Lorraine Heskin is founder and CEO of Gourmet Food Parlour and an award-winning entrepreneur. Originally from a small village in Galway, she studied at the University of Limerick before heading off to New York for five years, working in a diverse range of food businesses.
On returning to Dublin, she opened her first restaurant in Dun Laoghaire in 2006. Since then, Gourmet Food Parlour has grown exponentially.
Since taking over the Arnotts restaurants in 2023, the company now employs over 300 people across ten locations nationwide. Specifically, in Arnotts, Gourmet Food Parlour now has four unique dining concepts in the department store, including Kitchen Italian by Gourmet Food Parlour, The Corner Café by Gourmet Food Parlour, Homemade by Gourmet Food Parlour and Henry’s by Gourmet Food Parlour.
Gourmet Food Parlour is also the largest sports catering company in Ireland working with organisations such as the FAI, Irish Boxing and the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
In this interview, Heskin talks to Robert McHugh about the importance of believing in your business and following your own path.
What were the main highlights for Gourmet Food Parlour in 2024?
I suppose there were many. I think 2024 was a challenging year, but the highlight for me, was that we learned so much about our structure within the organisation and we worked really hard on firming up that structure to ride the storm that the hospitality industry is currently experiencing.
We continued to grow the team and strengthen the team throughout 2024. We established where we are as a business. Our growth strategy was not to expand over 2024. It was very much to really review the business, learn more about the business, understand the business needs and to really put stronger parameters and best practices in place within all the departments of the organisation.
We did that and became stronger as a food business. We really put structure on our food and innovation, our menus, our customer service, our sales, our online platforms in terms of takeaway, we improved our website. All of those positives came together.
We did open up one new venue in Arnotts last November and that's a beautiful place. It's a kind of like kind of an American-style cafe in Easons on the ground floor. We've got four places in Arnotts now.
Whilst working on our catering and also our full catering portfolio, we really expanded on it last year and did a lot of R&D and a lot of development. That was really interesting. We've probably reached capacity. Not probably, we have, in the unit that we're existing in, so we've taken the unit next door and we're going to expand into that in 2025.
A highlight was really just growing as a team and learning that we can get through the hard times, and there were hard times, but we have continued to strengthen the brand and have brought it to a new level.
Tell us about the company’s unique relationship with Arnotts?
It has been a really incredible journey so far. I got an email about two years ago asking me if I would be interested in tendering for the business in Arnotts to which I immediately said, 'Absolutely yes!' It is such an iconic and beautiful building. It's so famous and historical.
I was always intrigued by the food offering in there. We engaged on that journey, got to know the people therein, had the opportunity to present to the powers that be, and we were very lucky to be chosen as the providers.
So we took over Homemade, and there was a bistro upstairs, and then there was a little patisserie called the Corner Cafe. They all remained as is, but we have been able to link our own brands to all of those restaurants, so they've kept the name but it's by Gourmet Food Parlour.
We took over in September 2023, which was an incredible transition and we put our own touch on the decoration and the renovation, and of course designed all the menus ourselves based on Gourmet Food Parlour menus in conjunction with our partnership with Arnotts.
It has been incredible, and a credit to the team at Gourmet Food Parlour and to the team at Arnotts, we are very aligned in our way of thinking and the way that we look after our staff, and the way that we run our business. It has been nothing but an absolute pleasure and we just love working together and we are very proud to have our brand in such an iconic building.
What pleasantly surprised me is the customer base. It's the loyalty not just to Arnotts but from our customer base aswell when they heard that we'd opened in Arnotts, the people that actually have ventured there and continued to venture there is incredible. The footfall is amazing. It opens up your brand to an existing customer base but also a new one too.
I think that has been really positive, in that, it has educated us as to what the customer is looking for from a city centre based daytime offering, because you know, the latest that it is open is at 7pm. I know at Christmas time, we might open till nine. But we have also opened an Italian restaurant upstairs on the second floor which has been incredible. It's called Kitchen Italian and that has been phenomenal.
We have branched into new food areas and genres. That was new for us as a business and we brought those learnings into our own restaurants as well.
It has been super beneficial from all of those scenarios. Food is ever-evolving, people's trends are evolving, people's tastes are evolving and people are looking for a high standard of food at all times. It has really helped us to bring something new into the brand.
I think as a result of us being involved in Arnotts, we have now invested in our own pastry department. We have an incredible team in our pastry division and we have a central space where we make all our own desserts. Having four units in Arnotts has definitely inspired us to do that and that has helped our other restaurants in turn.
It allowed us to be more creative and trend setting in our own right.
How do you balance busy city centre shoppers and those looking for a fine dining experience?
The Kitchen Italian has really been a huge part of that. We serve really good pizza and flatbreads, but on the other hand, we have got really good salads and pastas that we make anyway. We have brought them all together and I can't believe how well it's all combined. It gives us a lot of ammunition for the future.
There's a really unique variety of shoppers and clientele in Arnotts. You have got those traditional shoppers who love to come in for desserts and a little bit of pastry maybe during the day. That's where the Corner Cafe sits in so beautifully beside Homemade, because Homemade offers a brunch/lunch offering which fits in so well with our brand because that's our bread and butter. It aligns so well and we have an incredible team in there.
