Talking with a journalist, a friend of mine, who had come over from London to report the proceedings in the Mansion House, I was compelled to endure a long disquisition on various amenities that Dublin lacked.
His main grievance was the absence of coffee stalls. I had to admit that we were sadly lacking in this respect and searching my memory, I could not recall that there ever had been a coffee stall. These establishments seem to have the knack of attracting a most extraordinary blend of customers, from navvies at work on drilling machines to theatre-goers of consummate respectability in, as the novelists put it, "immaculate evening clothes". Moreover, they provide very tolerable food at distinctly reasonable prices.
I am inclined to believe that a coffee stall in Sackville street would pay for itself in a few weeks. There is, after all, no time of night when somebody or other is not afoot in the centre of Dublin, and I have never yet looked into an all-night restaurant without finding it at least moderately full.
The Irish Times, June 2nd, 1931