{"id":532353,"date":"2026-07-04T07:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532353\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T07:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T07:24:11","slug":"paul-and-maire-flynn-on-closing-the-tannery-after-30-years-it-was-really-really-tough-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532353\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul and M\u00e1ire Flynn on closing The Tannery after 30 years: \u2018It was really, really tough\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Paul and M\u00e1ire Flynn opened The Tannery restaurant in Dungarvan<\/a>, Co Waterford, in July 1997, it was the first time M\u00e1ire had worked in a restaurant. Well, not quite, if you count the two nights she spent in Kevin Thornton\u2019s eponymous Michelin-star restaurant<\/a> in Dublin. \u201cPaul thought it would be very good training for me,\u201d she says sardonically. \u201cI learned one very valuable thing there. There was a really glamorous waitress working there, and she used to pick up a knife and check her lipstick, and I just thought, God, that\u2019s a really good tip. So that\u2019s what I learned in Kevin Thornton\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Flynns, both from Dungarvan, met on a blind date in Dublin in May 1991. The date had been set up by a friend, Declan Maxwell<\/a>, who many will know as the manager of Dublin 8 restaurant Spitalfields. It was a match, and M\u00e1ire moved to London, where Paul was living, six months later. <\/p>\n

Paul<\/a> is the youngest of eight, and his father had hoped that he would study to be a pharmacist and take over the family business. His lack of interest in school made it obvious that this was unlikely, however. \u201cI never gave him much trouble, but I never gave him much hope either,\u201d says Paul, recalling how his career inspiration came from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A]ctually, this is really timely,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause last night my very first mentor came to the restaurant to eat for only the second time, and maybe the last time I saw him was 20 years ago. His name is Paul McCloskey.\u201d <\/p>\n

McCloskey had been the chef at Merry\u2019s pub on the opposite corner in Dungarvan. It was a highly rated restaurant, McCloskey having staged at Paul Bocuse<\/a> in France and worked in the Savoy in London. Paul had finished a F\u00e1s course and a stint in the F\u00f3rsa Cosanta \u00c1iti\u00fail (FSA) kitchen, but Merry\u2019s was the first serious kitchen environment he had encountered. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe made me want to cook, and he made me be ambitious,\u201d says Paul. \u201cSo, a day after my 18th birthday, I went to London.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like any young chef, he took whatever jobs he could get, working for a year in two hotels, all the time furiously writing to Michelin star restaurants. A short, unhappy stint at one of the Roux brothers\u2019 restaurants was quickly consigned to history when he landed a job where he felt he would have the opportunity to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had written to Nico Ladennis, who had a two-star at the time, only one of four two-stars in the UK, I did the interview, and he gave me a job,\u201d says Paul. \u201cIt was very much a different scene, it was very familial \u2013 there was a mammy, and there was a daddy, and we were the babies, except we were the babies that had to get everything right. But I stayed with him through five restaurants over nine years, and I became his head chef at Chez Nico<\/a> when I was 23. I really was too young. There was too much responsibility. I used to get out of bed and get nosebleeds; I didn\u2019t have enough experience to take that job, but that\u2019s the way it happened.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Chefs at home: Paul Flynn, The Tannery RestaurantOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Having a well-paid job meant that he could enjoy the buzzing London scene whenever he had time off. For most of his time there, he shared flats with future cupid, Maxwell, who worked front of house in one of Ladennis\u2019s restaurants. At one stage, they lived at the top of Baker Street overlooking Regent\u2019s Park, where they hosted some legendary parties. <\/p>\n

The return to Ireland came when Paul was head-hunted for the head-chef role at La Stampa in Dublin, with he and M\u00e1ire moving back to Dublin in October 1993. They got married on December 27th that year. <\/p>\n

\u201cChez Nico got the three stars in January of \u201894, and after all my years of work, I wasn\u2019t there for the third star,\u201d says Paul ruefully. \u201cIt absolutely killed me, you know. And the judging and all that, they would have been in all that year, and all the numerous years before that, so my timing was particularly bad.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Flynns arrived in a newly confident Dublin, awash with international celebrities who had taken up residence in Ireland for tax purposes. Paul was \u201cagog\u201d when he first saw La Stampa. \u201cI remember walking in and it was completely different to anything I\u2019d ever worked in, because it was so big, so boisterous. It was so beautiful, actually. And everybody in it was beautiful.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just at the time when Dublin was changing, so it was a really exciting time to be there,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. \u201cAnd it was also at the time when the Late Late had superstar guests, and whoever was on the Late Late that night would be in for dinner at La Stampa later.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 160-180 diners a night, Paul credits La Stampa as being the place that taught him how to run a restaurant as a business. But after 3\u00bd, he decided it was time to move on and do his own thing. \u201cI was informed that now we\u2019re moving to Dungarvan, which was never part of my plan,\u201d says M\u00e1ire, who had built a successful property career in both London and Dublin. <\/p>\n

