Lorraine Heskin could not have foreseen the extraordinary challenges that lay ahead for her business when she opened her first Gourmet Food Parlour branch in 2006.
s the chain of popular restaurants celebrates its 15th birthday this month, she admits the experience has been something of “a rollercoaster ride”.
One deep recession and global pandemic later, she has somehow survived to tell the tale as she prepares for the resumption of indoor dining next week.
Lorraine opened her first Gourmet Food Parlour in Dún Laoghaire in 2006 and has since expanded across the city to Swords, Skerries, Malahide and Santry.
There is also branch in her native Galway at Salthill and she plans to open a new restaurant in Meath later this year.
In the early days, she says establishing the business was all about developing the brand, which involved “a lot of walking around housing estates and sticking flyers through letterboxes”.
“The business really only experienced the Celtic Tiger for a nanosecond and then we went straight into recession,” she told Independent.ie.
“Demand for the brand and the product – high quality, locally sourced food at affordable prices – was just so powerful that it gave me a lot of energy and kept me going.
“I knew the business would not succeed with just one 25-seater café on a side street in Dún Laoghaire – it deserved an opportunity to be bigger and stronger than that.
“I’m a grafter and I come from a family of grafters. My mother was a nurse and my father was a guard so my whole family are hardworking, including my brother and sister.”
Lorraine says her “hunger” for the brand encouraged her to diversify into an evening trade through the introduction of tapas and live music nights. She also set up a successful catering division.
Then, when Covid hit, she initially feared for the survival of the business. The level of support and flexibility she received from her landlords and suppliers was “vital”, she admits.
“Covid was a difficult period, there’s no doubt about it,” she said. “Having to make people redundant overnight was one of the hardest business decisions I have ever made.”
Lorraine closed her doors on March 15, 2020 – two weeks before the main restrictions came into force.
“I just felt it was the right thing to do as I sensed a nervousness among our customers and the team. It just didn’t feel right to remain open – people were scared.”
Within days, however, Lorraine decided to fight for the survival of the business and bring back as many staff as possible by launching a takeaway service.
It was a slow burner at first, she recalls, with staff dropping food to the passenger seats of customers’ cars at their Santry branch. As things improved, 10 vans from the catering division were brought in to operate a home delivery service.
“I was very lucky to be able to do all that,” she said. “I learned so much about my business during Covid and about ways to keep the brand alive, such as afternoon tea deliveries which really took off for us.”
Lorraine is grateful for the “essential” financial support provided to the hospitality sector from the Government during lockdown. However, she was frustrated over poor communication with businesses and feels that announcements have been “very last minute”.
“I know we were in a difficult environment at the time, but I believe we could have received information in a more timely fashion to allow us to adapt,” she said.
Pre-Covid, the Gourmet Food Company employed 280 staff and it is a matter of considerable pride to Lorraine that she has been able to bring back 180 employees so far.
“I’m so lucky to have such an amazing team, some of whom have been with me since the very beginning. Every one of them will be getting a gift from me next week as part of our 15th birthday celebrations.”
Customers in each of Gourmet Food Parlour’s six locations nationwide will also have the chance to win vouchers every single day next week.
This week, the Gourmet Food Parlour catering truck is on the road with the Olympic Federation of Ireland, visiting Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Galway to celebrate Irish athletes’ achievements with their families.
In the meantime, preparations for the resumption of indoor dining – whatever that will look like – are well under way.
“We’re really excited about reopening,” Lorraine said. “I miss the atmosphere in the restaurants and I know all the teams do too.
“We’re waiting for the Cabinet announcement to find out the parameters we’ll need to work within. It gives us a very short timeframe to be able to adapt our teams and train them for what they’ll need to do – but we’ll be ready.”