Press Up Gift Card

Not sure of when you can visit, why not give the gift of a future staycation with The Press Up Gift Card, the digital gift card is available to use in The Devlin & Layla’s Rooftop and across 50 other Venues, Restaurants & Hotels.

Buy Gift Card

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The new Stay and Spend scheme allows you to claim tax back on hotel accommodation, food and non-alcoholic drink (known as qualifying expenditure) bought between 1 October 2020 and 30 April 2021.

The Devlin will be participating in the Stay and Spend Scheme and this means, that when you book your break with us, you are entitled to claim expenses for your stay.

Under the terms of the incentive:

You must spend a minimum of €25 in a single transaction on qualifying expenditure and submit the receipt to Revenue
You can submit receipts up to a total of €625, or €1,250 for a jointly-assessed married couple
Revenue will provide an income tax credit of up to €125 per person, or up to €250 for a jointly-assessed married couple

You can claim expenses on:

Fáilte Ireland registered accommodation.
Food and non-alcoholic drink – served in a café, restaurant, hotel or pub.
You cannot claim expenses on takeaway food, alcoholic drinks, drinks (either alcoholic or non-alcoholic) served without food or amounts below €25, so you can add everything to your room bill and we can give you a receipt at the end of your stay, or you can pay per transaction and keep your individual receipts.

You must have receipts to prove your claim for Stay and Spend expenses.

HOW TO MAKE A CLAIM:

Submit your receipts to Revenue using the Revenue Receipts Tracker mobile citizensinformation.ieapp or using the receipts tracker service in Revenue’s myAccount
Make an electronic claim for Stay and Spend tax credit through your Income tax return – Form 12 in myAccount (if you are a PAYE taxpayer) or Form 11 in ROS (if you are self- employed).

Read more about the Stay and Spend Tax Credit on citizensinformation.ie

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Staycation at The Devlin – The best hotel in Dublin 6

Now, whilst trips to far flung destinations might be off the cards, it’s time to rediscover this city of ours, to love local, and enjoy for ourselves all the things that make us proud to call this city our home.

The Devlin offers the perfect Dublin hotel break so you can stay close to everything that Dublin City has to offer without having to stay in Dublin City Centre. The Devlin is one of Dublin’s newer hotels and is located in Ranelagh, Dublin 6 only 15 minutes from Dublin City Centre.

Our capsule hotel offers the trendiest hotel accommodation you will find in Dublin 6 as guests can choose between our Super Double Rooms (sleeps 1-2), Double Rooms (sleeps 1-2), Bunk Rooms (sleeps 2-3) or our Family Rooms (sleeps 3-4). All of our rooms come with awesome hotel room amenities such as uber-comfortable beds, Smart TVs, Dyson Hairdryers, Marshall Amp, munchies & treats and an ensuite bathroom with a rainfall power shower.

Great Dining Options at Ranelagh’s Top Hotel

The Devlin can boast that it offers the best dining options in Ranelagh thanks to Layla’s which is our rooftop restaurant. Layla’s serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as stunning rooftop views of Ranelagh and Dublin 6. Our rooftop restaurant is suitable for everyone from family and friends thanks to its friendly atmosphere and extensive menu options. Americana Bar is located on the ground floor of The Devlin and offers a delicious bar menu as well as cocktails and is decorated with original art on its walls. Guests can also make sure they get their caffeine hit during their stay at The Devlin as we have The Dime Coffee Bar which serves locally roasted coffee as well as delicious sweet treats.

Enjoy a Night at The Movies at The Stella Cinema

The Devlin is a unique Dublin hotel as it can boast its own cinema on site. The Stella Cinema at The Devlin in Ranelagh is a 44 seater subterranean theatre which welcomes guests for screenings and is also available for private hire. The Stella Cinema also serves gourmet bar food, sweet treats, cocktails, soft drinks and tea/coffee so you can enjoy delicious food and treats while viewing a movie during your Dublin hotel break.

Explore Dublin City & Dublin County during your stay at The Devlin in Ranelagh

The Devlin offers guests a unique location in Dublin 6 as we are located close to Dublin City but also near to many top areas in county Dublin. Our hotel is 15 minutes drive away from Dublin City Centre, 9 minutes from Grafton Street, 6 minutes from Stephens Green, 9 minutes from Guinness Storehouse and only 7 minutes from the popular Camden Street which is full of great shops and restaurants. The Devlin is also close to many popular suburban Dublin areas such as Ballsbridge which is a lively Dublin village that is less than 2km away and Dun Laoghaire is only a 15 minute drive away from us. Ranelagh itself offers plenty just outside of Dublin City as visitors can enjoy great restaurants, shops, quirky street art or you can take a stroll and a picnic in Dartmouth Square.

Book Direct for Best Rates for your Staycation at The Devlin Dublin

Book our ‘Dublin can be Heaven‘ package, stay for two nights and enjoy a €100 Press Up Gift Voucher or stay for one night and enjoy a €50 Press Up Gift Voucher on us on arrival, yours to spend how you wish in over 40 restaurants, bars, cinemas and experiences in Dublin.

