Girl Meets City: Dublin, Georgia
Girl Meets City: Dublin
I’ll be honest, I thought my second Girl Meets City project would land me in Athens- but Snowpocalypse 1 & 2 EACH delayed me. Oh #GAWX- how you hate me! Anyways, when Rebecca of the Visit Dublin CVB saw my tweets she contacted me via Twitter and asked me to come to Dublin.
To be further honest, I wasn’t so sure but figured you know what? I’ll try it.
I absolutely do NOT regret it, and I’ve been raving ever since, here is why:
- Dublin is a short 45 minute trip from Macon
- Dublin is central to most of Georgia
- Dublin has an adorable downtown that I would not have known about otherwise
- Dublin has food, music, shopping, and culture
So come along with us on this journey!
My photographer & co-worker for The Hyperion Group (my marketing and PR business), Gillian Ford, accompanied me on this little adventure. We happened to go the same night they had one of their Pop Up Boutique shopping events downtown.
Some of the organizers of this Pop Up Boutique are actually friends of mine from a similar even in Macon. Kelly Hightower owns Mint Boutique in Dublin, and helped to put together Haute: A Pop Up Boutique in Dublin. This was our first stop coming in from town.
I never realized Dublin had so much boutique shopping until I got to see nearly all of their boutiques in one location for the pop-up. And they each have their own distinct style, everything from items for the teenage and college aged young lady on up to items that someone of my age (ahem- in my 30’s thank you) would enjoy.
Along with Mint there were:
Blush, Downtown Boutique, Emma Laura, Graceful Gold, The Exchange, and more. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of independent boutiques here- all of them are based in Dublin.
Heading out from the boutique event, Gillian and I got to take a sneak peek in to the Carnegie Library that was being renovated. (Note: Renovation is now complete.)
“ Carnegie funded $10,000 towards the construction of Dublin’s Carnegie Library with the condition that the City of Dublin provide at least $1,000 annually to the library and the community match Carnegie’s $10,000 gift. Hal M. Stanley, a prominent public servant and member of the board of education, led the effort to convince the city to accept Carnegie’s gift.” – from http://www.dublincarnegie.com
Once completed it will be a downtown visitors center, host art exhibits, and a special events venue, and will host a specially curated a curated exhibit of selected pieces from the State Art Collection July 26-September 11th. The new exhibit, “Inspired Georgia: 28 Works from Georgia’s State Art Collection” highlights the diversity of styles, media and techniques in the collection.
We also got to take a brief tour of Theatre Dublin, a performing art and concert venue. It’s really amazing to see what all is happening in downtown Dublin and the commitment to staying ahead of the curve.
Once we left downtown Dublin it was time to head off to dinner and where we would be staying for the evening. Now I must admit, I wasn’t exactly sure what I expect. Rebecca had told us we would have dinner here and that there would be entertainment from Wayne Hosford, and that he would be heading to Carnegie Hall the next day, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant.
Dublin Farm’s tag line is “Come Home to the Country”- and this is true. This is not your typical historic bed and breakfast, however Dublin does have one at the Page House, but rather it’s a renovated and extended 1960’s style ranch home literally in the country. It’s really quite lovely if you’re wanting a place to relax and get away.
Heinz and Maria are simply amazing. I don’t know that I’ve experienced hospitality like that anywhere else, to be honest. We would be shown to our rooms, where we changed clothes, and then came to the dining room. This would be where Rebecca would meet up with us, and Heinz let us know that we had a dinner guest joining us who was traveling alone.
So, the food. Good LORD. Y’all- it was a five course meal complete with wine and all. And let me tell you- Heinz knows his wine. We would start with the Primitivo Puglia Matane, which we would learn that “Primitivo” is also known by the American name of “Zinfandel”. I’ve had many a good Zinfandel, and this one stands up to them all. It’s also a good starter wine for a meal, as we would find out.
The first course was presented, and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting in to but I definitely did NOT KNOW it was going to be so damn amazing.
Mini peperoni farciti con crema di mascarpone
Mini bell peppers stuffed with a mascarpone/parmesan cream, served over a marina sauce and spring mix greens, accompanied by crostini
This was really unbelievable, I would never think to pair these cheeses inside of mini bell peppers. I only eat bell peppers when diced up and made a part of a larger dish, like, where I can distinguish between them and other items. So I was initially a little daunted when I saw these on the plate. But I could eat them forever. Truly.
Spaghetti con pomodoro, basicilia, olive e mozzarella
Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, mozzarella cheese, black olives, garlic, balsamico and olive oil, topped with Parmesan and parsley
A traditional Italian dish, and a lovely way to transition the palate after the starting dish. I love the simplicity of tomatoes, olive oil, basil, cheese and pasta. It’s easily over done, and too often not simple enough. This was perfection.
