{"id":438493,"date":"2026-05-08T10:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/438493\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:02:10","slug":"our-venues-are-now-selling-more-vodka-than-beer-mercantile-chief-david-murray-on-riding-the-storms-of-war-inflation-and-ever-changing-tastes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/438493\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our venues are now selling more vodka than beer\u2019 \u2013 Mercantile chief David Murray on riding the storms of war, inflation and ever-changing tastes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">\nTwo years after taking over the reins at hospitality giant The Mercantile Group, one of David Murray\u2019s biggest challenges is a transformation in socialising habits\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"David Murray , Managing Director of The Mercantile Group. Picture:Mark Condren\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2d71320d-8298-472e-bf7a-5b1778050057.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">David Murray , Managing Director of The Mercantile Group. Picture:Mark Condren<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">When David Murray was asked if he was ready to run a high-end collection of Dublin\u2019s best-known pubs and clubs, the then-general manager of Caf\u00e9 en Seine couldn\u2019t believe his luck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Around two years ago, businessman Michael Breslin, who made his fortune in the New York scaffolding industry, sat Murray down in The Mercantile Entertainment Group\u2019s Dawson Street offices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years after taking over the reins at hospitality giant The Mercantile Group, one of David Murray\u2019s biggest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,5913],"class_list":["post-438493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sean-pollock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}