You don’t find many pubs still serving cask-conditioned ale in Ireland. The economics never quite worked out, the temperature fluctuations were unkind, and frankly, most publicans found it easier to stick with the keg fonts. Which makes Phil Grimes on Johnstown one of the most quietly remarkable pubs in Waterford — a bar that’s been doing things the slow, proper way for over a century and has no plans to stop.
The pub has been on this stretch of Johnstown for more than 100 years, and it looks like it. Not in a shabby way — in the way that only genuinely old pubs look, with a depth of character that can’t be manufactured or replicated with distressed wood and Edison bulbs. The snug is real, not decorative. The open fire is lit when the weather calls for it. The wine, should you want it, comes in proper crystal glasses.
If you’ve only ever drunk draught beer through a pressurised tap, a pint of cask ale at Phil Grimes is worth going well out of your way for.
Cask ale is the headline act, and it’s the real thing — served at cellar temperature, slightly still, with that soft carbonation and rounded depth that keg simply can’t touch. Many people make pilgrimages to Phil Grimes precisely for this reason, which should tell you something about the pub’s standing among those who pay attention to what they’re drinking.
But the pub is more than its beer programme. The upstairs hosts live music regularly, which gives the whole place a different energy on certain evenings — you come for a quiet pint and find yourself staying for a set. The seating is a mix of the traditional and the practical, worn in the way that good pub furniture should be after a century of use.
The crowd skews towards people who care about what they’re drinking, which tends to attract an interesting cross-section: real ale enthusiasts, Waterford locals of several decades, people who were brought here by someone who knew better and have been coming back ever since. The conversation is generally good.
Waterford’s pub scene gets plenty of attention for its newer openings and cocktail bars, and rightly so. But a pub like Phil Grimes represents something that can’t be replaced once it’s gone: a living tradition, maintained with care and conviction, in a city that has always taken its pubs very seriously.
Order the cask ale. Sit near the fire. Stay longer than you planned.
Good to Know
Phil Grimes is on Patrick Street, Waterford, tucked behind the Odeon cinema — easy to walk past if you don’t know it’s there, which is rather the point. The cask ale range rotates, so what’s on tap changes; call ahead or check their social media if you’re coming specifically for a particular beer. The open fires are lit from October through March. Quiet enough on weekday evenings for a proper conversation; livelier at weekends. Food is not the focus, but bar snacks are available.