My friend was aghast. "This isn't Bewley's. How can they do this to Bewley's? I used to come here in the 1960s when I worked in the Creation Arcade to have my coffee. How can they do this to Bewley's?"
We all have this Bewley's in our heads and hearts, this magical-mystical-romantic place where we were once young, and our salad days were spent lounging on a red banquette, chatting, getting over hangovers with a big fry-up, reading foolishly serious novels, all the paraphernalia of youth. Bewley's was our stage for being young, for being independent for the first time. Like any icon, we wish to preserve it forever, we wish it to be unchanging.
But Bewley's has changed. What "they" have done, which so enraged my friend, is to steer Bewley's in a completely new direction, which consists largely of transforming the Harry Clarke room, and opening it up as a serious restaurant, where you are seated for lunch and dinner, and where you can still come for breakfast and afternoon tea.
I have to declare an interest here, for I was one of doubtless countless folks whom Bewley's consulted when they began to take the decisions some years back about the direction they might take in the future. I was impressed that those in the company candidly admitted that the organisation had no true food culture, and that they wished to inaugurate such a thing, and to make it work.
They also seemed to me to be conscious that they were not dealing with just another brand-name - Bewley's - but that they had to be sensitive to the nostalgic demands of everyone who has a little bit of Bewley's buried in their heart. Somehow, in changing, they also had to stay exactly the same.
Have they managed to do this? Well, the new steps in transforming the Harry Clarke room are almost complete, and the restaurant has been trading for several weeks, serving lunch and dinner. The new menus and the wine list are complete, and so it seemed time to see how the new Bewley's was faring.
At lunchtime, I was seated promptly, and delivered in to the hands of a young woman called Caroline, who was an exceptional waitress - an important factor now that the old self-service format of the room has been abolished. The changes to the ground-floor room have been considerable, but to me the room still feels like the old Bewley's: the atmosphere and the light have not changed, which was rather reassuring, and the room still has that lingersome quality which has always made it so special.
But the new menu shows the direction which head chef Trevor Brown has taken.
The style of the menu and the food is now closer to a brasserie formula than anything else. It offers a pair of soups - potato and leek; broccoli and brie, of which I ordered the latter - among the starters which include a liver parfait, smoked salmon and salads such as mozzarella and tomato, and there are various main courses such as beef and Guinness stew, aubergine gateau, and salmon, from which I chose sausages and mash with an onion gravy. There is also a shorter menu from which you can choose two or three courses at a lower price than the normal menu.
The soup was served very promptly, was decorated with croutons, and was very good, with a true, real flavour, albeit served too hot. A small wooden bowl of breads was placed on the table with butter, and it was a good beginning to lunch. The room was packed with families - anyone who doubts that there is currently a baby boom in Ireland only needs to go to Bewley's to see how real it is - and the familiar Bewley's assortment of business folk, matrons, students and tourists. In terms of atmosphere, at least, nothing seemed to have changed, and the inimitable Bewley's bustle was its old self.
My sausages and mash arrived while I was still eating my soup, an oversight which Caroline the waitress speedily sorted and apologised for. If the new Bewley's is to succeed, then it will be because of staff such as this, whose politeness and savvy is invaluable, but the mistiming showed what a challenge they face in getting the organisation of food-to-table correct in a room of this size.
The sausages and mash are served in the modern style, which is to say that the sausages are under the onions and the mash is under the sausages. The mash was tricked out with tiny pieces of bacon and lots of parsley, and while its flavour was good, the texture had been slightly overworked. Both the sausages and the onions were spot-on, and the gravy was well achieved. It was a simple dish with strong flavours and it was pleasing brasserie food which had been shown respect.
With an espresso, a mineral water and a glass of house white wine, lunch came to £14.20, and my only cavil was that the banquette where I was seated was too low for the table.
Several hours later, I was back with my aghast friend for dinner, having the sort of argument which will rage among all us old-timers for years to come: is this still Bewley's? Is Bewley's allowed to change? Will the man-in-the-street still come to Bewley's?
What will make all of these arguments irrelevant, of course, will be the quality of the food and the service, and we enjoyed good food, but very uncertain service, this time. Having been seated and given menus, no one came near us for a number of minutes, either to offer us drinks or to take an order. Perhaps they leave you alone because they know that for the first 10 minutes after people sit down they are going to be having a fierce argument all about Bewley's and they shouldn't intrude, but there were plenty of staff buzzing around who could have looked after us sooner.
Once again, the brasserie style dictates the food on offer. My dinner was a starter of crab cakes with salad leaves and an orange and pepper sauce, then Tipperary sirloin with a cream and brandy sauce, with side orders of green beans and potato gratin. This is wholly unsurprising food, which offered nothing innovative whatsoever, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We go to cutting edge restaurants for culinary surprises, but brasseries are for certainty and succulence, and on that score my dinner was right on the money.
The crab cakes were light and well made, the plate properly composed between cakes and salad and sauce. The Tipperary sirloin wasn't served just as rare as I would have liked, but the grilled tomatoes and mushrooms were excellent, and with an equally excellent gratin and crisp beans, the plate offered solid, pleasing flavours.
My friend, increasingly less aghast as time wore on, ordered Atlantic shrimp in a Parmesan basket, and then stir-fried noodles with vegetables. The shrimps had a tomato and mayonnaise dressing and sat on salad leaves - this is effectively a modern prawn cocktail - with a very well-made Parmesan basket which was quite delicious. Even better was the main course of stir-fried noodles with vegetables, which had sinuous flavours and was well achieved and enjoyable.
Desserts were not as successful. A tarte au citron and a chocolate crannog were both served far too cold on very cold plates which muted whatever flavours they might have had. The wine list offers a good selection of the wines by the glass as well as the bottle, though a few half-bottles should be offered. Do try the Mick Morris muscat for a taste of a true Aussie "sticky" dessert wine.
The breads we were served were good, especially a delicious tomato bread, and aside from the disappointment of dessert, the only problem was hesitant service which never tried to engage us, unlike the work of the splendid Caroline at lunchtime.
Prices are keen, with our starters costing around a fiver, while the noodles were £7.95 and the Tipperary steak was £11.25. Vegetables are ordered separately, and cost £2.50 each. Our total bill, with two glasses and one bottle of wine and a large bottle of mineral water and an espresso, came to £69.85.
If Bewley's were simply a bright new Grafton Street brasserie and did not have such a romantic and lengthy history, then I think we would welcome it, and say that its problems are only teething ones and will be sorted out. But that little bit of all our lives which is so tightly tied up with this institution presents them with an enormous challenge, and I think their bravery in transforming the Grafton Street operation is admirable. Unlike other restaurants which change style and vanquish the past, I think they are welcoming the future by acknowledging what they have done heretofore, and by trying to improve it. That is not merely admirable, it is logical.
Bewley's Grafton Street, Dublin 2 tel: (01) 6355470 Open: break- fast 7.30 a.m.11.30 a.m., lunch noon - 2.30 p.m., afternoon tea 2.30 p.m.-6.15 p.m., dinner 7 p.m.-11.30 p.m. Major cards. Wheelchair access. High chairs.