Mint Restaurant

Mint Restaurant
Restaurant information
Established	1981
Head chef	Dylan McGrath
Rating	1 ! Michelin Guide
Street address	47 Ranelagh Village
City	Ranelagh 2
Country	Republic of Ireland

Mint Restaurant was a Michelin star winning restaurant located in Ranelagh, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. It was owned by the controversial celebrity chef Dylan McGrath. The restaurant was featured in the 2008 RTÉ One fly on the wall documentary The Pressure Cooker, a programme which led to much complaint from McGrath's fellow chefs in the Irish media about his alleged mistreatment of his staff. The closure of Mint Restaurant was publicised in the Evening Herald on 23 April 2009.

Praise

Image magazine has described Mint Restaurant as "a place of worship" and Hot Press has described the venue as a "gastronomic playground".^[1] The Sunday Business Post's Ross Golden Bannon reported: "It is a long, long time since a meal actually haunted me in the way a beautiful painting or a thoughtful book might".^[1]

Controversy

Main article: The Pressure Cooker

McGrath encountered ire from his fellow celebrity chefs for his alleged mistreatment of his staff which was evident during The Pressure Cooker, a documentary which charted McGrath's ultimately successful attempt at gaining a Michelin star.^[2] Kevin Dundon, who appeared in the show Guerrilla Gourmet with McGrath, appeared alongside him on the television chat show Tubridy Tonight and criticised him live on air, describing his attitude as "appalling" and saying that Gordon Ramsay (a British chef) had "a bit of charisma about himself as well and a huge amount of passion".^[2] Dundon also questioned McGrath's methods of training his staff and said he would not have been required to shout at them so much if he had taught them better.^[2] Kevin Thornton agreed with Dundon – the two appear together on the reality television series Heat – describing McGrath's comments as "a mess" and "a waste of energy" and suggesting that "people like that will not go very far".^[2] Thornton was not particularly impressed with what McGrath offered in his restaurant, saying: "It is not my type of food" and that McGrath was "working his balls off and it is good for the city but it is not my cup of tea".^[2] Patrick Guilbaud labelled McGrath "sad" on the RTÉ Radio 1 show, Conversations with Eamon Dunphy, after witnessing him shouting and swearing at his Mint staff.^[3]

Closure

Mint Restaurant was forced to close down in April 2009 due to the economic recession.^[4] Speculation built up after the restaurant failed to repoen after a week when it claimed to be on holiday.^[5] However, the lights remained switched off and the doors remained closed despite repeated requests by potential customers and the continued advertisement of a pre-planned dinner event.^[5] Its closure was heralded by the Evening Herald newspaper as the first of Dublin's "exclusive restaurants" to shut down.^[4] Dublin chef Derry Clarke was saddened by this, saying that it upset him “to see a restaurant of that calibre go, lesser restaurants I wouldn’t mind seeing them close, but not Mint”.^[4] The Irish Independent described Mint as "one of the most sublime places to enjoy cutting-edge contemporary cooking".^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "About". RTÉ. Accessed 25 April 2009.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Thornton sinks teeth into rival's Michelin star". Irish Independent. 2008-02-03. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/thornton-sinks-teeth-into-rivals-michelin-star-1280151.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
3. ^ "I'm deadly serious, McGrath is a muppet, says Corrigan". Evening Herald. 2008-09-15. http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/im-deadly-serious-mcgrath-is-a-muppet-says-corrigan-1475783.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} "Michelin star not enough to save McGrath's Mint". Evening Herald. 2009-04-23. http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/michelin-star-not-enough-to-save-mcgraths-mint-1716890.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Doors closed at McGrath's star eaterie". Evening Herald. 2009-04-22. http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/doors-closed-at-mcgraths-star-eaterie-1715472.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
6. ^ "We should all be sorry Dylan is no longer Minted". Irish Independent. 2009-04-24. http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/we-should-all-be-sorry-dylan-is-no-longer-minted-1718464.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 

External links

• Official site