A little-used pool hall under a canal-side pub became one of Dublin's most dependable small venues. Bello Bar sits in the basement of The Lower Deck at 1 Portobello Harbour, on the bank of the Grand Canal, and opened for business in 2013. The origin story is domestic: Shane Masterson and his partner Anna Gallagher were living above the pub when the publican, looking to breathe life into the quiet downstairs room, suggested they turn it into a music venue. They did the work themselves and never looked back. The room squeezes about 200 people in for a sold-out standing show, or around 80 for seated events, with a low stage, good sightlines and a reputation for sound quality that outruns the venue's size. The booking policy covers the wide spectrum of contemporary music - low-key acoustic nights, jazz, experimental acts, touring songwriters and vibrant full-band gigs - alongside comedy, theatre, album launches, live recordings and private events. Growth was steady and organic: by its fifth year the venue had passed 500 shows and gone from four or five bookings a month to a minimum of fifteen, earning a name as Dublin's premier small-cap room for EP and album launches. The operating model is part of the charm - Bello Bar only opens when there is an event on, so every night in the room is a show night, and the crowd upstairs at the Lower Deck provides the pre-gig pint. One practical note defines the space as much as the programming: access is via a significant flight of stairs down from the harbour, so the basement that gives the venue its intimacy regrettably rules out wheelchair access. The venue's influence outruns its floor space: for a decade of Irish acts the basement has been the proving ground between the open mic and the theatre circuit, and the number of album campaigns that started with a launch night under the Lower Deck is the quiet measure of what a 200-cap room run with care can do for a music city.

Type: Bar / Pub

Address: 1 PORTABELLO HARBOUR, Dublin, Ireland

Minimum Age: 18

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 200

Opening Date: 01/01/2013