The Dubliner
Food & Drink March 11th, 2010
Dublin-born Aidan Gill may well give the best haircut and most sublime hot towel shave in the world. But he also knows a thing or two about Irish whiskeys (and pretty much everything else).
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been in his shop without being offered a restorative shot of his favorite Green Spot or being given a piece of useful information (as in: It takes one minute and 59 seconds to pour a proper pint of Guinness). His eponymous flagship barber shop and men’s accessories store on Magazine Street in New Orleans (there’s a second one further downtown, near the city’s warehouse district) has the same feel as the perfect pub. There’s plenty of dark wood, just enough tasteful memorabilia, and knowledgeable people going about a noble task—whether it be the aforementioned shave or teaching a young lad to tie a bow tie for the first time.
It’s no accident then that Gill worked at both a barber shop and a bar as a young man. The pub was called The Oak on Dublin’s Dame Street, a place dating back to the 18th century, and so old-fashioned it still contained a “snug.” These days, Gill says, you can’t find “a more lost thing” than a snug, which was a private train-car-like booth attached to the end of the bar with a separate entrance. There was room for maybe six people—usually “nuns, priests and cops on duty” who could enjoy a nip or two in private.
Much as he mourns the passing of The Oak (it is now a disco pub—“one of the circles of hell”), Gill found his true calling at a barber shop called The Bowler Hat. He was sixteen and had been chosen for a scholarship to attend Dublin’s Trinity College, but, he says, “All I wanted was a job.” His long hair prevented him from finding one until he discovered the Hat. “When I walked in, Cream was on the stereo and there was a sign saying ‘Apprentice Wanted.’ I was home.” Forty-one years later, he is still in the business. “Jobs are like lobster pots. They are much harder to get into that out of.”
Fortunately for the New Orleanian male, he not only stayed in the barbering business, he brought his inimitable style to the city in 1988, opening his first shop with fittings imported from Ireland. He was, he says, “following a girl,” his wife, Kathleen, who keeps things running at both Aidan Gill establishments. He is tempted, he says, to add a bar to his stable. It would have no music, no TV (“not even during the Super Bowl”)—just conversation and good drink. The latter would, of course, include Guinness on tap: “Guinness from bottle is wrong—as in having sex with your sister or your pets wrong.” The whiskeys he rates below would also be on the shelves, though, he says, it’s hard to quantify what makes a great Irish whiskey. “The perfect Irish whiskey situation is like the perfect orgasm,” he says. “It’s about time and place, right? You’re sitting in Neary’s on Chatham Street in Dublin, it’s 11 o’clock in the morning, you have a pint of Guinness, commonly known as ‘a pint of plain,’ and then you have your ‘ball of malt’—the whiskey. You leave the bar at 11:45 and you’re ready to take on Finnegan’s Wake.”
Perhaps one day we can all look forward to a similar experience at Gill’s in New Orleans. Until then, I’ll refer to the master’s list of whiskeys:
Green Spot
Explaining why it’s the best would be “like learning how to swim with a book,” he says. “It is because it is. It’s it, and that’s that. This is why there’s not too much of it in the world, like talent.”
Red Breast
“It’s got all the depth and softness of a great Irish novel.”
Powers
“I like it because it’s honest, legal, and truthful.”
Jamison
Don’t bother, he says, with all the fancy reserve bottles. “There’s only one—the rest is all bollocks.”
Middleton
“If it were a dog, it would be a standard poodle—too smart and too big. But it’s not bad.”
Connemara
“If you like Scotland, you’ll like Connemara. It’s very peaty.”
Tullamore Dew
“You gotta love it. It’s simple and honest. If Abe Lincoln drank Irish whiskey, it would be Tullamore Dew.”
Pictured above, left: The black leather travel bar features a jigger, tongs, stirrer, corkscrew, and a pair of stainless steel cups—plus room for a favorite bottle.
Center: The man himself.
Right: The Bible! 99 Drams of Whiskey, The Accidental Hedonist’s Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink features some of Aidan’s favorite brands.
-Julia Reed
Shop Aidan Gill on TAIGAN.
Elusive Find: Oysterman
