Dublin Coffee Shops With Instagram-Worthy Interiors

One of the youngest coffee shops in Dublin – opened during the summer of 2016 – Two Boys Brew in Phibsborough have got the recipe exactly right, matching an infinitely palatable menu with a stylish interior. The space looks like something you’d spot on Pinterest, with granite grey walls, wood-topped tables and open shelving.

Another pitch-perfect coffee joint that doesn’t over-think things is Oxmantown in the hipster-centric Dublin 7 area. Around since 2013, this city-centre space is small but skilfully used, with their unbeatable sandwich menu written in marker on a whited tiled wall, and a window seat in a prime location for watching the world go by.

Not far from Oxmantown, Stoneybatter’s Love Supreme summons effortless Brooklyn-type vibes, thanks to an exposed brick wall, hanging plants and caged pendant bulbs. As well as cornering the market on the understated elegance-meets-jungle-chic look, they regularly repaint their exterior signage, making every visit feel new.

Laine, My Love is owned by the coffee-loving masterminds of Roasted Brown, a Wicklow-based roastery that once served the city from a station upstairs in Temple Bar’s Filmbase. Their new setting – located in a unit under the railway bridge where it cuts across Talbot Street – is beautifully sleek and minimal, letting the java served in duck-egg blue cups and saucers take centre stage.

The Tara Street area’s newest commuter-friendly artisan coffee shop, Shoe Lane Coffee Co has already built up a loyal customer base since opening in 2016. They keep things local, serving coffee from Full Circle Roasters, and cakes and pastries made by Paleo Man Foods – both in Dublin. The quirky, mainly wooden interior is designed to look like a traditional cobbler’s shop.

Blackrock coffee purveyors Bear Market recently opened another outfit in the International Financial Services Centre in the centre of the city. Both stores are equally photogenic, but the newer location benefits from some incredible morning light coming in across the River Liffey, as pictured below.

With locations in both the north and south of the city, Brother Hubbard is one of Dublin’s favourite cafés for numerous reasons, but the interiors by cutting-edge design practice Designgoat certainly help. Food critic Ernie Whalley has praised their ‘masterpieces of light and colour’ on the plate, and their décor is similarly brilliant – enlivened by personal touches like using Royal baking powder tins for sugar bowls.

Designgoat can likewise be credited for the industrial-style fit-out of The Woollen Mills, the café and restaurant that in 2012 took over the building of the historic haberdashery that had been trading next to the Ha’penny Bridge since 1888. It is now one of the coolest places to photograph yourself eating in the city.

Network’s notable design is only one of many selling points for this Aungier Street café, but it’s a big one. Modern, angular lighting is balanced by weighty wooden stools made by Irish furniture designer Alan Meredith, while their takeaway cups display distinctive graphic designs.

The Maritime Café is a short DART journey outside of the city, housed inside Dún Laoghaire’s former Mariners’ Church – now the National Maritime Museum of Ireland. The clean, fresh furnishing of this unique vegan café features stained-glass windows and framed vintage nautical memorabilia on its walls.