It was around this time that we switched to another, little bit heavier, red wine. Sadly, I did not make note of what it was.
Zuppa di pesce alla veneziana
Pan seared “Venetian style” Fish soup with a variety of Fish Fillets, such as Cod, Tilapia, Mahi and Shrimp and Sea Scallops over a vegetable/white wine salsa, served with oven baked potatoes and herbed French beans.
Pollo della cornovaglia alla griglia
Grilled peppered Cornish hens marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and marjoram, served with asparagus spears au gratin.
Gelato con ricotta e mandorie
Homemade Ricotta ice cream with acacia honey and toasted almonds, served with blackberry coulis
Gooooood lawd y’all…. And then we still had the entertainment, which I have to admit, was truly entertaining. I really can’t believe I was in Dublin for all of this.
After the performance, Rebecca would leave us and Gillian and I thought it would be nice to take a glass of wine each back to our room and sit on the patio and relax. We were sent back with another bottle. For the two of us. We didn’t quite finish it; I mean there had already been two bottles of wine between the four of us, but still. I’m going to guess that Europeans speak in the language of wine.
Just before retiring to our rooms, Maria asked us what we might want for breakfast. We were more than ok with a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits, coffee and the like.
After sleeping soundly in our rooms, we would awake to enter another dining room with a view of the pasture and of the barn. Coffee was heaven; the biscuits were divine- I can’t wait to go back. Really.
We would meet Rebecca in town at Market on Madison, Dublin’s Saturday morning farmer’s market, located in an open air pavilion on three landscaped acres. And every First Friday their amphitheater has open-air concerts.
There were booths of all kinds of vegetables, canned fruits, jams and jellies, handmade goods, paintings even live painting happening at this market. The people are friendly and genuine; I even had a lively chat with Miss Anna who told me about her family lineage in Dublin and how their cemetery has a tour modeled after the one at Riverside in Macon.
I also met Tommy Cobb of Lil Tom’s Fish Market, and honestly I’ve got to go check out his restaurant because even his jams (that I believe his sister makes) are flipping amazing.
And I’ll light some fires by saying this BUT- this is the freshest produce I’ve seen at a farmer’s market in some time. It was also fun to see kids running around freely, not having to worry about a bunch of traffic nearby, and helping out at the booths. I came away with a batch of strawberry jam from Lil Tom’s booth and also sampled his pico de gallo- all of it amazing.
After this, we took a drive down Bellevue Avenue. I didn’t realize that Dublin had so many beautiful historic homes! It’s on this street where the Page House Bed and Breakfast is located. We would stop in to several boutiques along the way as well- I never knew there was so much shopping in this town.
One other very interesting thing happening in the city of Dublin is their initiative to embrace solar power panels. You can see them on the light posts in downtown, as well as their take over of a field in front of Dublin High School.
After driving past Dublin High School we found ourselves at Blush Boutique- and I looked up to see an “ADPi” sticker on a car, and then a Mercer one. Sure enough, Gillian and I ran in to Haley, one of our sisters.
After our shopping tour we would take a walking tour of downtown Dublin, starting out in Stubbs Park neighborhood. I felt far away from downtown Dublin in this 1920’s era neighborhood with historic bungalows, complete with a large sculpted park. We would take our time and stroll through the Dublin Cemetery, right smack dab in the middle of town, and wind our way through downtown.
We would discover that Dublin has an Aveda Salon as well, with its roots in Macon- in some kind of way. J. Keyton Salon‘s owner Jason Keyton once worked in Macon, and many of his clients have followed him here.
Lunch would come beckoning, and of course we went to Deano’s Italian. Now while they are known for their ranking in U.S.A. Today as being the Best Pizza in Georgia and selected as a Pizza Hot Spot by Cooking with Paula Deen- they in fact have many other lovely items.
We would sample the mussels, which are not something I generally other unless prompted by someone else. It’s just not something I naturally gravitate towards. And then the hand cut chips, with their I don’t even know what it was dip- another thing I don’t usually eat! I typically avoid dips and sauces as something unnecessary.
Caprese salad is something that is so simple, and yet if fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil aren’t used- well then, how could it be said? “ Fuggetta about it-” get it?! Ah- sometimes I laugh at myself. Anyways… “ Their pastas, bread, and sauces are made in-house and fired in the brick oven imported from Italy,” said Rebecca.
Then- the pizza. Whoa. I got the Bruni, which is Fresh Mozzarella, Capicola, Sausage, and Roasted Red Onion. Gillian would get the Margharita, and Rebecca the Spinach & Bacon.
Is it the best in America? I would say you need to venture down here to see for yourselves. It was quite good, fantastic, even.
Want to trace our steps through Dublin? Take a look at the links below, and again a HUGE HUGE thank you to Rebecca and the Dublin Convention and Visitors Bureau. Please show them some love by checking out their links as well:
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