Bewley's café on Grafton Street reopened for business on the morning of Wednesday November 1 following an extensive €12 million refurbishment.
As reported by The Irish Times, the popular café's mahogany paneling, velvet upholstered banquettes, marble-topped tables, bentwood chairs and Harry Clarke stained glass windows have all been restored amid other alterations that have been made to the venue.
According to Paddy Campbell of the Campbell Bewley Group, architect Shane de Blacam "came up with the idea of opening up things and allowing light to come in, and finding new spaces that we didn't even know we had."
Commenting on the revamped venue's design, Campbell asserted, "We didn’t have an interior designer – the place has its own DNA and it was about keeping that, but freshening it up and making it more contemporary. When I’d meet people on the street and they’d ask ‘what is it going to be like’, I’d say ‘the same but different’."
The café is planned to reopen in stages, starting with the ground floor and mezzanine, which seat 250 people, on Wednesday November 1 and continuing with the opening of an additional 250 seats on the first floor in January of 2018. This will be followed by the return of Bewley's Café Theatre on the building's third floor in March.
