Inviting Bloom to join him for a mid-day meal in the Ormond
Hotel's dining room, Richie Goulding apparently says, "Best
value in Dublin," and Bloom responds, "Is that so?" The phrase
recurs twice more in Sirens, becoming a minor
musical theme in the episode, and returns in Circe.
It was apparently a common theme in Dublin advertising.
The contemporary ad to the right announces that meals can be
had at Matthew Murray's for "6d.
Best value in Dublin." Turn-of-the-century Dublin had a rich
tradition of public life and many eating establishments
catered to men looking for food while out on the town, but
there was not much money. Joyce's fiction repeatedly features
men searching for affordable meals, or trying to get the most
for their prix fixe. In Two Gallants
Lenehan has a miserable meal of "a plate of peas" after
determining that it will cost "Three halfpence." In Lestrygonians
Bloom sees men "Perched on high stools by the bar, hats shoved
back, at the tables calling for more bread no
charge, swilling, wolfing gobfuls of sloppy food." In Eumaeus
the "starving" Corley has heard that "you got a decent enough
do in the Brazen Head over in Winetavern street . . . for a
bob," or 12d.