Bewleys
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According to the same article they want them for the soon to be expanded Westmoreland St property.
How can they be moved, surely they’re protected in situ and that’s the end of it?I went in there the other day as a farewell gesture, and sat infront of the windows, They really are very fine, and the frames themselves are lovely, with the brass mechanisms etc.
The woman at my table (lady of leisure, BT bag, you know the type) was saying that she came in there regularly (don’t you know) and that it was very busy in the last few days.One thing that was noticable was mess of the self-service layout, esp the soup counter that holds up the entire queue for all people trying to get either food or just coffee in the place. And €2.40 for a tiny glass of fruit juice?! Welcome to the real world I suppose – but it was more than made up for by the most delicious toffee cake ever; if they stay open for that it’d be worth it 🙂
I come from dublin, last time I was there I went for a late breakfast (few months ago), as you do, because it is part of being in Dublin.
Bored my family stupid moaning about what a disaster it was. No it hasn’t been the same since the bizarre nineties makeover, yes the management was abyssmal and efforts to update and keep pace were not working. But, baby, bathwater!
If a company cannot take a buisness like Bewleys, with established appeal, and all the key sites, and make a sucess of it said company should not be operating at all.
It was modelled in part on european style cafes, like they still have in Brussels for example. They manage. This is too dismal.Well no time wasted,
A planning application for extensive alterations to the Westmoreland St cafe have been lodged,
is anyone in a position to elaborate?
Sorry to be posting back to back all,
Next Wednesday at 11am will witness a celebration of Bewleys and what it means to Dubliners and blow ins like myself, this celebration will feature a number of celebrities and entertainments and is directed at showing that Bewley’s is an important part of the Dublin experience.
All support will be gratefully received by the widest coalition of heritage groups and individuals I have ever seen assembled.
Kicks off at 11am with a full entertainment programme until 1pm all outside Bewley’s Grafton St.
@Diaspora wrote:
Sorry to be posting back to back all,
Next Wednesday at 11am will witness a celebration of Bewleys and what it means to Dubliners and blow ins like myself, this celebration will feature a number of celebrities and entertainments and is directed at showing that Bewley’s is an important part of the Dublin experience.
All support will be gratefully received by the widest coalition of heritage groups and individuals I have ever seen assembled.
Kicks off at 11am with a full entertainment programme until 1pm all outside Bewley’s Grafton St.
Bad Coffee high rents,
good riddance any chance of an extra large Champion Sports?Sinn Fein leads protest to keep Bewleys open
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1291899&issue_id=11722That’s the kind of headline that will keep the middles classes away…
Might be nice improvement, so long as they keep the real coal fires!
We Bewley”s Oriental Cafes Ltd, intend to apply for permission for development consisting of refurbishment, extension and part change of use of the existing hotel and cafe at Bewley”s 10/11/12 Westmoreland Street, 19/20 Fleets Street & 1-5 Prices Lane, Dublin 2 ,which are protected structures. Amendments to include refurbishment / minor alterations to existing hotel rooms and common areas, relocation of reception area and restaurant and new cocktail bar to the ground floor cafe rooms, with new cafe entrance, canopy and additional Street lighting onto Prices Lane, conversion of existing reception at first floor to bedrooms, new accessible ramp and cafe tables on Fleet Street pavement outside existing main entrance, additional infill bedrooms on third and fourth floor roof areas at rear on Prices Lane, minor facade alterations on Prices Lane, Rationalisation and enclosure of existing rooftop ventilation services, removal of existing modern mezzanine level and removal and change of use of existing ground floor front servery area (to Westmoreland Street) from Cafe to retail shop with dedicated link to rear service area on Prices Lane.
@Rory W wrote:
“Sinn Fein leads protest to keep Bewleys open”
Tiochfaidh ar Látte
Well if the Day of the decent Latte arrived at Bewleys it could have a major impact towards its future viability.
Daithi Doolin is a local Councillor for South East Inner City and his active support is very much welcome, as is the support of the man he replaced Ciaran Cuffe (SF took the Green seat that CC vacated). The Lord Mayor Michael Connaghan and Councillor Oisin Quinn have also been extremely active on this as well.
