Chef JP McMahon: Ireland Tipping Culture & US Spending
- In the high-stakes world of restaurants, a lease can be a make-or-break deal.
- quite an expensive lease, which was a regular lease at the time," the chef explained.
- Adding to the challenge, the restaurant's concept - small plates and tapas - was relatively new to the dining scene in 2008.
the Tapas That Weathered the Storm: A Chef’s Tale of Resilience
In the high-stakes world of restaurants, a lease can be a make-or-break deal. For one chef, a venture that began with optimism in 2007 quickly became a trial by fire when the financial crash of 2008 hit. Speaking with Katie Byrne on the “Money Talks” podcast, the chef recounted the experience of opening a new restaurant with an enterprising vision.
“We had signed the lease in 2007… quite an expensive lease, which was a regular lease at the time,” the chef explained. The annual rent for the space was a hefty €125,000,secured with personal guarantees. “We were a bit naive going in, we kind of said, ‘ah yeah, sure we’ll just sign whatever we need to sign’. And then the crash happened and it was… yeah, it was tough.”
Adding to the challenge, the restaurant’s concept – small plates and tapas – was relatively new to the dining scene in 2008. It took two years for the restaurant to gain traction and become a “national institution.”
Despite the economic gloom, the chef remembers a surprising sense of community and resilience. “Bizarrely, we’re very resilient – not only in terms of restaurateurs and chefs, but as customers. I still remember everyone coming in and having great nights even though we were getting bailed out and all these things were happening,” he said.
looking back,the chef sees the first restaurant as a learning experience,a “bad mortgage” in a time of excess. “People were getting 110pc mortgages. Signing up to [the restaurant], even though it opened up the possibility for us to do [other restaurants], it was kind of our bad mortgage. We signed into a lease that we just about got out of, and we were lucky not to end up in…”
The experience, though challenging, didn’t diminish the joy of those early years. ”It didn’t take away from the happiness of the five years we were in that location,” the chef affirmed.It’s a testament to the power of good food, good company, and the human spirit’s ability to find joy even in the face of adversity.