint of Champagne. The successors of Bulldog Drummond and his more cerebral mates still dominate this restaurant, despite the healthily democratic mix that now includes Irish builders, bankers, actors and what have you. In Dublin, Bentley's(22 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, 01-6383939, www.brownesdublin.com), I'd hazard, is a smidgen less male but it's still somewhere that an alpha male will feel quite at home (provided that he is not a complete "muck savage", to borrow a favourite phrase from the late Mickser Hand, the late and much lamented editor of the Sunday Independent.
The alpha males of the more savage sort gravitate towards Shanahan's(119 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, 01-4070939, www.shanahans.ie), where they can eat good steaks for eye-wateringly high prices.
In my opinion, the best steak (as in best taste and best price) is at Marco-Pierre White's(51 Dawson Street, Dublin, 01-6771155, www.marcopierrewhite.ie), which might surprise people who have eaten at his London outlet. The alpha male is often found munching bloodily and sluicing down bottle of something suitably red and brawny here. (He also relishes the nursery-style rice pudding with raspberry jam, and I'm entirely with him on this).
Dax(23 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, 01-6761494, www.dax.ie) is a very male place. That's not to say that it reeks of testosterone or that the food is anything less than subtle and carefully conceived. No, it's more that there is a clubby feel, a sense of male locker room (not that I've been in one since prep school) but largely heterosexual intimacy. It also happens to be one of Dublin's best restaurants. A little cheffy, perhaps, but very sound cooking.
I have never been there, but I'm assured that the K Club(The K Club, Straffan, Co Kildare, 01-6017200, www.kclub.com) is a male preserve. Not entirely, of course, but alpha-golfing males throng the place and enjoy the very classic wine list.
I posited the notion among friends that the Trocadero(3 St Andrews Street, Dublin 2, 01-6775545, www.trocadero.ie) is a male kind of place and opinion was divided. The balance of opinion, interestingly, was that the good old Troc is actually a rather romantic restaurant. But much depends, I suppose, on what the male wants to do with the restaurant in question.
Read Megabites, Tom Doorley’s blog on all things foodie at irishtimes.com/blogs/megabites
THE SMART MONEY
Out of this lot, I’d say Bentley’s. Fish and chips and a glass of house white will be somewhat short of €25.
WINE CHOICE:The alpha male, if suitably sophisticated, is a Bordeaux drinker. Burgundy is complicated and risky in that it's seen as a bit girly (well, that's the excuse; wrong, of course). The earthier kind likes gigantic Oz reds that have been fed steroids and need to be sliced rather than poured.