The Grape Escape Bar

Cracking winebar, small list but perfectly formed. Very good cheese and charcuterie plate, a very pleasant evening

This is definitely Blackrock’s best kept secret — what a great place !!!
They have live music on Friday and Saturday nights, to suit a very broad range of musical tastes — everything from classical guitar to jazz, funk, rock and trad.
The wine bar is downstairs in the basement of an old house. It is L-​shaped and has a real fire going when the evenings get colder. In addition, they have a covered outdoor area to the front of the wine bar that is very cosy indeed — being surrounded by the market shops.
They also cater for birthday parties (the reason I was there) and plan to do office parties for the Christmas season.
Some of us turned up early — straight from work — and they had wonderful platters of cheese and cold meat to snack on while we waited for the BBQ to warm up in another covered outdoor area behind the wine bar.
In addition to a good selection of wines, they also sell a nice line of designer beers.
Overall, a great evening … and the local cab company is just around the corner.
If Carsberg designed and ran wine bars, this would be one of theirs !!!
James

This is the cosiest place to enjoy a glass (or bottle!) of wine south of the city.
My friends and I found that after a busy day of studying up the road at Smurfit, this is the ideal place to unwind. It’s quiet and comfortable and the folks that work there are very welcoming and passionate about wine. They also have a variety of board games including the infamous Apples to Apples — a personal favourite!
There’s a variety of different seating areas — couches, chairs and stools, and tables made out of wine barrels — how cool! And for about € 10 you can get a generously sized charcuterie and cheese platter which features a caramelised onion chutney, or what I like to refer to as «heaven in a spoon.»
They host a variety of musical performers just about every week. Though I haven’t had the chance to make it to one of their live music nights, I’ve heard great things from friends.
Wine. Cheese. Board Games. What more could you ask for?

It is as good as it gets! I was looking for a warm, cozy place with couches, a fireplace and board games… at 1030pm… I didn’t thing I would find it until I came across this place. And yes, it was warm, cozy, real fire, couches, board games and even live music.
I spent several hours there, and at no point was I pressured to consume more (I don’t drink and just had tea). The waiter brought a very large bowl of peanuts and the staff was very attentive.
After about 2 hours, my bill was 3.50, I have to admit I was a bit embarrassed for staying so long and consuming so little, but The Grape Escape has a new client, for sure!

The Sangiovese is very good! This is a place I’ve been wanting to try for a long time and now that I have I am a big fan. This is a wine bar in a beautiful cellar in the basement of one of the buildings in Blackrock Market. It’s open Thursday-​Sunday I believe and usually has live jazz and acoustic music to listen to while you play their chess or backgammon. The wines are good and they have a couple of Irish craft beers as well. The staff are great and extremely friendly. Also, you can order meat or Irish cheese platters which are great for a little snack while you sip your wine. Overall this is a great little bar that has an incredibly good, relaxing intimacy about it from the dimmed lights, soft music, stone walls, and barrels as tables.
The only thing I’d say is avoid ordering a glass of water as it tastes distinctly of metal pipes.