THERE COULD soon be more room for a "gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy", Leopold Bloom's lunch of choice, if plans to expand Davy Byrnes pub on Duke Street get the go-ahead. The pub is famous for Bloom's visit there in James Joyce's Ulysses.
The original breakfast roll man Ronan McNamee, who set up Cuisine de France before selling up and moving into property development, has asked Dublin City Council to allow a ground floor extension of the pub into the adjoining Creation Arcade which he owns. In turn, the Creation Arcade would be expanded via extra space above the pub extension.
On the other side of Grafton Street, McNamee’s plan to convert a building at the junction of Fade Street and Drury Street into a licensed restaurant and a “multi-purpose event centre” with a bar has run into opposition from the incumbents trading in the area.
Paul Keaveny who owns Dakota and the Odeon, is among those objecting while Mataking, the company behind the Grafton Court Hotel, said it was difficult to see how the amenity of the area would be enhanced by an increase in venues selling alcohol.
Brooks Hotel raised concerns about noise and the owners of Kellys Hotel and the Grafton Guest House made an observation that if permission is granted it should be for a restaurant only and not as a pub and asked for McNamee to provide more details on the nature of the “multi-purpose event centre”. McNamee looks like he’s facing a long battle on that one.
