Ballivor native chef Richard Corrigan is to open a new restaurant

Second attempt at a capital city restaurant

Ballivor native chef Richard Corrigan is to open a new restaurant in Dublin.

The renowned London restaurateur who also owns the Virginia Park Lodge in Cavan is taking over the former Dylan McGrath restaurant Shelbourne Social in Ballsbridge, which will be renamed The Park Café. “I always associate Dublin restaurants with a big hug and a big hello at the door," he told the Irish Times magazine at the weekend. He is aiming for a September opening.

He is putting a 60-seat all-weather dining terrace in, and has secured access to a roof garden with views of Dublin Bay “for small parties”. Counter dining at the bar, a Corrigan signature, is being incorporated. Industry veteran Ronan Ryan is involved in the project.

Corrigan is vague on his plans for the menu, except to say that the produce grown at Virginia Park Lodge will be a big part of the offering, and it definitely won’t be fine dining, which he describes as “a little pool in a bowl”. The premises will work hard, from breakfast to dinner. “I would like to be able to think that you could come for a wonderful cream scone in the afternoon, and maybe have a really nice brunch on Sunday morning, and come with your family and have a pretty polished meal as well in the evening.”

Corrigan opened a branch of his Bentley’s Bar & Grill on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin in 2008, but exited the business less than two years later, blaming high rents in the city.

Before Covid struck, he was planning to move back to Ireland full-time, leaving the London restaurants in the hands of his elder son, Richie, who is managing director of the Corrigan Collection, which includes Bentley’s, Corrigan’s Mayfair and Daffodil Mulligan, a pub and restaurant in Shoreditch. “Then Covid screwed up the whole situation, because I didn’t know if our businesses would survive in London.”

Post-Covid, he says business is good again. “We have renewed, rebuilt, spent all our last pennies that we had getting London open again and thriving.” His eye is now firmly back on the Dublin restaurant scene, and on filling what he sees as a gap in the market. “I think Dublin is really well represented for tasting menus and Michelin stars. There’s no question about it, there’s fantastic stuff going on. I’m not too sure about the whole middle part.”

Restoring Virginia Park Lodge did put a huge financial burden on him, and his other businesses. But he was never going to give up on it, motivated by “the fact that my children are in the business and will take it over and lead it forward into something interesting”. As well as Richie, the eldest, there is also Jessica, co-founder of a marketing and PR firm specialising in hospitality, and Robbie, the youngest, who has just graduated from hotel school in Shannon and is off to work at the Maybourne in Los Angeles.

“The wedding business has rebuilt this estate, but one day that will go and there will be no weddings here,” he told the Irish Times.

Corrigan bought the 18th century hunting estate in 2014, having celebrated his wedding with his wife Maria there in 1991, and embarked on an extensive and ongoing restoration.