THE COUNTRY’S top-rated restaurant “has come through the worst of the recession” after recording increased business last year and in the current year.
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is the country’s only restaurant with two Michelin stars restaurant and accounts just filed by the company that operates the exclusive restaurant, Becklock Ltd, show its accumulated profits increased from €201,630 to €221,550 in the year to the end of August last, an increase of €19,920.
This followed the company recording a profit in 2009 and in 2010. The abridged accounts provide very limited information but company director Stephane Robin said yesterday: “I am very, very happy with how the business has performed last year and this year. We are doing well.”
He declined to provide figures for revenue or profits but said: “The restaurant has come through the worst of the recession. There is light at the end of the tunnel and when the banking system is right again it will be fabulous.”
He added: “Between 2008 and 2010, our target was to break even, and we reached that target, but last year and this year it has been much better and the business has been more consistent. We can’t complain at all.”
The abridged figures show the company’s cash during the year increased from €156,151 to €216,286.
The 20-table restaurant is located beside Dublin’s Merrion Hotel and Mr Robin said the restaurant is back once again to the full staff complement of 40 it had before the recession. The staff includes 14 chefs.
Mr Robin said the two Michelin stars “are rewarding for all staff and very good exposure”.
“We work very hard and we maintain standards by our day-to-day attention to detail and doing our best to please the customer by meeting their expectations of having sophisticated and quality food,” he said. The accounts are signed off by French head chef, Guillaume Lebrun and Mr Robin, who said: “We haven’t cut corners in the service we provide during the recession and that is why we are alive and kicking.”
The restaurant opened in 1981, has retained its two Michelin stars since 1996 and moved to its current location from nearby St James’s Place in 1997. The restaurant has a wine cellar stocked with 25,000 bottles from all over the world.
Mr Robin, who has worked at the restaurant for the last 26 years, said business last year and this year has been boosted by the increased number of tourists in Dublin. “The exchange rate between the euro and the dollar and sterling has been very good for us as well, as has been the business from conferences at the Convention Centre.
“We are also much more competitive and passed on the cut in VAT when it was made last year by the Government,” he said.
Mr Robin said the restaurant has built up customer loyalty over 31 years in business, with 85 per cent of its business coming from local customers.
Mr Robin described the salary costs for the 40 staff as “heavy, but without them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do”.