After architect Denis Looby transformed the former warehouse that houses it still, the Flynns opened The Tannery on July 1st, 1997. Paul was in the kitchen and M\u00e1ire front of house.<\/p>\n

\"MáireM\u00e1ire and Paul Flynn in the Tannery in 1997 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in at the deep end. I don\u2019t recommend that,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. \u201cI did it the really hard way. It was really, really tough. It\u2019s tough to start as a waiter, a junior as a part-time job, never mind being thrust into things \u2013 this is your business, you know nothing about it, you\u2019ve never done it, but you\u2019re going to do it now.\u201d <\/p>\n

M\u00e1ire says that realistically, it took her 10 years to understand the full workings of the restaurant business. \u201cI was just too reactive. I was really young,\u201d she says. \u201cI had no idea what to do if people complained. I just thought, they\u2019re ridiculous for complaining. I\u2019d think, there\u2019s nothing wrong with it. What\u2019s wrong with you? So, I ran into a lot of trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cQuite quickly I learned to keep my mouth shut, but not quickly enough. Now, I did get very good advice from someone who said there\u2019s only one way to go, and that is stony silence, say as little as you possibly can when you\u2019re running into difficulty. I mean, I couldn\u2019t carry three plates, taking orders, calling tables back, like the very basics of service. I really didn\u2019t know that, but I had to learn all of those. And I am quite tough, so I just rolled with the punches.\u201d <\/p>\n

The restaurant was perhaps a bit before its time, with its strong architectural vibe and more modern approach. The beech natural wood tables, imported from Spain, were designed to show off the quality of the wood, so didn\u2019t have tablecloths. The menu was sometimes at odds with what was popular at the time, where a glass of orange juice or half a grapefruit was often a preferred starter. <\/p>\n

\"MáireM\u00e1ire and Paul Flynn outside The Tannery. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"MáireM\u00e1ire Flynn at her front of house post in The Tannery \"PaulPaul Flynn in the kitchen <\/p>\n

\u201cI did too much jumping around, I would say. I was always curious about food, and I think I could have kept myself steadier in a way. Like if we went to Thailand, I\u2019d come back and there would be a Thai fish dish, or if we went to Morocco, it would be Moroccan,\u201d says Paul. \u201cI just get bored really easily, being curious and wanting to do new dishes all the time. But, we are a local restaurant and I never want the locals to be bored coming in. I want them to see that we are thinking about things, and we always keep it fresh, but I probably did that too much, to be honest.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Chef Paul Flynn: \u2018I fancied myself as Rick Stein\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Flynns don\u2019t dwell on the impact the recession had on their business. Ironically, the thing that nearly pulled them under \u2013 buying two buildings for The Tannery Townhouse to offer rooms to diners \u2013 was ultimately what helped them to battle through it. \u201cI don\u2019t think The Tannery on its own would have withstood the recession,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, turning the downstairs part of the restaurant into a wine bar changed the business. \u201cIt made The Tannery a very lively, casual place to go for a glass of wine and maybe just a main course. It made it really accessible to people and opened us up to a completely new audience,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. <\/p>\n

The couple said at the start of this year that The Tannery restaurant is set to close<\/a> after nearly 30 years on January 1st, 2027. The Tannery Townhouse and the couple\u2019s cookery school will evolve into a new business, opening eight months of the year for dinner, bed and breakfast. <\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul and M\u00e1ire Flynn of The Tannery <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tannery feel will still be here, but it will be on a smaller scale, because it will be 28 people max for dinner, whereas The Tannery could be 90 in the diningroom,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. <\/p>\n

Looby, their architect, has agreed to come out of retirement to make the structural changes necessary at the cookery school to create a dining room that echoes The Tannery space. Paul and M\u00e1ire will be there too, M\u00e1ire running front of house and Paul in the kitchen, ideally, he says, as an assistant, rather than the chef. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to have a really simple pared-back menu, no choice, but with vegetarian options,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have become really emotional with us because they\u2019ve celebrated so much here. Weddings, christenings, birthdays, twenty-firsts. We had a lady who had her 18th, 30th and 40th birthdays in The Tannery,\u201d says M\u00e1ire. \u201cIt\u2019s great to go out like this, to see all the generations of families, and the Dublin families who spend their summers in the mobile homes in Clonea. We couldn\u2019t have asked for more.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Paul and M\u00e1ire Flynn opened The Tannery restaurant in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, in July 1997, it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[56840,93,61,60,23061,709,46885,27698,5861,6513],"class_list":["post-532353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dungarvan","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-late-late-show","tag-magazine","tag-michelin","tag-paul-flynn","tag-restaurant","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532353","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=532353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}