'I had 360 notifications for new reservations one night; and then had to close'

THEN: When Irish Country Living met Adrian Martin in February 2017, we had to ask him if he ever found time to sleep.

Having seen his recipe for a “fakeaway” spice bag go viral the previous year, the Cavan native had just launched his first cookbook and was shooting a pilot show for RTÉ Player, on top of his other commitments ranging from the All-Ireland Home Cook competition in conjunction with the Irish Shows Association to demos throughout the country. He also mentioned that he wanted to open his own restaurant one day. Well…

NOW: This spring, Adrian fulfilled his lifelong ambition of opening his own restaurant, Wildflower, in London, but it has not been without its challenges due to COVID-19.

He explains that he initially looked at locations everywhere from Cavan to Carrick-on-Shannon, but it was during a trip to London while promoting his second cookbook that he was presented with the opportunity to open up in Buck Street Market in Camden, in a converted shipping container.

“I said I don’t want to open a big restaurant. I want to open something very small and have just a few tables and just concentrate on it being an experience of food,” says Adrian, who particularly liked the idea of creating a fine-dining atmosphere in a such a surprising location.

However, he admits that many people thought he was “crazy” to make the leap to London, but with the full support of his family, he moved over in February to turn what was a shell into a restaurant with the help of his brother.

And he could not quite believe the reaction before opening on 7 March, recalling how he woke up one morning to 360 notifications for new reservations.

“We were booked out fully for dinner, 40 for dinner, every night until May,” he says.

Unfortunately, the opening coincided with the first wave of COVID-19 and after just seven days of trading, Adrian closed Wildflower on St Patrick’s Day, donating food to the local homeless shelter and old folks home before packing his bags and returning to Cavan, not knowing when he would be able to return.

“It didn’t really hit me ‘til two or three weeks in,” says Adrian, who ended up staying in Cavan until the decision was made to re-open Wildflower on 18 July, but on a much reduced scale due to social distancing restrictions.

For instance, where he had 11 staff at the start, now he has four, and where once they could feed 40 to 50 people for dinner over an evening, this is now down to 12.

“I’ll continue doing that until it’s safe and we’ll only gradually move the numbers up,” says Adrian, who, after overseeing the reopening process, is now back in Ireland and running the restaurant remotely, with the day-to-day running of the kitchen in the experienced hands of award-winning chef Paul Croasdale.

He explains that his role ranges from developing and testing the recipes for the restaurant to taking care of the logistics, such as paying suppliers and ordering linen.

He believes that this is more sustainable for the restaurant going forward, especially considering the current challenges.

“I look after the business as a business rather than physically standing in the kitchen,” he explains.

Change of mind-set

“When I originally started, I didn’t look at one invoice or I didn’t even look at the numbers - what was coming in and what was going out - because I was too tired from working in the kitchen. So my whole mind-set actually changed over COVID, gave me time to plan it and get it right.”

Adrian’s philosophy is clear to see at Wildflower, which has the mission statement of “foraged, grown, fished” inspired by his native Cavan. Every dish, for instance, features a foraged ingredient and, although London-based, Irish produce is to the fore, with Irish beef, lamb and pork, Carlingford oysters, sea salt and Irish cream all on the menu.

Indeed, even the pottery and the paintings on the wall are Irish.

However, closer to home, Adrian is still a regular fixture on the Six O’Clock Show on Virgin Media One, while he also managed to write his third cookbook during lockdown.

But we’re still not sure where he finds time to sleep…

For further information, visit the Wildflower Restaurant website.

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