After hosting Starbucks and TGI Fridays, Dublin's former Bewley's coffee shop is now getting a Popeyes

THE FORMER SITE of Bewley’s coffee shop on Dublin’s Westmoreland Street is getting a new tenant – this time it’s the popular fast food chain Popeyes.

Popeyes will open at 11-12 Westmoreland Street on Friday, 4 December, bringing the premises back into use after TGI Fridays closed last year.

The building also played host to Starbucks until 2018, but its history of feeding Dubliners goes back considerably further.

Bewley’s opened its Westmoreland Street Oriental Café in 1896, later expanding into the neighbouring buildings.

That was more than three decades before its better-known Grafton Street café opened in 1927.

James Joyce was among those who frequented the Westmoreland Street café.

The Bewley’s cafés became well-known meeting spots for poets, politicians, shoppers and students.

The buildings themselves date to around 1790, with the façade remodelled in 1867. 

Bewley’s closed its Westmoreland Street café in 2004, with TGI Fridays and Starbucks subsequently announced as tenants in 2012.

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Now Popeyes says the premises will become its largest restaurant in Ireland, with 122 seats and more than 80 new jobs.

In a statement today, the fast food chain said it is offering a few incentives for anyone prepared to queue for opening day.

The first six eligible customers will receive what the chain calls free chicken sandwiches “for life” (The small print puts a number on that: 12 sandwiches a year for 50 years).

The first 50 customers will receive Popeyes merchandise, while the first 100 will get a free chicken sandwich.

The queue starts at 9am on 4 December, two hours before the doors open.

The chain has already opened restaurants in Blanchardstown, Liffey Valley and Dundrum, alongside motorway service station outlets in Laois and Kildare.

Many of these had lengthy queues on their opening days.

Its Westmoreland Street restaurant had previously been earmarked for a summer opening.

“We have been working hard for the past year to get our Popeyes flagship open on Westmoreland Street,” chief executive Tom Crowley said.

“It’s a special building and it’s fantastic to be opening in Dublin city centre.”