“Iconic but accessible. Glamorous but good fun. Prestigious but unpretentious.” It must be The Ivy; or at least it’s how the restaurant group describes itself as it readies its first foray into Dublin.
Renowned for attracting celebrities and media types at its flagship Covent Garden location, The Ivy is to open this summer on Dawson Street and has just started recruiting.
Located on the ground floor of the newly developed One Molesworth Street building, the group behind the new restaurant, Caprice Restaurants, has agreed a 20-year lease with Green Reit for 464sq m (5,000sq ft) on the ground floor and a further 371sq m (4,000sq ft) at basement level, at a cost of about €500,000 a year. Other tenants of the building include Barclays Bank.
Caprice Restaurants, run by Richard Caring, operates some 16 restaurants across the UK, including other London favourites Daphne's, Scotts and J. Sheekey, and has plans for as many as 40 restaurants across Britain and Ireland.
It is understood that the new Dublin restaurant will be a brasserie-style offering, rather than the casual dining cafe style that the group operates in Wimbledon and Marylebone. It will feature an all-day dining menu and will be open seven days a week.
Dinner at the famed London outpost in Covent Garden will set you back about £50 for a three-course meal, with options including The Ivy hamburger (£16.75), grilled Dover sole (£43) and braised short rib of beef (£24.75).
Among the roles being filled currently by the group behind the new restaurant are that of restaurant manager, whose role will include “ anticipating, and quietly sorting out any potential hiccups before they happen”; an assistant general manager who’ll “welcome all our guests by name”; and a bar manager with a passion for “creating high-end cocktails”.
Perks of a job at The Ivy include free meals, a discount in the group’s restaurants, a cycle to work scheme, savings on gym membership and cinema tickets, plus a ”salary you’ll be hard pressed to beat”.
