Welcome to the first in a series of blog entries chronicling the best pubs in Melbourne, Australia with the aim of ultimately compiling a resource for visiting clubs, home brewers and drinking visitors generally.  Timothy Train, the Merri Mashers' resident poet and wild yeast wrangler extraordinaire, submitted this first entry.

The Dan O'Connell Hotel
225 Canning St
Carlton VIC 3053

For going on 10 years now I've been a regular at the Dan O'Connell Hotel on the corner of Canning Street and Alexandra Parade in Carlton. Though not for anything so respectable as a few drinks - or not entirely, anyway. I've been going there every Saturday to feed my poetry habit; poets from Melbourne and elsewhere have been gathering there every Saturday for over 20 years. Legend has it that one day just before new year's day, 1994, Grant McCracken* sauntered in and proposed a regular gig to the pub owner at the time. Poetry at the pub? If you're a hard-bitten pub owner at that time, with a lot of other pubs going under, you might be a little cynical about such a proposition, but McCracken uttered the magical words: "and they drink like fish". In my opinion, it's the best way to do it. If the poet is comfortably sloshed, they won't take themselves too seriously; and as for the audience - well, they're never going to take a poet seriously.  

I started going there when the Dan had just Carlton Draught and Guinness and a weird beer on tap. (And by 'weird beer' I more or less mean a cider). But over the years the Dan has substantially expanded their tap range, now with 12 beers on tap, with plenty of room for old favourites and new weird beers.

I had the best Bridge Road Brewers Chestnut Pilsner on tap there last year -  freshly brewed, you could taste and breathe the nuttiness. Moo Brew Stout is an old favourite of mine; rich and chocolatey and creamy. It's off the menu at the moment, but try as an alternative Hargreaves Hill Stout - chewy with just a hint of roasty maltiness, or Dainton's Smoked Porter, or a bottle of the delicious Libertine Black Ale from the fridge - with a lovely sweet malty lick at the end. Meanwhile, Mountain Goat's Fancy Pants is a lovely hoppy Amber Ale usually on tap. And the mulled cider is delicious. And they have more delicious brews coming up: look out for the regular July American tap takeover, with brews from Eel River, Founders, Lost Coast, Mad River, Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Evil Twin, Moylans, Stone, Six Port, Stillwater Artisanal & Marin, for starters. 

Let's talk decor. I like a pub with nice curves and the Dan's certainly got those. It even has turrets, as you can see from the first picture that comes up when you do a Google search. It's a true Irish pub, thank heavens, not one of those '80s or '90s pubs made entirely out of four leafed clover, leprechauns, and lies. A little teeny stain-glass window of a clover sits above the bar, and there's a painting of the eponymous Emancipator on the wall. That's about it as far as Irishness goes - well, that and the inevitable Guinness, but it keeps the poets happy. Funnily enough even though it's right on the corner of a major road, you never seem to notice the cars whizzing past.

It's a beautifully cosy place to sit late on an autumn or winter's day, when the shadows fall in, and listen to the murmuations and susurrations of the poets, or the bands, or the quizmaster, or whatever the event happens to be on that day. There even used to be a group of folk musicians who would take over a few tables when poetry readings would finish of a Saturday, and the public would be full of music and good cheer.

So that's the Dan, and I have hardly even mentioned the poetry. But now that we're on the subject, I will just say this: free drink for first time readers. And, on the first Saturday of every month, there's a competition where every reader is in for a chance of winning up to $100. So, there is that, too.

*Yes, that guy (http://desktopmag.com.au/blogs/the-denizens-of-melbourne).

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