Name: Emily, Dublin-based author of From China Village
Neighborhood: City Centre
City: Dublin, Ireland
My Home: One bedroom apartment — what they call a granny flat
Most "neighborhoods" on the north side of Dublin, where I've been living with my husband for the last couple years, are too tiny to have many stores or specialty shops. They usually have just a convenience store, maybe a fish and chips counter and a bank, so you have to go into the City Centre to get the good stuff! Here are some of my favorites!
Emily's Guide to Dublin
1. Favorite Neighborhood Home Store
- STOCK: 33 - 34 S King Street, Dublin 2
Stock carries everything you could need for your kitchen or dining room. Great dishes and serving platters, as well as a huge range of baking supplies from cookie cutters to piping bags.
2. Go-to Shop for Gifts
- AVOCA: 11-13 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2
Avoca is a Dublin institution — 4 floors of cosy home accessories, woolen scarves in beautiful colors, a food hall and top floor cafe.
3. Best Vintage Shop, Thrift Store, or Flea Market
- POWERSCOURT CENTRE: 59 South William Street, Dublin 2
Powerscourt Centre is a giant old stone building filled with little antique, clothing and home furnishing shops. Great for vintage jewelry — you could spend hours browsing!
4. Favorite Bookstore
- HODGES FIGGIS: 56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, +353 (0)1 6774754
Hodges Figgis is a peaceful, calm and distinguished bookstore. They have a wide range of Irish authors as well as a huge (but classy!) bargain section in the basement.
5. Favorite Coffee Shop, Café, or Restaurant
- CARLUCCIO'S CAFE: 52 Dawson Street ,Dublin 2
In a city of dark, wood paneled pubs, Carluccio's is bright and cheery, and serves great, strong coffee. They have sidewalk seating which is great for people watching.
6. Best Hardware/Paint Store
- KNOBS AND KNOCKERS: Nassau Street, Dublin 2
Gorgeous door handles, cabinet pulls, and all those other knobs and knockers you might need!
7. Best Place to Pick Up Groceries
- FALLON AND BYRNE: 17 Exchequer St Dublin 2
Fallon and Byrne has a great restaurant, a wine bar and also a food hall with fruits and veg, a deli, and lots of condiments and exotic ingredients. It's the only place to get Lucky Charms in Dublin (but they're so expensive!).
8. Best Place to Buy Flowers
- Street vendors on Grafton Street or Henry Street. Gorgeous outdoor flower stalls all year round and the ladies who run the stalls are as Dublin as they get!
9. Best Neighborhood Park
- ST. STEPHEN'S GREEN: Top of Grafton Street
Perfect place for a stroll on a mild day, or for a lounge on a sunny day!
Thanks, Emily!
Photos: Emily Westbrooks
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
LOVE Knobs and Knockers.... aheh.. heh.. heh...
Best name for a store, ever.
Great picks, Emily. Hodges Figgis was a fave for us for lunch when in college around the corner at TCD, they had the best baps! Also love Stock, Avoca...making me homesick :(
This makes my so nostalgic for Dublin! I lived about 4 blocks east of O'Connell St... I loved when there were festivals with vendors on the quays. Agreed, Knobs & Knockers is the best store name ever.
Wow, that name even beats the Wake & Paine funeral home I used to work near.
Grand guide to the City Centre. Made me want to get on a plane right now and head back over. A walk around the shops and a stroll through St. Stephen's Green.
Such a joy seeing my home town on Apartment Therapy. Avoca is my favourite store in the world. I just wish I had an endless supply of euro to spend in there :-)
Ack! I need a print of that storefront to give too my boob-obsessed friend.
And for something completely different.... take a look in at the Irish Yeast Company, 6 College St, just across form the front gate of Trinity. It sells baking supplies and is a veritable time capsule, unchanged from the 1940s or so.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/3537284053/
http://www.dublincitycenter.com/locations/irishyeast.htm
I would love to see the Irishman's knobs and his Molly's Knockers.
Really disappointing. UK owned chain cafe nothing really special about Dublin featured AND it's not even her neighborhood. Must get me a submission form and so that AT can feature a unique take on a real Dublin neighborhood.
I get what bridmw is saying, but I was delighted to even see a mention of something Irish!! I am in France now (near Lille) but I spent a year or so living in Dublin (on the northside!) Most of the places featured here I frequented or saw weekly.
I always smiled to myself walking past Knobs & Knockers on the way to my French class in the Alliance Francaise, and I spent many a while (and a euro) longing for lovely books and stationery in Hodges Figgis too. I was back in Ireland last week for a long-overdue but too-short visit, and Avoca was top of my list while in Dublin. I also made a deliberate detour to pass by and admire Carluccio's lovely decor and packaging. However, best neighbourhood park for me (just a little bit out of the city centre) was the Botanic Gardens. Just lovely, and I had the luck of living just around the corner! You wouldn't be doing your weekly shop in Fallon & Byrne, mind you!
The girl's who sell the flower's on Grafton St are truely as Dublin as you can get. I know this because I went to school with them,and we all come from part of the real Dublin.
Lots of v. prominent, unmissable money traps listed here! Fallon & Byrne? Sure, they're an overpriced, badly managed twaddle-peddling shop. The wine bar is nice, I'll give you that. Emily, do you ever wander out of the Trinity College/Grafton Street zone? I can think of a dozen fab, local-run and high quality bookshops, cheesemongers, cafes, gift-type shops, etc. that are just a weensy walk away (Donnybrook Fair is not included in my list, btw) on the northside *and* the southside.