Paul Lenehan is the owner of a number of bars and restuarants in Kildare and Dublin including Harte's, Ashtons, Dew Drop and most recently Firecastle. In The Business of Restaurants Podcast Episode 11, I chat with Paul about his training in GMIT Hotel school, opening his first pub, the Kildare restaurant scene, opening a business during the economic crisis in Ireland in 2009, opening the 'hybrid' Firecastle in 2020, the "opportunities" that Covid gave the business, the future of the Irish pub plus much more. Click the Subscribe Button above or follow us on Spotify or most other podcast platforms to get new episodes every Wednesday.

Jules Mak is one of the up and coming restaurant owners in Dublin owning some of the most new restaurants to open in the city in recent years. He is the man behind Mak at D6 and also most recently Hush, which is a sandwich restaurant by day and a burger restaurant by night concept. I chat to Jules about his early upbringing in the restaurant world working in his Dad's restaurant, opening his first restaurant, creating a new age Chinese restaurant, some struggles in the early years, the fundamentals of opening a new restaurantr and his opinions on the future of dining among much more!

The Business of Restaurants Podcast Episode 9 with David Dunne. David Dunne is the owner of two of the best restaurants in Sligo - Knox and Flipside. Knox is an all day gourmet cafe and Flipside is a high end burger restaurant doing what some believe are the best burgers in Ireland! In this episode, I chat to David about his career in corporate finance and how that helped Knox, the logistics of opening his very first restaurant, opening a restaurant in an urban town, challenges to running a restaurant, pivoting during Covid 19, opening Flipside restaurant in Sligo and future expansion plans with the brand, key skills required for a successful restaurant and much more!

Mark Spagnuolo is the owner of Hoagitos Restaurant in Belmar New Jersey. Hoagitos is a bite sized sandwich restaurant serving really exciting gourmet sandwiches. In The Business of Restaurants Podcast Episode 8, we chat to Mark about his background before going into the restaurant industry, opening the very first Hoagitos and subsequently closing it down, mistakes they made in the early days, Instagram for Restaurants, how they adapted during Covid and some exciting expansion plans with Hoagitos into the future.

Chef Adrian Martin is a celebrity chef, cookbook author and tv presenter from Cavan in Ireland. He is well known in Ireland as a tv chef and has appeared on a number of television series and also has writtern multiple award winning cookbooks. In March 2020, Adrian opened his own restaurant  called Wildflower in a shipping container in Camden in London. In this episode of The Business of Restaurants Podcast, we chat about Adrian's early career to date working in restaurants, becoming a 'celebrity' chef, opening his own restaurant and running it from his home in Ireland during a global pandemic, his future ambitions with the restaurant and much more!