Dublin's Lord Mayor has said Bewley's of Grafton Street must not be given up "without a fight", writes Christine Newman.
In a bid to avert the planned closure of the restaurant, the mayor, Cllr Michael Conaghan, has called a meeting of interested parties to examine what options might be open to them.
Last month the Campbell Bewley group said the Grafton Street and Westmoreland Street cafes were making unsustainable losses and would close before Christmas.
Cllr Conaghan said quite a number of people had been in touch with him and had expressed their concerns.
He had also raised the issue at council meetings and in the draft development plan he had suggested the need for the council to do more about the conservation of shops of character.
"I'm inviting people to the meeting to explore what options there are and to examine and assess how much potential there is in terms of retaining Bewley's and saving it," he said.
People from across the spectrum had already put in a number of practical ideas, he said.
There had been little done to conserve the urban landscape in Dublin and Bewley's was unique.
The Labour councillor said: "If we lost it without a fight, we would lose something that can never be created again."
He felt as Lord Mayor it was his job to bring people together. It would be a small meeting tomorrow evening with a mix of representatives from the business community, architecture, and political, heritage and conservation groups.
"We want to look at it in the financial context," he said.
They needed to know what exactly the financial problem was before proposals could be put forward. There might be solutions in the area of rates remission or conservation schemes, he said.
Heritage campaigner Mr Damien Cassidy said the first step was to try to meet the proprietor to see what could be done.