Bewley's has operations in Ireland, the UK and the United States; in the Boston area under the Rebecca's Cafe name and in California as Java City.

[3] The Grafton Street building had once housed Whyte's Academy, a school whose pupils included the Duke of Wellington and Robert Emmet.

[6] In 2010 they employed around 800 people worldwide,[7] although 140 jobs were lost in early 2015 with the closure of the Bewley's Oriental Café on Grafton Street in Dublin.

[13] A third stained glass artist's work is included in the Grafton Street store, a window by Pauline Bewick entitled Cafe Society.

[8] By October 2015, Bewley's announced that the length of the closure would extend,[16] and by mid-2016, the date of reopening had been pushed back to the end of 2016.

[18] In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, management informed staff that the Grafton Street café would close permanently "in the coming weeks", leading to the loss of 110 jobs.

[20] The lease was subject to court proceedings from the landlord, as RGRE v Bewley's, related to the Harry Clarke stained glass in the building.

[22] The company acquired the Rebecca's Cafe chain in the Boston, Massachusetts area in 1997,[23] and expanded to the west coast in 2000 with the purchase of the Java City brand.