Book direct here today and start making those staycation plans for Summer or Autumn of 2020.

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Why not head first to the Stella Diner, where there’s a huge range of hearty classics on offer. Kick things off old school with some fried eggs and home fries, or take things up a notch with some American-style pancakes. There’s blueberry and buttermilk syrup to choose from, or, if you really want to push the boat (and your waistline) out, why not go for both? Of course, no American diner worth its salt would forgo filter coffee, and we have plenty of it (not to mention free refills) – perfect to get your morning started right.

Located on the top floor of The Devlin and still in the spirit of calorific consumption, head to Layla’s, which offers one of the most sumptuous brunch spreads in the city. we usually go for the poached organic eggs benedict (the sausage and Kellys pudding is our tip), before rounding things off with some buttermilk pancakes, complete with toasted pecans, mascarpone and salted caramel sauce. Divine. If that spread leaves you feeling slightly guilty, opt for one of our healthy juices to wash it down with – we have everything from fresh apple and ginger to good old fashioned freshly squeezed orange juice.

Another (breakfast) room with a view is Sophie’s, perched atop The Dean Hotel on Harcourt Street. We are all about the eggs here, and why not, given the range available? Plump for the poached eggs with toasted, buttered muffins and topped with spinach and smoke salmon, or crispy bacon. For something fruitier, how about french toast, mixed berries with a choice of whipped cream, caramelised bananas or vanilla ice cream? Of course, if you are old fashioned, you might prefer the full Irish breakfast, which is guaranteed to set you up for the day.

This article originally appeared in Issue #1 of Press, a quarterly publication from Press Up in partnership with Roe & Co Irish Whiskey.

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The Hackett family took over in the 1950’s, and William tells me it was said that head baker Morgan Hackett often explained that if he made a profit one week, then he’d run it for another seven days. William took over “lock, stock and barrel” at the tail end of 2000, with about ten staff, including four skilled bakers. Since then he’s kept the soul of the original bakery while modernising the systems surrounding it. While the main bakery is now situated in a facility in Harolds Cross, I meet William in their smaller premises, which also functions as a shop and café in the original Dublin 8 location.

While he makes a point to emphasise how much of a team effort getting The Bretzel Bakery to such a successful point has been, a lot of credit must go to William for steering the ship. Before he took over, Bretzel was an historic bakery that was making bread for its own shop and a small van run. The bread was great but the backend was, in his words, ”chaotic.” “The big thing was that the previous owner wasn’t driving the business,” William explains. “With any business it’s very hard to stand still. I’m not a baker by trade, but I’m passionate about the industry. I’m all about promoting ‘good bread’. My initial philosophy was and still is that I want to make high quality bread that I’d feed to my own family.

“The beauty of coming in as someone who’d worked as an engineer, with some knowledge of IT, was that I knew even if I just made the office more efficient that there was something special here. I changed nothing for a couple of years other than modernising and investing in the business. That worked out really well. “The passion was there and so were the bakers, but it was chaotic. In truth it probably remained chaotic for a couple of years because there was a part of me that enjoyed the buzz of, ‘Everything will be alright on the night’.” Very early on William made a decision to keep operations close to the city, and, more importantly, on the same premises that had made Bretzel so special for over 100 years. “I was also very afraid that I’d ruin the magic of the Bretzel if I moved,” he admits. “All of the locals embraced the fact that I was young and enthusiastic about putting the bakery back on the map. I was all cock-a-hoop that I had bought this fantastic bakery, but one of my biggest shocks was when I was introducing myself to some of the business owners on Camden Street and they said, ‘Oh I thought that place closed down a couple of months ago’.”

However, the community quickly became aware that business was far from over on Lennox Street. Very soon it was more than just other businesses that began take an interact in Bretzel and its staff. “There are great stories about our bakers chatting to people at 4am… There were plenty a hot baguettes given out, mostly for free I’d say! If there was a courting couple, or a damsel in distress, they got fed from the side door of Bretzel Bakery, that’s for sure!” The original, “chaotic” system has now turned into a well-oiled machine and Bretzel Bakery is currently working with individuals and companies all over the city. “Say for Dollard & Co. we make all of their bread. Some people would consider that a large chunk of business in itself, but we now have 250 customers that we supply to, some bigger, a good number smaller, than Dollard.

We have so many strong, dependable customers we can now invest in doing things in a more organised fashion and add more fermentation. William says being in business long enough means he has time to care for his products more than ever. “Really good bread takes time and attention. The best quality ingredient in our sourdough breads is allowing it the time to ferment. The lay term I use is ‘ripe’. When the cultures are correct and you catch it at that point, you make fabulous sourdough. More space and more customers really allow us to make more artisanal bread.” This has led them to receiving numerous and regular awards from well-respected bodies. “It was a really nice affirmation that by building more space and giving my bakers better tools, for want of a betterword… we started having the confidence and time to enter Blas na hEireann [Irish Food Awards], and the first year we won a gold for the San Francisco sourdough. We’ve also won gold for the Baguette Despard, no prizes for guessing where the name for that one came from!”

