Bewleys is gone...yipee

flogen

merky wrote:

You lot are missing the point about Bewleys closing down. Bewley's is a name synonymous in the history of Dublin. I think thats why people are upset. A lot of people used to "hook up" there back in the day.
Ok so it went sh1t and the end result is it closing down. That does not take away from the fact that some of the people in Dublin see it as a piece of their history going down the drain. I feel nothing for it but I can still get "dubs" reminiscing.

I think most people here gather that, but it's this kind of rosey-eyed look at the world that gets my goat, as has been pointed out, where were these people when the shop wasn't under threat? Very few went to Bewleys, thats for sure. It used to be the heart of Dublin, but that's changed. It does have a lot of history and hopefully whatever goes there next will respect that and pay homage to it, but I don't see the point in keeping a badly run company afloat for the sake of it's name. chances are the new company in the building will be a coffee place, they wont be able to change the building because its listed and it will keep whatever charm it still has, (and perhaps improve and modernise it) all that will change is the name of it and hopefully the service, prices and quality of produce

flogen

Mercury_Tilt

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honru

Aye, Bewley's were always horrible experiences when I went there as I kid, t'was a kip, always seemed like a sulley place to have coffee/meal/snack.

A mega-Starbucks to take its place though? That doesn't sound too good. Whatever does take its place will be shíte anyway so it doesn't really matter. A typical British high-street store would be worse.

JackKelly

f®eak s&#169 wrote: »

Whatever does take its place will be shíte anyway so it doesn't really matter. A typical British high-street store would be worse.

lol,glass is half full right?

eth0_

It's the real deal. DCU are hardly going to call a coffee stall 'starbucks' if it's not actually STARBUCKS!

These stalls are really common in the UK, loads of companies have them in their canteens.

GuanYin

flogen wrote:

It used to be the heart of Dublin, but that's changed. It does have a lot of history and hopefully whatever goes there next will respect that and pay homage to it, but I don't see the point in keeping a badly run company afloat for the sake of it's name. chances are the new company in the building will be a coffee place, they wont be able to change the building because its listed and it will keep whatever charm it still has, (and perhaps improve and modernise it) all that will change is the name of it and hopefully the service, prices and quality of produce

flogen

I'll miss it, in my misspent youth Bewleys was the meet up point for the lads after we all scored and went our separate ways on a night out. Many a Friday/Saturday afternoon was spent trying to piece together what happened the night before and using the food and drink as a sort of cement patch-up for the damage induced the night before.

Anyway, I don't think any foreign company will ever beable to reproduce the ethos of Bewleys. When you consider the poor service, value for money and decor you realise that Bewleys is the embodiment of the Dublin food service industry..... we'll miss it.

dregin

Courtney Love was arrested outside Bewley's on Grafton street.

sionnach

FX Meister wrote:

Are you sure it's not just a rip off? I've never been to the main canteen so I don't really know.

yes, dublin city university could quite possibly rip off a massive global brand with countless millions of dollars ready to be converted into legal clout and then place it in one of the most prominent positions on campus.....

Mercury_Tilt

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Superman

oh good ol'bewleys !

this is a great example of the Irish mentality, bitch an moan about something while we got it, then reminisce when its gone!
just ask an ol' person about the 80's and you'd swear it was a briliant decade!

flogen

can anyone tell me how to get to the starbucks in DCU, or even Microsoft in Sandyford? Is it possible for anyone to go to the DCU one, or even the Microsoft one?

thanks

flogen

Superman

well don't know about dcu but sandyford is on the much fabled green luas line!

therecklessone

snapscan1212p wrote:

Finally, I heard on the news that they had over 4,500 signatures on the petition to keep it open. If each one of those nostalgic fools went in just once a week, and bought just a crappy overpriced coffee (and maybe a cake), Bewleys would make over €3200 daily from JUST THOSE PEOPLE - sure illustrates how much they really care!

How do you know how many of those people were regular customers?

therecklessone

merky wrote:

It was once described as the "heart and health of Dublin". This was before Playstations/TV and the like.

It started out in 1884 as a café by the way. On great george St.

What will we miss? Gamezone? or that club whos name has changed so much you cant remembe it?

pfft.

Our generation don't care though. And thats quite sad TBH. Didn't shed a tear over Bewley's going out of business, never gave it much custom over the years. That said, I'd rather it stayed open than became another branch of UK/US Corp.

flogen

Superman wrote:

well don't know about dcu but sandyford is on the much fabled green luas line!

Thanks for that, but I do know where Sandyford is! I'm just wondering where abouts the starbucks is within the ind. estate...

flogen

dregin

flogen wrote:

can anyone tell me how to get to the starbucks in DCU, or even Microsoft in Sandyford? Is it possible for anyone to go to the DCU one, or even the Microsoft one?

thanks

flogen

http://www.dcu.ie/info/campus.shtml
It's in the resteraunt on the bottom left of the map there^

therecklessone

flogen wrote:

Thanks for that, but I do know where Sandyford is! I'm just wondering where abouts the starbucks is within the ind. estate...

flogen

I don't believe the Microsoft Starbucks is open to the general public.

flogen

dregin wrote:

http://www.dcu.ie/info/campus.shtml
It's in the resteraunt on the bottom left of the map there^

cheers for that.

I assumed the Microsoft one wasnt open to the public, thought I'd ask anyway!

flogen

billy the squid

Well with 4 million euros in debt and their lease due to go up to roughly 2 million a year how do you expect them to stay open.

was only inthe one in dublin once and the coffee was manky. you could almost scoop it out of the cup with a shovel it was so strong They had a branch in Limerick on cruises street and they were far to expensive. Considering what they pay their staff the prices they charged were rediculous. has since been replaced by a restaurant called cruises. I believe there is a cruises in dublin on one of the quays.

