It’s party time

The office Christmas party this year is going to be one helluva do, partying like it’s, well if not 1999 than at the very least 2019.

There are loads of great options to choose from, including a relaxed shared work do at the Clayton Cardiff Lane’s Vertigo Bar. It has put together a festive hotel package with nary a mince pie in sight. Instead, you get cocktails on arrival, and a selection of finger foods such as smoked salmon mini pizza, Moroccan lamb kebabs, chicken yakitori skewers or pulled pork mini sliders. Vegetable spring rolls or tempura vegetables in tzatziki sauce ensure non-meat eaters are catered for too. There are around a dozen mini dishes in all and each guest can choose five — Trevor from accounting will be there to do the maths no doubt — and even he’ll be happy with the price, from €30 per person.

Cosy for Crimbo

If you’re looking for a more intimate Christmas catch-up, check out Hugo’s on Merrion Row. It’s got a lovely three-course lunch menu featuring starters such as celeriac and apple soup, brown bread and seaweed butter; chicken and leek terrine with black trumpet mushrooms or sweat onion tart with gruyere cheese. Mains include turkey and ham roulade with cranberry and sage stuffing, duck fat roast potatoes and red wine jus or Andarl farm pork belly with carrot, burnt apple, cider and star anise jus. There’s Christmas pud for dessert too, for €45, or go for dinner, when there’s venison and beef on the menu too, for €65. It’s a great spot for a Christmas party, with spaces ideal for groups of up to 100. Phone for bookings.

Nestle down

Looking to really make a night of it? Stay over in Wren Urban Nest, the cosy 137-bed pod hotel in Temple Bar which is so sustainably designed that no matter how woozy your head, you can at least wake up with a clear conscience. It’s the first hotel in Ireland to meet the operational net zero carbon definition as defined by the World Green Building Council. The hot water, heating and cooling system is based on an ingenious combination of heat pumps, wherein rejected heat is captured and used as a renewable source for hot water and heating. As a result, the hotel’s kitchen has no reliance on gas. Singles from €209 but you’d want to be an early bird to bag one, thanks to a great location, rooms here sell out fast.

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Make a break for autumn

If all this talk of Christmas is giving you the ick what you might need is to extend that summer feeling with an autumn break. For something starry-eyed, how about a trip to Liss Ard Estate, just outside Skibbereen in west Cork, where immersing yourself in artist James Turrell’s bowl-like Sky Garden installation is reason enough to visit? By night, if the weather’s playing along, take a nighttime kayak on Lough Hyne. Prices for both experiences, plus bed, breakfast and dinner, start from €489.

Pitt Bros relishes Relihan

Barbecues are for life, not just for summer. Pitt Bros on George’s Street was Dublin’s first dedicated “BBQ joint” when it opened in 2013 and it’s not all fire, smoke, meat and beers, it’s also premium meats smoked over wood for up to 12 hours in custom-built smokers, with a range of house special dry rubs and marinades on top with sauce making and pickling made fresh in house daily. This year Pitt Bros founder David Stone partners with chef and fire cooking expert John Relihan, who first found fame as one of the youngsters trained on Jamie Oliver’s TV series Fifteen. He went on to become head chef at Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant in London and later opened Holy Smoke in Cork city. A serious advocate of cooking low and slow over many different kinds of flame, with years of international experience behind him, one thing’s for sure, Relihan is no flash in the pan.