This article originally appeared in Issue #2 of The Devlin Zine, a collaboration between The Devlin Dublin, District Magazine, & Roe & Co. Irish Whiskey.

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The Company of Books is open seven days a week, and has an eclectic collection of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. Naturally the store has a devoted fan base. While Gwen says Ranelagh has become considerably more restaurant and night time-oriented, there’s still a place for independent retailers. Aoife Sheehan sat down with Gwen to discuss Ranelagh’s book-reading population and how her store has persevered through economic turmoil and is here to stay.

Your shop front is so beautiful, do you think there is a pressure in Ranelagh specifically for a business to come across as original?

Yeah for sure, we opened our business nine years ago and it was important for us to have a good impression on the street front. A distinctive streetfront, and something that has a clean, modern design fits well with the area. It draws people in.

Why did you choose Ranelagh? Did the sense of community affect where you chose to set up shop?

Yeah, there was definitely a gap and I’m actually a resident of the area. I’ve been living in Ranelagh since the mid ‘90s and I always thought that [a bookshop] would suit the area well. It was just a matter of finding the right premises, and then this came up to let in 2009 and I liked the double-fronted nature of it, I think that works well for a bookshop in terms of display.

I know you have a book club that is currently full, who does the reading community you’ve set up attract? Who is your customer?

They are quite a devoted and loyal bunch, there have been very few departures in recent years. One person left because she moved to London, so that was reasonable [laughs]! Yeah, it’s a mix of age groups, obviously all of their interest is in reading. In terms of both the bookshop and the book club, the people of Ranelagh are a curious bunch who like to be informed. They have good taste in terms of fiction and non-fiction and it’s great to be able to cater for that. It’s great to have books like this on the doorstep so you don’t have to go into town, for me that is one of the reasons for setting up the shop, just the convenience of having something like this in a neighbourhood.

Do you think coming into a bookshop is still important? Why should people choose to shop locally instead of getting their books online? What can you bring to the experience?

Well, I think it’s the physical presence of books. You’re able to walk in and you’ll get the smell and if you’re a real book person you’ll like to pick up the books and feel them. Being able to browse. I know you can look online, but it’s not the same thing, like you said to me, ‘Oh I see three things I want here already’, and that was in ten seconds! There is space for both. Also, you can walk away holding your book, you don’t have to wait for the postman.

You’ve, I’m sure, almost handled every book in the shop so you can give informed recommendations?

Yeah I have a reasonably small space here so I’m careful with the book selection I make, how I choose to fill it, and part of that is knowing what the neighbourhood likes to read. It’s having an instinct for something that would be of interest to my customer, but also what’s in the news. But in terms of the weekends, you get families coming in with little kids and they just love to look at the books. It’s not all technology, books still have a place. When we opened in 2009 there were two things going on, number one the recession and the second was the transfer to Kindles, so e-readers were beginning to increase in sales, but since then they have plateaued. People have come back to the physical book, they have Kindles that they might like to bring on holiday, but when they’re at home they like to have a book in their hand. It’s great that there is space for both.

Do you think that you have a responsibility to bring books dealing with specific topics to the fore? To curate your offering to keep people informed?

Yeah, that is the balancing act of a bookseller. Knowing what the area likes to read and making people aware of books they may not have considered. In order to do that you’re looking at journalism, prizes and festivals. For example, in August we had ‘Women In Translation’ month, so that would feature international writers who have been translated into English and maybe we wouldn’t be so aware of them over here. I have the opportunity to promote something like that in Ranelagh – Finnish writers, Italian writers, Chinese writers… I can bring that to Ranelagh.

There are so many independent businesses in Ranelagh, do you feel like businesses in the area support each other? Have you ever done any collaborations with other Ranelagh businesses?

Yeah, it’s a good question. Over the years there have been different schemes – there was a We Love Ranelagh scheme where all the retailers combined to put on certain offers for the residents. From our point of view we worked with the Ranelagh Arts Festival over the years – for example if they had an event we would supply the books. We are always open to collaboration.

Do you enjoy the human side of owning a business? I’d imagine sharing book recommendations can be satisfying when someone comes back to tell you you’ve sold literature that has changed their life.

Yeah absolutely, I get a lot of repeat business from when I’ve recommended a book to someone and they’ve really enjoyed it and they want to pick my brain and get another recommendation. It’s really satisfying to think that you have influenced someone in a positive way and that they have been happy with your choice. That’s what makes the job worthwhile. Definitely human interaction, that’s so important to every business, no matter what size, whether you’re a small independent bookshop or a big multinational.

What do you hope your ethos inspires in people? What do you want people to leave your shop thinking?

I’d like to think they had a welcoming experience while they were here and also learned something, whether that be choosing a book and maybe coming across a book they didn’t know they wanted to read and they’re leaving with it in their hand and they’re happy. It’s all about positive customer experience and them wanting to come back. Nine years later we’re still here, and to survive a recession and the whole e-book thing means there is still a place for us here.

This article originally appeared in Issue #1 of The Devlin Zine, a collaboration between The Devlin Dublin, District Magazine, & Roe & Co. Irish Whiskey.

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