Hooked on bringing fish and chips upmarket

Barry Wallace co-owns the Bia Mara and Hook fish restaurants with business partner Simon Whiteside. Bia Mara has quickly become one of the most popular restaurants in Brussels, offering customers a relaxed dining experience and a new take on sustainably sourced fish and chips.

The pair has just launched a new restaurant called Hook in Camden Town in London.

Wallace handles the business, marketing and front-of-house side of the Bia Mara and Hook businesses while Whiteside is head chef and culinary mastermind.

The two thirtysomethings started their business in 2010, with stalls in Sandyford Industrial Estate, Harcourt Street and Mespil Road in Dublin. Using Whiteside’s experience in fine dining to re-imagine fish and chips, on good days they had queues round the block. “Two years into the recession, we decided to do something to combine my entrepreneurial spirit and Simon’s culinary skills,” says Wallace. “We had huge interest – often selling 150 portions in one hour.

“We were selling sustainable fish which is more expensive, so at times it wasn’t very cost effective, especially as Ireland’s weather really determines the business of a market – if the heavens opened, we’d have no customers.”

After some months working the food stalls as well as weddings and private functions, the pair caught the eye of an investor and went to Belgium to investigate the possibility of doing food in pubs there.

Eventually, they went with another investor and Bia Mara was born. The restaurant has become a trendy spot ,with a mix of customers, including families, tourists and ex-pats working in the EU.

“After three months, [business in] the restaurant just blew up. Because we had a proper kitchen, we could really experiment – hand cut the chips, make our own salt, experiment with sauces. We started with a simple menu, now we have 40 different recipes and could easily publish our own book,” says Wallace.

Bia Mara seats 30 but has more than €1 million in turnover, often serving 1,400 people a week. It has been voted one of the top 60 places to eat in Belgium by Must Eat 2014 and stayed at number one on TripAdvisor for months. Recipes from the restaurant will feature in an upcoming book by chef Philippe Emanuelli.

At the end of September, the business partners opened a new restaurant in London known as Hook Camden. Rebranding in the UK as Hook will allow the pair to break into a new and challenging market.

“We chose the name Hook as it is simple and design friendly,” explains Wallace. “It also means we can have the name of the area after it. We have investment secured to open three units in London over the next three years – one in north London, one south and one central.”

So far, Wallace and Whiteside have had a lot of international interest: “Everyone sees it for what it is – a really good franchise opportunity – but we want to keep control of everything. We need to do this slow and steady, and not dilute the brand,” says Wallace.

In the immediate future, they are opening two more locations in Brussels and Amsterdam is also on the map.

Wallace says that it is expensive to run a business in Belgium: “The cost to run a business here is twice what it would be in Ireland.” However, being at the heart of Europe brings many benefits.

“So many people pass through the city every day that when you compare the rent to the footfall, I would say it is one of the best places to rent in Europe. The real cost comes with staff costs. We have a good model though – we can do 500 covers with three staff.”

Lack of competition in their price bracket has also worked well for Wallace. “There’s fine dining and then overpriced dining and then kebab shops. I feel that we bridge a gap in the spectrum with Bia Mara,” he says.

He also believes that Belgium is ripe for new concepts and entrepreneurship. “I feel that Brussels is really coming into its own – the music scene, the restaurant scene – it’s being referred to as the new Berlin.”

With the new Hook restaurant opening in London, Wallace will divide his time between London and Brussels using the Eurostar to keep a close eye on both enterprises. “I get on the train at 8am in Kings Cross station and I’m in Brussels by 10am.

“It took me years of knocking on doors and trying different things in different industries to get the opportunity to do this so, even though I had to leave home, I jumped at it,” says Wallace.

“It is fish and chips – a new story – and at a different level.” www.biamara.com