Sage's Kevin Aherne: 'We brought the restaurant to heights we could never have imagined'

A POPULAR Cork restaurant, which is due to close next month, has been sold and will reopen under new management, its former owner has said.

The restaurant was founded over 16 years ago and its owners announced this week that it will close its doors at the end of July.

Kevin Aherne, who founded Sage Restaurant in Midleton with his wife Réidín in 2008, told The Echo that the restaurant has changed hands and its new owners will announce their plans in due course.

He said the restaurant had been “a labour of love”, but with the expansion of their business Sage Products, “something had to give”.

“What happened to us during Covid was that we started doing takeaway, and then we scaled up a small bit. I opened a food store just after Covid, and then from the food store, we started supplying local shops, and then from that we went a bit further and started supplying supermarkets,” he said.

New business 

“We had to make a decision then whether or not we were going to scale the business, so about a year-and-a-half ago, I decided to scale the new business, Sage Products, and I built a new production facility.”

The new business, which is based on the South Douglas Road, started out with two employees and now has 14.

Mr Aherne said that “90% of the people working there have moved from the restaurant, and when the restaurant closes, there’s another four joining us”.

Mr Aherne said Sage Products is “very weekday morning oriented”, whereas the restaurant is at its busiest in the evenings and at weekends.

“What’s been happening to me over the last year-and-a-half is I’m up early at 5am on Monday and I’ve had to work the whole way through till Sunday. There’s no time off, no respite, no mental space, and to run any company successfully you need to be firing on all cylinders, especially in Ireland, especially a business you’re trying to get off the ground, and restaurants are also very difficult, and what was happening to me was I was being pulled between the two businesses.”

He said that he and his wife Réidín have two small children, Cuan, who is seven, and Liá, who is four, and wanting to give them the time they deserve, they made the decision to close the restaurant.

“We brought the restaurant to heights we could never have imagined, two very ordinary, working-class people from Midleton, there were no airs and graces, there was nothing handed down to us, we worked very hard to get to where we have got to, and we felt we have brought it to its pinnacle.

“Then when Sage Products came around, we wanted to push so our new business succeeds as well, so then we just had to come to a decision as to which way we want to go, and I want to be a family man, I want to be at home with my kids, and my wife.

“While we are heartbroken to be letting the restaurant go, we’re grateful that it’s a stepping stone to a new business, and the name Sage will be coming with us.”

'Taking nothing for granted'

Mr Aherne said they were taking nothing for granted, as Sage Products was only just after completing its first year of trading.

“Anybody in business who reads this article will definitely say ‘there’s no success in year one in business, there’s only hard graft to make sure you’re doing what you should be doing,” he said.

Sage Restaurant will close on Sunday, July 28, with a live music event, and Mr Aherne has said that anyone with existing vouchers should make a booking before that date. If owners of vouchers are unable to secure a reservation or to spend their vouchers, “we will be offering Sage products to substitute”.