IRISH IMPORT: Is the Pint Half Full for Gastropub Expansion?

An Irish gastropub owner explains why now is the right time to take his better-than-bar-food concept to the States.

By Christine LaFave, Associate Editor -- Restaurants and Institutions, 11/12/2008 11:34:00 AM

The GastroPub Company restaurant and bar in Dublin,

Getting Gastronomical

If a barrage of bad news about sales and store visits has some American restaurateurs wringing their hands, one Irish entrepreneur, at least, sees possibility in the moment. Martin Connolly, founder of The GastroPub Company restaurant and bar in Dublin, says that now is an ideal time to begin moving forward with plans to expand his two-unit concept to the States.

“The gastropub was born out of a recession,” says Connolly. “And in a recession, people don’t stop going out. They just become more conscious of what they’re spending.”

In the late 1990s and early ’00s, Connolly says, London’s status as an increasingly distinguished dining scene meant that restaurants were getting very expensive—prohibitively expensive for London diners looking for creative, better-than-average food in a family-friendly environment. Gastropubs sought to balance the London dining equation, taking the extensive libations lists and the relaxed, familiar, convivial atmosphere of the best traditional pubs and adding fine-dining venues’ commitment to using high-quality, locally sourced ingredients in food offerings.

“Basically the standard of food is very good, but it’s very, very reasonably priced,” says Connolly, who opened restaurants in and around London before returning to Ireland in 2005 to start The GastroPub Company. “It’s honest, home-cooked food,” he adds. “It doesn’t have the formality associated with a restaurant.”

The gastropub concept already is working in the United States in cities like Chicago, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.; lower price points plus an independent vibe make for an appealing combination especially to urban consumers who don’t always want to make an event out of going out to eat. (“We don’t have to be pioneers,” Connolly emphasizes. “As we always say, pioneers get shot.”)

What’s more, he says, Americans seem to come out of a recession “quicker than everybody else.” And so it was that Connolly and his two GastroPub Company co-directors earlier this month came to discuss solidifying their long-held plans to open their concept in the United States. “We started thinking we should explore sooner rather than later,” he says.

Among the reasons for his optimism? The outcome of the American presidential election. “I think it’s sort of Kennedy-esque,” he says, adding that the election “absolutely was a factor” in The GastroPub Company’s decision to move up its expansion plans. Americans’ selection of Barack Obama—and with it, the decision to turn over control of the White House to a different party—signifies an eagerness for a shift in national direction, Connolly believes.

“It’s going to be very tough for a while,” he says. “[But] I’ve been through recessions before, and we come out of them.” With American consumer confidence poised for an upswing toward the end of 2009 or the first half of 2010, he believes, now is the right time to begin scouting locations for a gastropub with an authentic Irish pedigree in such “relatively strong” markets as Boston or South Carolina.

Connolly hopes to open the concept in an existing first-floor space of at least 5,000 square feet; the first operational step will be to conduct feasibility studies of possible locations on the East Coast. Recruiting American business partners also is a top priority—ideally, he says, The GastroPub Company will make its American debut in early 2010. “This is the first stage,” he says. “It’s a gradual process, but coming out of the recession will be a gradual process as well.”

The GastroPub Company