CAPITAL BARS continues its retreat from the bar business. The hotel and pub group, headed by brothers Liam and Des O'Dwyer, has sold its Dandelion restaurant and late bar on St Stephen's Green, Dublin, to a consortium of investors, writes Ciaran Hancock.
Having led from the front in the heyday of the super-pub, the O'Dwyers are now focusing their energies on the three-star segment of the hotel trade.
Capital Bars paid €2 million for the Dandelion lease - it formerly operated as Planet Hollywood - in 2000 and spent €5 million refurbishing the property.
No sale price has been disclosed but the company is not thought to have earned a return on its considerable investment.
Dandelion was the subject of a variety of objections from the Fitzwilliam Hotel next door in relation to its use as a bar.
This made it hard for the O'Dwyers to turn a buck there. It ceased providing lunches last summer, opening as a restaurant in the evening and a late bar at the weekend.
It would appear that the O'Dwyers have decided their energies are better spent on the hotel business.
Who can blame them? The numbers visiting Dublin from abroad continues to grow while more and more pub-goers here are choosing to stay at home and drink cut-price beer from the supermarket.
The brothers were recently granted planning permission to convert the former Fireworks bar on Tara Street/Pearse Street into bedrooms for their Trinity Capital Hotel next door, although this is subject to an appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
They will also shortly begin work on a €100 million hotel in Abbey Street at the back of their Zanzibar pub. The 300-bed property is due to open in 2010 and would result in Zanzibar disappearing as a pub.
Capital Bars also owns the Grafton Capital Hotel and five bars - Cafe En Seine, Break for the Border, Howl at the Moon, the Dragon and the George.
Dandelion was the sixth bar or club sold by Capital Bars since 2003. It's all a far cry from the days when it was quoted on the stock market and you had to queue outside to get into its pubs.
