Keeping above water: Bereen brothers take over troubled Grand Canal restaurant

If you were in the vicinity of Grand Canal Dock in Dublin at the start of this year, you might have spotted a tall, handsome man, loitering with intent. He might have clocked you with his clicker, one of those gadgets used to count crowds; he may have peered at the carrier bag in your hands, and he may even have followed you.

No reason to be alarmed; it was just Conor Bereen doing research for the new restaurant he and his elder brother Marc are opening next Thursday in the premises that was formerly the Mourne Seafood Bar, and before that Ocean Bar & Restaurant, at the foot of the landmark Millennium Tower at Charlotte Quay.

“At lunchtime I’d count the people going past, then I’d look at them coming back, see what bags they had, and sometimes I’d follow them to see just how far they were prepared to walk for that bag of whatever lunch they were having,” Conor says, giving just a hint of the protracted weighing up process they went through before signing the lease in February.

They are both canny operators in the notoriously fickle hospitality business, with a proven track record at Coppinger Row restaurant and the South William bar (previously Damson Diner), but their caution was well placed. It’s a premises that on paper looks to have it all – water views, a terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows, a theatre on the doorstep, and a location near a number of multinational social media companies. But it has a chequered past, and others had looked at it and walked away.

“As much as we’ve done very well, we still aren’t one of the big cats in town, so to get the good properties, those top four people are going to grab them and, if they don’t like them, you might get them, ” Marc says, explaining that potential restaurant premises are difficult to find and that when one does come on the market, the big players are often tipped off in advance.

Despite its scenic location, the new premises has no street frontage and therefore no passing trade. It could be viewed as one of those properties that, for some reason, just doesn’t work. But the brothers are undaunted. “That’s kind of the way with all our buildings,” says Conor.

“We’ve dealt with that before, the South William wasn’t doing well when we took it over, same with Coppinger, that was closed for almost 10 years when we took it on,” adds Marc.

The new incarnation has been christened simply Charlotte Quay, following a naming convention that the brothers established with the South William bar and then Coppinger Row restaurant.

They are also sticking with what they know, with only a slight change of tack, in their plans for the new restaurant’s menu. “We love the idea of convivial eating, people getting stuck in together and we don’t want to run away from the fact that we’re the boys and girls from Coppinger Row,” Marc says, while Conor adds, “We’re very proud of it.”

There are some changes afoot though. “The food at Coppinger Row is loosely Mediterranean but concentrating on the flavours of Spain and France,” Marc says. “Now we’re turning the compass slightly to the east.”

So, as well as some Coppinger Row favourites, you can also expect lots of Ottolenghi inspiration, plus a smattering of labneh, couscous, harissa and sumac, in the menus created by head chef Killian Durkin, who comes to them from La Mère Zou and also counts Marcel's, Thornton's, Dillinger's and the Mermaid Café on his resumé.

There are two distinct spaces in the building – a bar, with lunchtime food to eat in or take away and all-day bar snacks, and a restaurant that will offer an express menu at lunchtime, three courses in a hour, and a more relaxed offering at night. A new outdoor dining terrace, on the sunny side of the premises, will be a popular addition.

The design of the restaurant, which occupies a corner site looking west to Grand Canal Dock and north towards Hanover Quay, has undergone a radical overhaul. Gone are Mourne Seafood’s pine tables and chairs and wine barrels, to be replaced with a Connemara marble bar top, 3D concrete tiles, and statement leather chairs.

“It was important not to try to throw too many things at the space. A lot of restaurants that I see both in Dublin and internationally seem somewhat over-designed,” says Conor, a fine art graduate who studied at Central St Martins in London, and who looks after the design and fit-out of their businesses.

“It has to be almost unassuming, because good design is not just about the bling factor, it’s also about how well it sits in its own environment. You could say successful design is also unnoticed.”

Marc is the front of house person, and he says it’s his job to ensure that customers have a good time. They both mention the mixed demographic that patronise Coppinger Row, and say it’s just as important to them that the young couple sharing just a couple of plates have as good a time as the guys at the next table, spending freely.

“This is somewhere we want people to come to again and again, so it can’t be somewhere you feel you’ve got to wear a shirt and tie all the time. It has to be somewhere you feel relaxed, but it’s still a night out,” Marc says.

Hospitality is something they say they learned in their childhood at home in Ardee, where their late father Fred, a consultant psychiatrist, and their actress mother Helena were enthusiastic dinner party hosts. “My earliest memory is of holding a tray of drinks for my dad at a dinner party, with myself and Marc done up in matching bow ties,” Conor says.

Their father’s job took them to university towns across the globe – Marc, who is 39, and elder sister Siobhán, an art psychotherapist currently based in Qatar, were born in Belgium, and Conor (38) in Canada.

Their mother Helena was a nurse before she became a professional actress, and she recently starred in the Mark Cousins film, I am Belfast.

The acting bug passed to Marc, who studied it, briefly, he says, before going travelling and discovering his love of the restaurant business. “I believe I am very good at front of house. I can run a room in a very relaxed matter,” he says and, if he wasn’t as accomplished at it as he claims, that could sound a bit conceited.

But it is true, he has nailed the art of relaxed hospitality that is doled out in equal measure to every customer, not just the special few. He and his girlfriend Eva, who works as a stylist with bands, have just “adopted” a beagle pup, Hunter, and his off-duty hours are spent walking the legs off the new addition.

Conor, who worked as a model in Japan after graduating from Central St Martins, has a son, Leon (4), who lives with his mother in Brazil, and he spent six months of last year there so he could spend time with him.

He recently started to paint again. “I’ve just come back to it in the last two years, before that I hadn’t painted in 10, maybe 15 years. I painted for four months in Brazil, so I have a lot of work, but it’s not conceived as a whole, complete body of work yet.” To finish it, he plans to take a couple of months off in the early part of next year. “That’s the first I’ve heard of this,” Marc quips.

Before that though, there’s a restaurant to open. A million last-minute details to nail down. And dining chairs, currently missing at sea, en route from Asia, to track down. Conor is project manager of the revamp, as well as the designer.

So those paintbrushes will have to wait, unless they are the sort that come with overalls and a step ladder.