Swinging Micky's, the Irish Pub We Built on Zanzibar

Long before Mama Amaya's had a bottle, a label, or even a name, there was a different project entirely: an Irish pub on Zanzibar, built during lockdown, out of an empty building and a clear idea of what a proper local was supposed to feel like.

The space already existed — the owner put on a new roof, and everything past that was down to Philip. The bar counter, the shelving behind it, the tables and stools scattered across the dance floor: all built by hand, with lockdown giving him more time than usual to do it properly. He called it Swinging Micky's — Céad Míle Fáilte painted across the sign, a shamrock next to a bottle of Kilimanjaro lager, "swinging since 2022" once the doors actually opened.

What it became was less a single idea than a full week's worth of reasons to come back. Monday afternoons brought 15% off food and drink after four. Tuesdays paired karaoke with $20 tattoos and beer buckets. Wednesdays meant wings and a trivia night. Thursdays were a pool tournament with whiskey specials. Fridays were open mic and jam sessions, snacks and nibbles on special. Saturdays had the grill going alongside whatever match was on. Sundays closed the week out with a roast dinner and live music from two in the afternoon. A friend, Gabe Diamond, played blues and rock and roll some of those nights, and a World Cup screening could pack the place out.

It's also, not coincidentally, the same stretch of lockdown when the first real batches of what would become Jungle Sauce were taking shape a few miles away — the same instinct behind both: build the thing yourself, fill a table, keep people around it as long as you can.

Swinging Micky's isn't part of the day-to-day anymore, but it's very much part of how we got here.