“We had signed the lease in 2007… quite an expensive lease, which was a regular lease at the time,” the chef tells Katie Byrne on the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast.
“It was about €125,000 a year rent for the space. We signed that 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 difficult.
“It was a new restaurant; it was a relatively new concept in terms of small plates and tapas were not really on the regular radar of everyone in 2008. It took two years, really, for the restaurant to take off as a kind of national institution.”
Despite the overwhelming gloom of the financial crash, McMahon recalls people just getting on with it and having a good time.
“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 says.
“It didn’t take away from the happiness of the five years we were in that location. I always say to people [that] our first Cava was like our bad mortgage – everyone did something during that time when there was way more money, there was just way more possibilities.
“People were getting 110pc mortgages. Signing up to Cava, even though it opened up the possibility for us to do Aniar, for us to do Tartare, 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 High Court in terms of breaking our lease. It was a learning curve.”
McMahon recently threw open the doors to Kombu, a ramen and bao bar located on Druid Lane in Galway’s trendy Latin Quarter. He’s not one to sit still, even taking up painting during lockdown and eventually selling a few of his canvases.
“It’s so funny,” he says. “I just picked a random number out of my head and said, ‘OK, I’ll sell the canvas for this’, and then someone gave out to me for selling them too cheap!”
Speaking of numbers, where does he stand on tipping culture?
“We get a lot of American guests – and that’s not only because of the Michelin star, but because we’re a contemporary Irish restaurant and Americans are looking for that Irish experience,” he says.
“The best tipper? I don’t know – sometimes I think the Irish are the best tippers, because the weird thing is that because Americans sometimes understand that we don’t have a tipping culture, sometimes they don’t tip.
“And so sometimes, Americans will spend €500 or €600 and leave zero tip because they have been told Ireland doesn’t have a tipping culture.”
Given his culinary expertise, what’s the most he’s personally shelled out for a meal?
“The most expensive meal I ate recently was €1,400 for the two of us in Alain Passard in Paris [L’Arpége]. It might have been a bit more, it might have been €1,500, and it was for lunch,” he says.
Was it worth it?
“Do you know, I don’t know. Because I suppose I don’t think about food in that way. I mean, I enjoyed it. I know it sounds terrible. I spent €1,400 on food, and I wouldn’t buy myself a jacket for €1,000,” he says.
“It’s all about priorities,” he adds. “People have priorities in relation to what they like spending their money on. Sometimes, I go to places to see what they’re like in terms of a research element.
“I’ve spent between €1,500 and €2,000 on meals for two people in the past… it’s an experience, it was absolutely top of its game. Was it the best meal of my life? Probably not. The best meal of my life could be a spaghetti bolognese I make in the garden.”
You can listen to the full conversation with JP McMahon on Money Talks wherever you get your podcasts.
The content of this podcast is for information purposes and does not constitute investment advice or recommendation of any investment product.