Business is blooming for Adrian

Bawnboy is to play its part in Dublin’s newest restaurant opening this week as the village’s Adrian Martin is taking his successful London restaurant, Wildflower, to the capital.

The finishing touches were being put to the Richmond Street South premises when he took the time to speak to the Celt in recent days ahead of its opening tomorrow (Wednesday), February 2.

“It’s going great. The pictures are going up so that’s always a good sign. When you see things going up, that’s the final touches.”

A well-known face in the world of food, the 30 year old already has over 15 years experience as a chef, having trained with another well-known Cavan name, Neven Maguire, and worked in kitchens in some of the country’s top eateries.

2020 saw Adrian open his first restaurant in London. In the hip Camden quarter, Wildflower is located in an old shipping container and has won rave reviews for its offering.

He now intends to bring the same experience to Dublin, albeit in a more substantial Georgian terrace. Ten jobs are being created through the new venture.

“This is exactly where I wanted Wildflower to be, in Ireland. I had looked at several units in Dublin before I went to London. This just popped up and, as soon as I saw the building, I knew this was the one.”

Work on refurbishing and converting the building has been ongoing since the lease was signed in September. Much effort has gone into trying to retain as many original features as possible, while also bringing a more modern aspect into the decor.

“It was a total shell. It was a mess like… When you think of the cellar where we’ve created a dining room downstairs. There’s all the old brick, there’s the old granite staircase in it, granite windows, sash windows, the original covings and all that. We had to restore that. All the brickwork we had to scrub because it was a mess. We had to cover it all in brick acid.

“The floorboards upstairs are the originals from the 1800s and they were destroyed and a mess and the floor was coming up. So we had to sand those and repolish them but they turned out amazing.”

The sheer amount of work needed to bring the building up to the required standard might have put a lot of other people off but Adrian says the work was worth it.

“I had to turn into a builder basically. My uncle came up from Bailieborough and he did the plumbing. I wouldn’t have known how to plumb a toilet in my life but now I know. I’ve built stud walls in the place… Did all the brick acid myself, with great help from my family.”

While some may have shied away from the work, Adrian says he enjoyed it, Even if he was left with no option but to do it. “There’s a building crisis at the moment so you can’t get builders.”

While Wildflower is already well established in London, its Dublin offering will see Bawnboy playing its part.

“Wildflower for me is home. It reminds me of Bawnboy. We based the food off it. The first lockdown was great because we went back to live in Bawn. We went walking around the lakes.

“When I started planning the menu for London, I was looking at forest ingredients and trying to learn these new techniques. It was funny because, when I was walking around during lockdown, all of those ingredients were right in front of me. All of them were in the hedges, the mushrooms in the forest. Everything we had on the menu was literally right there.”

This realisation spurred Adrian on and he’s now in the process of making the most of what west Cavan has to offer. An acre of land in Bawnboy is to be used to grow vegetables and fruits to be used as part of its dishes.

While the Irish climate doesn’t lend itself to a year round supply of fresh fruit and veg, fermentation will be used to ensure the restaurant is well stocked, also fitting well with Wildflower’s zero waste policy.

“We would pick ingredients that are in season and instead of letting them go to waste… we ferment them. So we have a room full of Kilner jars. We ferment ingredients and preserve them for another couple of months. It’s a totally different flavour profile.”

Work preparing the land is underway and it’s hoped it’ll be supplying the restaurant by early summer. A full time gardener is also expected to be employed to look after the plot and ensure supplies.

Zero waste

While a zero waste policy and the use of ingredients from more than halfway across the country complicates the process for Adrian and his staff, it’s a conscious decision and one he feels will work well.

“If you think of it. You could put in a phone call before midnight and say I need this, this, this and this and it will arrive to you before 8am in the morning. It is difficult to do it this way but what I’m thinking of is the flavour. I just think you cannot beat it and I’ve never tasted anything like home grown produce.”

Cavan has already had input from Adrian’s family with the building work and the upcoming plot in Bawnboy but he says he’s still intent on supporting local businesses.

“I wanted to support as many businesses in Cavan. We used Mel’s Signs for all our signs. I’ve used as many businesses and people in Cavan as I could. Any time there were jobs to be done, I was ringing people in Cavan.”

Cavan is already well-known for its food offering, leading the way with the likes of MacNean House in Blacklion, The Olde Post in Cloverhill and Virginia Park Lodge. So what prompted Adrian to take to London and Dublin to open his restaurants?

“I’ve been trying and looking for years in Cavan. I’ll be honest with you, no opportunities ever came up. That’s the reason why. I was quite disappointed a couple of times.”

However, things came close at one point with an agreement almost reached with one local hotel.

“We had done a couple of tasting nights with the Slieve Russell, which were successful. Originally Wildflower was actually to go in the Slieve Russell but, unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”

For Adrian, Dublin was the next obvious choice having lived in the city for years and weekly trips over and back to London taking their toll.

“I used to get up at half five on a Wednesday and fly straight to Heathrow on the first flight of the morning. I had it timed perfectly so I’d be in for half nine in the morning. I was the head chef in the kitchen so we wouldn’t open if I wasn’t there. It was heavy, very, very heavy.

“I’d get the first flight home on a Sunday and then you sleep all day Sunday. You’re exhausted on Monday, exhausted on Tuesday and you still have to do other work.”

The bedding in of staff and the coming on board of a head chef has allowed Adrian to take more of a step back from the day-to-day running of the London restaurant.