We are very blessed to have such a dedicated team. It's been a wonderful collaboration. Lots of learnings, but there are so many good things to say about it.
Gourmet Food Parlour celebrates 19 years in business in 2025. What do you consider the best business decision you have made in that time?
Firstly, I can't believe it is 19 years. I still feel like I'm 25!
There was many of them, but the one that would stand out for me was during the recession when consumer spend and consumer confidence had gone down because everybody was spending less. They had been spending too much and then they started to spend less.
As a cafe only business, I recognised and realised at the time, that I wasn't going to be able to survive through this particular recession with the two or three units I had.
I knew I had to re-evaluate the brand. I worked with a consultant. I stepped outside of the business and I looked from the outside in and envisaged what the brand Gourmet Food Parlour could stand for. I knew that if I wanted to survive, and not just survive but thrive, as much as I could in the hospitality industry, I needed to expand what the brand stood for. That's where I brought it from being in catering and events to night time events, live music, and really focused a lot more on takeaway, deliveries, investing in vans.
That didn't happen overnight. It was a six month transition. It made me realise that I needed to invest in that brand and bring it up to the next level for it to really be something. When I look back, that was definitely one of the best decisions that I ever made.
What challenges have you faced over the last 12 months?
The hospitality industry has been knocked. A lot of people say it's going through a stormy period. It absolutely is. It's gone through a hurricane as far as I am concerned.
The 4.5% increase in VAT, the increase in energy rates and the minimum wage. The increase in the minimum wage doesn't just affect people who are on the minimum wage, it affects everybody. You could have somebody with such a significant increase over the last few years, you can't expect everybody to stay on the same hourly rate.
The increase in PRSI, the increase in rent by landlords, increase in rates. There have been increases in food costs across the board. Whether you're an independent owner of a restaurant or a big player, yes, you can have economies of scale, and yes, you can have a better buyer power but ultimately the responsibility for you is to look after everything.
You have to look after your team, which is the number one most important thing, and your customers. These increases in costs hasve significantly impacted businesses being able to do that. Our priority will always be our staff and our customers, and it's our responsibility to make sure that is always the case.
There's only so much that we can charge the customer. We don't have massive contracts coming in that we can just charge one lump sum for. If you charge a customer €13, you can't increase it to €18 and expect them to be delighted about it. There has to be some form of compromise and it is very important to me to be able to get that across.
I am a firm believer in getting on with it. I'm a firm believer in working as hard as possible but I have to say, the last year to two years, even after COVID, have been extremely challenging and not fair.
When you're good people and you run a good business and you're very proud of your brand, all you want to do is do right by everybody. There's only so much people can handle and we can see it with the closures across the country.
I have been attending different seminars on behalf of bars and restaurants and I've seen people in tears because they are so stressed out, they are so upset. Their family business that they put their heart and soul into, is absolutely being questioned in every way, because they can't keep it going, but who can? I do not think it is fair as a business owner to be made to feel like that.
I could talk about it all day but that is what we're experiencing right now. It's very much from the heart and it's as realistic and true as I'm sitting here.
How did your time in New York impact you professionally and personally?
I spent five years in America in the early noughties and that's how I got into the food business. I would definitely say that Gourmet Food Parlour, 100% has a New York influence from me being in America because, I was lucky enough to travel a lot with my job.
It was great being back in New York recently. When I was living there, I was traveling and entertaining clients through the job that I had. I was able to really wine and dine in some of the most beautiful restaurants. I just love their customer service. I love the way they treat people. I love that they are so passionate about their food, business, people and their customers. They are so enthusiastic and I just love that. Gourmet Food Parlour definitely wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for me living over there, that's for sure.
Even though, I have loved food all my life, I'm not a qualified chef or anything. I think I just love people though too. I love bringing people together and I love a positive energy and a positive environment. It's great that we can have a team in Gourmet Food Parlour that love working, and that are proud to work, for a brand that represents itself to the highest integrity in terms of how we prepare food, but also how the team comes together. That's what we're all about.
What plans are on the horizon for 2025?
We have expansion plans. We are about to sign a deal that is very exciting. It's a significant expansion plan for this year.
As I said to you earlier, last year, we spent time really just learning more about the business. How can we operate better, how can we be better as a team, what systems we can bring in. We brought on some really strong new hires including a purchasing manager who's really helped us in an awful lot of ways. We strengthened our relationships with our suppliers.
There was a lot of expansion opportunity last year. However, I didn't really want to expand last year, just for all of those reasons, because it was so difficult and I just wanted to batten down the hatches and learn more about the business.
This year, we can expand at a rate that is comfortable for us, if you know what I mean, but we've taken on some great new contracts and we're very excited about it.
What advice would you give to any food entrepreneur starting out in the business?
If you are starting out on your food journey, I would always advise you to walk in the shoes of the person that you aspire to be. That doesn't have to be an individual person, that can be a brand, or a place, or a particular food entity.
Get as much advice as you possibly can but definitely walk in the shoes of the person you aspire to be, because nothing is as clear cut as you think it is.
Believe in yourself and believe in your business. You can achieve anything. Don't let anybody stand in your way and get a really good accountant!
