Bewley's landmark Dublin cafés, famous for their marble tables, wooden features and stain-glass windows, closed their doors for the last time at six o'clock this evening.
The decision to close the cafés was taken in October by Campbell Catering after group chairman Mr Patrick Campbell said the company's other activities could no longer subsidise the cafes.
There has been a public campaign to save the old cafes and supporters will mount a vigil outside the Grafton Street premises when it closes at 6 p.m. after 77 years in business. Supporters say they have gathered some 20,000 signatures from members of the public calling for the cafés to be saved.
The shop will remain open for some time until an arrangement for ending the lease on the premises is agreed.
The Taoiseach tonight ruled out Government intervention to the cafes. Mr Ahern told the Dáil tonight it was a sad day for Bewley's 234 staff. "It's a Dublin institution. Despite the best efforts of staff it's not viable in the way it is," he said.
"It is sad in a day when there is a lot of consumer spending that it hasn't been able to survive and we certainly regret that."
Mr Ahern said he could not back a suggestion by Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent that the Government should step in to rescue Bewley's. He said: "It's nothing the Government could seriously support."
The owners of Bewley's cafes last week rejected an offer from the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Michael Conaghan, to discuss a survival package for the Grafton Street cafe before its closure.
The cafés have been selling buns and hot food and beverages to Dubliners, people from around the country often on shopping and hospital trips and tourists from around the world since 1884 at the older Westmoreland Street premises.
When Campbell Catering took over Bewleys it had large debts and a pension fund deficit which were serviced by selling the Grafton Street premise on a lease-back deal.
"This decision that comes to ahead today is one that we made after eight or nine years of consideration and we've accumulated quite some losses but we have to look at it and say what will continue the business," Mr Cól Campbell, managing director of Bewley's Oriental Cafes, told RTE radio today.
Bewleys own the Harry Clark stain glass windows and they will be put on display though some "obstacles" must be overcome.
"We intend to keep them on display for people without having to pay to see them," Mr Campbell said.
He said the company could not attempt to emulate the business model of other food outlets because it would change the character of outlets, which could be "worse" than closing them. "The more you change Bewleys the more it isn't Bewleys," he added.
"I'm sure the last chapter hasn't been told. We still look forward to the cafe side of the business and we still hold dear the idea that we would have a presence on the streets of Dublin but as for the cafes as they are presently constituted, the decision is made."
Additional reporting: PA