Revenue €36.1m (2004) Website www.capitalbars.com Type of business Private | Number of employees ? Founded 1988 | |
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Industry Entertainment and Hospitality Key people William L.B. O'Dwyer, Desmond O'Dwyer, Joint Managing Directors Headquarters Dublin, Republic of Ireland | ||
Capital Bars plc (formerly known as Break for the Border Group plc) is an Irish leisure company based in Dublin. Its core business is the acquisition, development and operation of bars, hotels and restaurants, all based in Dublin city centre. Brothers Desmond and Liam O'Dwyer control the company as Joint Managing Directors. After acquiring Capital Bars in 2001, the O’Dwyers took the company private the following year.
The company entered mixed examinership/receivership on September 19, 2009; five days after poor results showing a 10m euro loss in the previous year. At that time the portfolio of five multi-themed bars (several of them 'superpubs') included: Break for the Border, Café En Seine, Howl at the Moon, The Dragon, and The George, Dublin.
All were situated in key locations in Dublin City Centre. On October 13, 2010, the Freehold of Cafe En Seine was purchased by Businessman Louis Fitzgerald, owner of The Fitzgerald Pub and Hotel Group. Four of the properties, Café En Seine, The Dragon, The George and Howl at the Moon. were later sold for a reported €15 million in late 2014.
Capital Hotels
The hotel division includes, Trinity Capital Hotel, a classic contemporary style hotel near Trinity College, and the Grafton Capital Hotel, a traditional Georgian style townhouse hotel with 75 bedrooms at the top of Grafton Street. Both hotels are located in Dublin City Centre.
The business originally began in O'Dwyers Bar and Lounge, in Mount Street Dublin 2. This small family run pub was extensively refurbished by elder brother Liam O'Dwyer in the early 1980s and became the first "victorian style" pub of which Dublin is so well known for now. This was also one of the first pubs in Dublin to sell "pub-grub" at lunch times.