BEWLEY’S IS CELEBRATING... SO ARE WE!
DUBLIN can be heaven with coffee at 11... and now that pick-me-up can be savoured again in Bewley’s on Grafton Street, which has reopened its doors.
The iconic café has been part of the fabric of the street since 1927 – and it has reemerged from lockdown to safely cater for customers in the Covid era.
One of the first to make an occasion of the reopening were John O’Carroll and his wife Ula Retzlaff, who were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, John said he and Ula met in London back in 1976 while they were both attending a theatre festival. ‘I didn’t have Polish and Ula didn’t have English but we both had French. There began a correspondence from Dublin to Lublin,’ he said.
In 1979, John invited her to his guest at his cousin’s wedding but unfortunately she arrived ‘off a Polish coal boat’ late and missed the occasion. ‘It was before mobile phones and I thought the lady was never going to come,’ said John. But it was meant to be, and in August 1980, the couple were married in Adare, Co. Limerick.
John said they wanted to go to Bewley’s because, as fans of theatre, they used to go to the Bewley’s Cafe Theatre.
He said: ‘We had delightful coffee and a trolley of dessert cakes, my favourite cherry buns and Ula’s favourite almond rings. We had mentioned to the authorities there that we were celebrating. At the end of our coffee when we went to pay, we were told it was complimentary. It was lovely.’