The important thing is that Bewleys is retained as Dublin’s premier cafe and that a new management team is brought in to run it in a fashion that incorporates the latest trends in food tastes.
I hope to see as many of you as possible tomorrow from 11am on and the celebration will continue on into lunch time if anyone wants come down but can’t get time off work.
I will try to get down I always liked Bewleys it is a great place to get a hit of caffine after being dragged around the shops by she who knows, it would be a shame to see it go. It really is one of the symbols of Dublin like the O’Connell staute for culchies such as me self I am really surprised that Uncle Bertie hasn’t jumped in now that he is a socialist after all.
I hope to see you there Thomond Park,
I can assure you that if you do make we’ll have a decent programme of entertainment lined up, it is a celebration after all
confirmed so far are Ronny Drew and Neil Tobin and a few surprise guests along with our the Lord Mayor and the Bewley’s Theatre company who have pulled out all the stops for this one as they fear for their tenancy in the event of a change of head lessee.Very good ‘rally’ if that’s the word, well organised by those involved – never heard so many south Dublin accents in all my loife 🙂 A decent crowd gathered too.
Who was the chief speaker with the white hat?I’m glad you liked it Graham, I thought that Mike the Theatre Director put on a great show considering he only had 4 days to put it together, it attracted a sizeable crowd which was very good considering just how busy we all are these days and the fact that it kicked off in the middle of the mornings worktime. I finally left myself when we ran out of petition sheets around 1.35pm.
I hope to have more news on Friday and I am happy to say that Phase two will be commencing in our campaign very soon. The one thing that pleasantly surprised me most was the demographic profile of our support, there was no appreciable skew beyond the general demographic of the footfall on the Street.
We’re not there yet but we’re getting there
Admitedly I thought the demographic was leaning rather towards the senior end of the scale, then again they were collecting towards the front where I was – how embarrassing. Think everyone, not least the school students, were just trying to get in on a free coffee 🙂
The idea of a Trust over-seeing such institutions and tailored tax breaks for specific locations are very worthwhile ideas – pity they weren’t thought of 40 years ago.I agree Graham it really is a National Trust type situation,
A well resourced Trust could step in and ensure its survival until a suitable commercial operator was found to take a sub lease with gaurantees provided at National level.Being Honest there aren’t too many non-alcohol based tourist attractions in this City.
Unfortunately that is the case, and I think what is one of the main attractions of Bewley’s.
Forgot to say earlier, there’s a Nationwide special recorded from Bewley’s tomorrow evening at 7 on RTE 1.Yes and the Lord Mayor will be there to roll out details of our 6 month campaign
Bewleys will not be closing at the end of the month, the lease stipulates forfeiture in the event of the shop being closed for business.
Phase 2 has commenced
I think Bewleys needs to be kept but perhaps like the Crown Liquor Saloon in Belfast, it could be owned by a trust and leased to an operator. It needs to be saved from Campbell Catering who used to and maybe still do run the cafeteria in UL when I was there and it was terrible…
ie a grant is no uses as we don’t want them pulling the same thing in 3 years
What is Harvey Nichols? Some English company?
Bewley’s used to be fabulous years ago – three-tier plates heaped with mounds of delicious cream cakes, really good coffee, fabulous service, milk from the shop’s own herd of Jersey cows, yummy lentil soup and brown bread, proper tea made with proper tealeaves, courteous, slightly eccentric staff, Mary Cakes, fascinating and chatty literati, shoppers, musicians, country types up for the day…. and, of course, the beautiful windows, the antique Oriental wallpaper, the fabulous Chinese and Turkish and Indian dishes hung on the walls, the polished pink granite tables, the crockery with little green waves and sheaves of wheat custom printed around the edges…
Then they sold it to Campbells, who immediately moved the tables close together to cram in more people, and slashed the quality of the food. Instead of Bewley’s being a job for life, now it was a place you passed through for a bit in Transition Year or while in college, or while trying to find a good job.
No wonder the cafes plunged into the ground. But the buildings at least should be listed and saved. And surely not some store or bookshop or anodyne mally thing. Surely we think enough of ourselves to have a good cafe in Grafton Street yet?
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