New Cafe Gray on Dublin’s Dawson Street

Tom Lyons

Twenty-five-year old entrepreneur Rob Gray has opened a high-profile cafe on Dawson Street, Dublin 2. Called Cafe Gray, the cafe is the second outlet he has opened in under 12 months.

Mr Gray’s first cafe opened last summer in Greystones village, which he runs in a joint venture with his mother Caroline.

“We only serve Irish artisan food in our cafes,” Mr Gray said, “We are Irish owned and we want to support other Irish businesses like Sheridan’s Cheese, the Tartine Bakery and 3FE Coffee.”

“I hope people will see that the new cafe has more personality than the big multinational chains,” he added.

"It's been scary opening up in the city centre, but you have to give it a go," he said of his new venture on 63 Dawson Street, near Trinity College Dublin.

"There is a lot of competition in this area with Costa Coffee and Starbucks etc but I think that if you have consistency of quality and the right price you can do it." Mr Gray said he would like to open a number of cafes in time but was in no rush. "At the moment it's about making sure that this one is performing well," he added.