COW-SHAPED jugs, scrabble-piece table signs, vintage teaspoons and even the owner’s childhood books are some of the things that have disappeared in recent months from a gastropub in Dublin which is now pleading with diners to “stop stealing our stuff”.
Mulligan’s gastropub in Stoneybatter goes out of its way to source kitsch and kooky menus, cutlery and other bits and pieces but so much has gone missing in recent months that the owners are being forced to replace them with mass-produced items.
It is now trying to get at least some of its prized possessions returned by light-fingered customers through an “amnesty” scheme launched yesterday.
The amnesty has seen a box placed on the end of the bar “out of sight of the security cameras” where items can be returned, no questions asked.
One of the owners, Seaneen Sullivan, told The Irish Times that replacing pilfered items should not be a weekly task. She stressed she did not think people were taking things out of any malice and they probably did not realise that “so many other people are doing the same. It is having a real impact on our business.”
The pub delivers its bills in old mathematical instruments sets and uses specially selected vintage novels for its menus but this may all have to come to an end if things continue to go missing. She said she bought 24 milk jugs last week and “really wanted the ones shaped like cows, but I knew they wouldn’t last a week before they were escorted off the premises in someone’s handbag”.
Ms Sullivan said that only last week three of her favourite childhood books by Beatrix Potter were stolen. She was unsure how successful the amnesty would be but hoped “it doesn’t backfire spectacularly and result in the amnesty box itself being robbed”.
