Best service: 64 Wine

Build it and they will come, the saying goes, but eight years ago when Gerard Maguire took over an old Londis premises in Glasthule village and converted it into a wine shop, he could not have anticipated just how many people would come.

Best service
WINNER: 64 Wine

Build it and they will come, the saying goes, but eight years ago when Gerard Maguire took over an old Londis premises in Glasthule village and converted it into a wine shop, he could not have anticipated just how many people would come.
Recession hit within a couple of years of his opening, and while the glass-sealed sanctum selling expensive vintages at the back of the shop may have gone quiet for a little while, the rest of the shop picked itself up and moved on, filling empty spaces with cafe tables, and easing itself in the role of coffee shop, deli, wine bar and all-round good place for a gossip, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Ex-Garda detective Maguire's natural front of house persona has a firm following – the shop received hundreds of nominations from readers .
"The staff are the secret ingredient – they're friendly, patient and I don't know how they seem to remember the names of customers," says one, while others praise the scones, the wine selection, the cheese platters, the cheeky messages chalked up on the pavement blackboard daily, "reminding us all to behave ourselves".
"In South Co Dublin, 64Wine is an industry high water mark," says Simon Pratt. The last word is best left to another reader, who wrote, "Coming from New York and having been in the service industry myself, it is always impressive to come across a shop that obviously does everything possible to be the best it can be."
64 Wine, Glasthule, Co Dublin, tel: 01-280 5664, 64wine.ie


HIGHLY COMMENDED
Stonechat Jewellers, Unit 3-4, Westbury Mall, Balfe Street, Dublin 2, tel: 01-671 0103, stonechatjewellers.ie
"Stonechat Jewellers is a really modern set-up where you can feel free to browse, no matter how casually you are dressed," says Eddie Shanahan. "It's also a place where you can watch jewellers and goldsmiths at work, something that brings home the difference between hand-crafted jewellery and the mass-produced kind."

Gerard Maguire in his Galsthule shop 64Wine. Photograph: nick bradshaw
Gerard Maguire in his Galsthule shop 64Wine. Photograph: nick bradshaw