Bewleys was doomed to failure since 1986 when they did the sale and lease-back of their premises after running into so much debt. It was loosing money long before campells bought it. part of the deal was that campells paid their debts.

Their set up was not going to work in this day and age.

Hobbes

eth0_ wrote:

It's the real deal. DCU are hardly going to call a coffee stall 'starbucks' if it's not actually STARBUCKS!

These stalls are really common in the UK, loads of companies have them in their canteens.

They are not starbucks stores. Starbucks also sell their coffee onto 3rd party places and logo placement is generally part of the deal.

As for Bewleys, why not just turn it into a museum then?

ShiverinEskimo

therecklessone wrote:

Our generation don't care though. And thats quite sad TBH.

I duuno if its because we don't care as such. Its just we've become used to seeing things close down that our parents "went to as a child" because all these 1 man bands and home grown business simply cannot compete with the americanised high paced lifestyle supporting coffee and food bars. I doubt we will ever be in a position to be sentimental because when we are older if one place closes down the only thing it will mean is us having to cross the street to get to the next franchised outlet..
I for one do care a little about our capital city ending up sold out to corporation coffee outlets and fast food chains. I was once very proud of Dublin but its turning into such an overpriced cultureless urban area. Shame the more bewleys and the like that close, the worse off our capital city will be in my humble opinion.

Jim

Hobbes wrote:

They are not starbucks stores. Starbucks also sell their coffee onto 3rd party places and logo placement is generally part of the deal.

As for Bewleys, why not just turn it into a museum then?

I doubt they'd slap a museum in the main shopping street in Dublin. They'd rather stick in a Starbucks.

I imagine whatever it turns out to be, it'll probably be some sort of food place, maybe even split up into two retails.

BolBill

Last time I was in Bewleys , I paid £1.30 (punts !!!!) for a small, and I mean small, glass of orange juice.

Ripoffsville - feck them.

FX Meister

sionnach wrote:

yes, dublin city university could quite possibly rip off a massive global brand with countless millions of dollars ready to be converted into legal clout and then place it in one of the most prominent positions on campus.....

Finally, someone speaking sense. And don't get me started on the mess they've made of the swimming pool.

fintan

People here are saying the bewleys is too big for a starbucks. One of the main reasons starbucks have not set up more stores in ireland is that they have could not find big enough premises in the right locations. They were looking at the old virgin megastore as a possible site as well, but decided against the location.

I think grafton street would be ideal for them as they would deck the place out in those big comfy couches / chairs that they use add some wireless internet.

Bewleys couldnt / wouldnt adapt their business model to meet changing tastes, so its really their own fault.

giftgrub

listen, all this talk about Bewleys being a gathering place for the great and good of the country is pure ****ehawkery

john waters on prime time the other night was bemoaning the loss of a meeting place for like minded people to disciss ideas, write poetry and all that jazz

sorry john but that went out with the flintstones.... if hes looking for a place for people to exchange ideas and discussion try www.boards.ie

bewleys was a dinosaur that needed to be put out of its misery

Chalk

i heard suprvalu were buying it ala virign megastore.

to add to the convo bewleys coffee was p1ss
id love a starbucks
and the only thing i miss about dublin changing was when they locked up the steps of the bank
purple monkey dishwasher

koneko

their iced mochas were *droooool*

Starbucks ones are super tasty aswell so BRING IT ON!

por

Hobbes wrote:

Its artsy-fartsy crap in store for the pseduo intellectuals who if they knew what they got up to probably would never buy coffee there again.

Dead right, Starbucks is full of posers etc, turn the place into a Dunkin Donuts I say, top quality working class coffee

Jim

There was a Dunkin on Grafton St a few years ago, it closed down though.

simu

There's no reason a café couldn't make a profit On Grafton Street if it served decent food and drinks. The problem was that Bewley's didn't. Campbell's Catering who did the food there also do the food in most Irish campuses and they are famous for the low quality they offer. They might get away with it on campuses where they have a monopoly but it was hardly going to work on a street with lots of O'Brien's etc.

Conspiracy time: maybe the served rubbish on purpose so that the café would have to close and they'd get to make a fortune selling the building?

timamansio

simu wrote:

Conspiracy time: maybe the served rubbish on purpose so that the café would have to close and they'd get to make a fortune selling the building?

I'd love to believe in this conspiracy but unfortunately they actually sold the building back in 1986 and have leased it since.

Blisterman

Starbucks sucks. Gloria jeans is much better, but thats becoming a starbucks.

Agent Smith

i was in a starbucks in london. very nice eggnog i had there...


what ever happened to dunkin doughnuts, they cant have gone bust worldwide, i was in one in berlin.....

billy the squid

lest we not forget something here in all the jubulation about bewleys demise.

there are several people now out of work in the run up to Christmas. people who had no imput on management decisions and what cutbacks management made.

It isnt like they were getting much of a wage while they were working for bewleys as it was. but it was more than they will be getting in the coming weeks.

koneko

koneko wrote:

their iced mochas were *droooool*

Starbucks ones are super tasty aswell so BRING IT ON!

{ Homer simpson yum yum voice (except its not doughnuts) } mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm strawberry and cream frappicino mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm { / end homer simson yum yum voice}

BuffyBot

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm strawberry and cream frappicino mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I want one..NOW!